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University of California's Outsourcing Is Wrong, Says US Lawmaker (computerworld.com)

Earlier this week, University of California hired India-based IT company HCL to outsource some of its work offshore. As part of the announcement, it announced that it was laying off 17 percent of UCSF's total IT staff. The U.S. lawmaker, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif) and the IEEE-USA find the outsourcing job "wrong." dcblogs writes: A decision by the University of California to lay off IT employees and send their jobs overseas is under fire from U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif) and the IEEE-USA. "How are they [the university] going to tell students to go into STEM fields when they are doing as much as they can to do a number on the engineers in their employment?" said U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif). Peter Eckstein, the president of the IEEE-USA, said what the university is doing "is just one more sad example of corporations, a major university system in this case, importing non-Americans to eliminate American IT jobs." The university recently informed about 80 IT workers at its San Francisco campus, including contract employees and vendor contractors, that it hired India-based HCL, under a $50 million contract, to manage infrastructure and networking-related services. The affected employees will leave their jobs in February, after they train their contractor replacements.

10 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Was logging in to post exactly this by The+Last+Gunslinger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Seriously, I'd fucking walk.

    And when I interviewed for my next job, I'd be brutally honest about why I did it. If the prospective employer didn't like it, that would tell me all I really needed to know about working for them.

    1. Re:Was logging in to post exactly this by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sadly, this being uber-SJW California, the University will probably try to portray everyone criticizing their use of out-sourcing as xenophobic racists. Any employees refusing to train their Indian replacements will end up with a team of of SJW hippies screaming "WHITE PRIVILEGE!!!" outside their house.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. the H1B salary level needs enforcement / direct w2 by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    the H1B salary level needs enforcement / direct w2 rules + an COL part to it.

  3. Re:What's the price of your integrity? by hackel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is absolutely true, and that is why we need to enact employee protection measures to ensure that employees can refuse to train their replacements without losing any severance package to which they are entitled. At-will employment needs to come to an end. If the company doesn't renew your contract? Fine. But otherwise they're stuck paying you even if they do want to hire replacements. These conditions are unheard of in more civilised parts of the world.

  4. cool. time to cut federal money to UC by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Seriously, if they are going to do that, then lets start cutting federal money to UC. After all, they are saving money now and we no longer need to fund UC.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  5. Re:What's the price of your integrity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is the third choice. Take the pay, and botch the training. Be an incredibly bad "teacher". Don't correct even the most basic mistakes. Be like a politician, don't answer any question straight. Be rude and belittle them for asking "stupid" questions. You were hired to do some kind of work, not to teach. They can't really expect you to be able to do a good teaching job.

  6. Re:Unions are needed! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Laborers pool their resources in unions.
    Capital owners pool their resources in companies.
    I see no difference. Both are trying to gain an advantage over others to benefit themselves. Both often abuse their power if the pooling activity turns out to be successful.
    Beats me why many people think one of these is a great thing and the other is a problem.

  7. Re:Professional organization and trade guild FTW by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If I could wave a wand and make all the lobbyists, visa loopholes and bad politics go away, I'd do two things:It's not a union, it's a merit-driven guild -- and that distinction would have to be very clear to appeal to the overwhelmingly libertarian crowd who populate IT jobs in large numbers.

    Interestingly anything merit driven is undermined by a legal concept known as "disparate impact", which is anything that is neutral but still has a sorting effect on protected classes. So your merit driven concept is great both in concept and practice until it hits the SJW tool of disparate impact and must effectively dismantled. It's one of the reasons why the US can't have nice things.

  8. Re:What's the price of your integrity? by Karl+Cocknozzle · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Third option: Train them wrong. "Sure, of course I'll train my replacement." Teach him the most fucked up version of everything you can, but do so with a straight face. Make sure your trainee is utterly clueless on the day you tell your boss "He's ready to go! Best in the business, this one."

    It raises the price of the outsourcing for the employer, and in sufficient quantities by enough employees, could even be enough to make the outsourcing project totally fail.

    --
    Who did what now?
  9. Re: It's not just that. by Pfhorrest · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "At home" (parents home) isn't an option for many people, and I've known people, student back in college who had no cars and so couldn't live as far from campus as I could, who paid $500/mo EACH to split a fucking bedroom with two other people. Or people like my disabled mother who for the past year until this month was paying $700/mo out of her $900/mo income to split a room with two other strangers each paying the same as her because that is the only kind of place that someone without the savings to put a deposit down can get.

    Being poor is stupidly fucking expensive.

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."