Slashdot Mirror
Disney Making Laid-Off US Tech Workers Train Foreign H1-B Replacements
WheezyJoe writes: The NY Times brings us a story on the Disney Corporation laying off U.S. tech workers and replacing them with immigrants visiting the country under H1-B visas. The twist is that the immigrant workers are not your nice local visiting foreign guy from the university who wants to stick around 'cause he likes the people here... they are employees of foreign-based consulting companies in the business of collecting H1-B visas and "import[ing] workers for large contracts to take over entire in-house technology units." The other twist? The U.S. tech workers are required to train their replacements before vacating their jobs, or risk losing severance benefits (excerpts of the Disney's layoff notice are included in the article).
...just what you'd expct from Disney
Just about ALL of corporate America that can get away with it will do it - defense contractors cannot.
And the difference in pay goes to CEO bonuses for doing a "great" job. Why you could write a Python script called CEO.py to do their job. The algorithm is just:
Lower costs by canning people,sending work overseas or hiring H1-bs. Selling off under performing divisions. Concentrating on more profitable businesses.
Please, we don't need to offshore CEOs; just automate them with scripts.
It IS how a lot of fairy tales begin; with evil villains causing unjust and misery.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
As a python script I feel insulted by offering me this kind of useless job! A bash script could do it!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If Disney wants to boost profitablity, they should bring in an H1-B replacement for Robert Iger. I'm sure they could find lots of qualified candidates from India or China who have experience managing an organization the size of Disney and who would be willing to do the job for less than 46.5 million dollars per year. Replacing this one employee would have a larger savings effect than replacing the entire IT staff, while allowing the IT staff to continue innovating and making Disney run smoothly. As a gesture of corporate good will, Disney could allow Mr. Iger to continue working at a theme park as a cast member, preferrably wearing the Goofy costume.
...just what you'd expct [sic!] from Disney
I expect a story about a cute nationalist white bunny named Adolf trying to survive in a European forest after it has been gang raped by an awful immigrant hyena called Muhammad and its hideous gang of black baboons...
Hey Disney, i would pay good money to see it - DO IT!
note: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental .
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
It should work fine on Windows 3.11 running as a MS Basic program.
Actually, one could write a simple batch command file and run it under MS-DOS 3.30 or something. Nobody will touch it, hence no need for GUI.
Where are the dead parents? That's what I want to know...
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
A subtle mistake in a script. A few well placed words in some documentation that nobody will read for a few months to a few years and POP goes the server security. (*Cough* SONY *Cough, cough*).
Plausible deniability. It's what's for breakfast!
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Sounds like a sad Disney movie.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
Yes, but it's a blatant violation of the program to use people you employ to train the h1-b applicants. The program is there for when you can't find employees that are qualified. If they're able to train the replacements then they're clearly qualified to do the job.
And so we'll all hold our breath waiting for the huge influx of federal agents who are going to swoop into Disney Headquarters, arrest the entire executive staff and cart away all of their equipment and correspondence as evidence. There will be perp walks and a massive parade of criminal trials where the lawbreakers will be given harsh sentences as a warning to any others who consider abusing the system. Oh wait, no rich people were harmed? Nevermind, it's all good.
Mumbles something about my red stapler and big grains of salt on the margarita