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How the H-1B Visa Program Impacts America's Tech Workers (computerworld.com)
Computerworld is running an emotional report by their national correspondent Patrick Thibodeau -- complete with a dramatic video -- arguing that America's H-1B Visa program "has also become a way for companies to outsource jobs." An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes the article accompanying the video:
The vast majority of people who work in IT did everything right: They invested in their education, studied difficult subjects, kept their skills updated... But no job is safe, no future entirely secure -- something IT workers know more than most. Given their role, they are most often the change agents, the people who deploy technologies and bring in automation that can turn workplaces upside down. To survive, they count on being smart, self-reliant and one step ahead...
Over the years, Computerworld reporter Patrick Thibodeau has interviewed scores of IT workers who trained their visa-holding replacements. Though details each time may differ, they all tell the same basic story. There are many issues around high-skilled immigration, but to grasp the issue fully you need to understand how the H-1B program can affect American workers.
Over the years, Computerworld reporter Patrick Thibodeau has interviewed scores of IT workers who trained their visa-holding replacements. Though details each time may differ, they all tell the same basic story. There are many issues around high-skilled immigration, but to grasp the issue fully you need to understand how the H-1B program can affect American workers.
Fully impossible I say. The usual pro-H1B supporters on here say there's nothing wrong, and it's really good that all these people are being brought in to displace American works and push wages down. Just like how it's happening here in Canada with TFW's and employers are laying off employees because they don't want to pay the wage, then paying the 1/3 the wages that they were going for. And that ranges from welders and pipe fitters to skilled factory labor and IT.
Om, nomnomnom...
The problem is that good IT workers have no incentive to stay in the field. They go to management or they just say "to hell with this", and become a /r/sysadmin goat farmer.
I have had the dubious pleasure of working with the H-1B folks as well. A few are truly competent. However, most tend to be clueless, and at best, willing to follow a sheet or spec you give them, but can't really do more than that. For example, if you ask a H-1B DBA who knows how to work their way around a RDBMS fairly decently, and who has worked with Linux on a user level, how to make a query that can run at certain times automatically, they will immediately say it is impossible or try to find a way to shirk that task onto you. They are also quite passive-aggressive and fond of the "CC" game, where they are unable to have a conversation with you unless it is via E-mail, and they carbon-copy as many PHBs as they can cut/paste from the Exchange GAL they can find into the conversation. If you ask them a question, they will reply (with managers included), questioning your abilities. If you ask them to do something, they will immediately throw any tasks back at you, adding stuff to the helpdesk ticket such as "as we discussed offline" (when no such discourse happened.) Of course, when you make a fool of them by replying and countering every insulting assertion, management sides with them regardless.
The passive-aggressiveness and willing to fuck someone over at a second's notice is the worst part. I've had to deal with configuration changes which hosed a production box, and the way I proved that it wasn't me (oddly enough utmp was zeroed out, but the logs shipped to the SIEM box showed who was actually on at the time...) is the fact that I use etckeeper, and the change was not anything that was put into the git repo. Of course, the only other person with full sudo access to the box was the H-1B.
Lots of people are incapable of thinking like the owner of a business, and are therefore surprised when things happen, despite it being obvious or inevitable from the perspective of a shrewd businessman. As a corollary, employees of public companies should get in the habit of reading financial disclosures and earnings call transcripts -- management often telegraphs what they're going to do, including outsourcing or layoffs. This puts you in the position of being one of the first passengers to learn that the Titanic has struck an iceberg, so make your way to the lifeboats before the rush.
A few months ago, there was an article about how the IT department at a car rental company was outsourced. Not that I'm glad or anything, but someone paying attention should *never* make a career out of working in the back office of a business like that. The car rental business is tough enough as it is, but Uber/Lyft have added additional pressure.
I work in a compliance function, so "infrastructure as code," Docker, and the rest of that shit make my life so much easier since we can automate large chunks of our security controls and audit work. That's progress. As an owner, having fewer admin grunts means more money to reinvest in higher-return activities (which as an employee you can help drive, if you're so inclined) and/or return to shareholders, who, after all, own the damn business and expect something from it.
But this hard-nosed perspective, for some reason, strikes people as cruel, or you're viewed as the villain or whatever. It's just how the world works and you have to adapt accordingly, even if it's annoying and extra work at times.
If you want to see the bills you will. I recently had a CT scan, the average global price for this variety anywhere not in the USA (without dye, which is evidently much more expensive) is something like $500. The place billed by insurance for $15,000. My insurance paid the (evidently badly) negotiated price of $7500. I paid $1,500 out of pocket.
I just can't even.