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Facing Layoff, An IT Employee Makes A Bold Counteroffer (computerworld.com)
ComputerWorld reports:
In early December, Carnival Corp. told about 200 IT employees that the company was transferring their work to Capgemini, a large IT outsourcing firm. The employees had a choice: Either agree to take a job with the contractor or leave without severance. The employees had until the week before Christmas to make a decision about their future with the cruise line. By agreeing to a job with Paris-based Capgemini, employees are guaranteed employment for six months, said Roger Frizzell, a Carnival spokesman. "Our expectation is that many will continue to work on our account or placed into other open positions within Capgemini" that go well beyond the six-month period, he said in an email.
Senior IT engineer Matthew Culver told CBS that the requested "knowledge transfer activities" just meant training their own replacements, and "he isn't buying any of it," writes Slashdot reader dcblogs. "After receiving his offer letter from Capgemini, he sent a counteroffer. It asked for $500,000...and apology letters to all the affected families," signed by the company's CEO. In addition, the letter also demanded a $100,000 donation to any charity that provides services to unemployed American workers. "I appreciate your time and attention to this matter, and I sincerely hope that you can fulfill these terms."
And he's also working directly with a lawyer for an advocacy group that aims to "stop the abuse of H-1B and other foreign worker programs."
Senior IT engineer Matthew Culver told CBS that the requested "knowledge transfer activities" just meant training their own replacements, and "he isn't buying any of it," writes Slashdot reader dcblogs. "After receiving his offer letter from Capgemini, he sent a counteroffer. It asked for $500,000...and apology letters to all the affected families," signed by the company's CEO. In addition, the letter also demanded a $100,000 donation to any charity that provides services to unemployed American workers. "I appreciate your time and attention to this matter, and I sincerely hope that you can fulfill these terms."
And he's also working directly with a lawyer for an advocacy group that aims to "stop the abuse of H-1B and other foreign worker programs."
I am sorry that foreign tech workers are willing to do the same job you are, but at a lower salary.
I am sorry that hiring them to replace you is the most rational action I can take.
I am sorry that furthering the best interests of me and my clients means letting you go.
I am sorry that your prospects in the job market lead you to believe that you won't find superior employment once you leave.
I am sorry that you would like to be protected from free market forces, and to charge rates that are MUCH higher than your competition charges. I am especially sorry that trying to do this is not working out for you.
I am sorry that you think you need to mod me troll for being objective while discussing an emotionally-charged issue.
I am sorry that furthering the best interests of your company's shareholders and clients means letting you do - especially since yours is one of the easiest jobs to automate. One need not even hire a Kannada speaking human to step into your shoes
You don't seem to be aware that the income taxes alone in the first year cover the tax break given to Carrier over the next 10y not to speak about the load a few hundred unemployed would set on the social system.
The rest of your comment is off topic yet it doesn't seem like North Korea or Russia are stopping to build up their arsenal, in the mean time the US nuclear arsenal is ran by 5.25" floppies and a hope and a prayer.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
capgemini, accenture etc etc all have a similar outdated business model. They offer to replace a $100k first world engineer with a third world engineer for $50k. In the short term this looks good for the CEO - he's a bottom-line hero, just saved the company $50k x # engineers per year.
Long term, it's a mess.
The outsourcing company only pays the third world engineer $10k and pockets the $40k. This was fine a few years ago as there was a huge number of talented engineers in eg India, Philippines etc who really could do the job. Today it's not so easy. The cream of them have already emigrated to the first world on the back of their talents. The local job market has risen so that really talented people can't be found for $10k any more, so the bottoms landing on the empty chairs are attached to increasingly mediocre talent. The better ones move on quickly.
Add to that the difficulties of working with the time zone difference, the language problems, the cultural disconnect and the profound impossibility of communicating the intricacies of a mature IT infrastructure - and you get a project that is quickly going nowhere.
My direct experience of these changes (I've seen a few) is that the organisation keeps going on momentum alone for a few years - the existing old IT systems soldier on with only minor maintenance work being done, just enough to lurch from week to week.
No major development is possible because the talent that put the system together has been sacrificed - so the company fails to respond to new challenges and does not innovate. Unless the enterprise's business is completely unchanging, it's a slow glide path to oblivion - but the ground is just as hard for all that.
Now the really important thing is that by the time the shareholders realise the dirty deed they've been dealt, the genius CEO who gave them that short term gain has moved on to more triumphs elsewhere, no doubt at ever higher remunerations.
I would love to hear you four (or eight) years hence redefining unemployment and deficit to paint Trump in a favorable light. Magically I bet you will think pre-2008 unemployment calculations don't paint an "accurate" picture and that having debt is a healthy thing, inflation is wildly overstated.
You do realize that it is Congress that appropriates money, right? so any deficit is really more a Congressional fault than a President's, and last time I checked the Republicans were in power in one or both chambers for most of Obama's time.
Assuming mid-terms dont change the balance, we'll see what you feel after a Republican president and Congress has a chance to work their magic.
I am sorry that foreign tech workers are willing to do the same job you are, but at a lower salary.
This is not a lawful use of H1B visas. So working with a group of lawyers to ensure that H1B visas are not used in such a way is a completely appropriate behavior. This is no different than fighting age discrimination or race-based discrimination. There are simply some reasons which are not legally supported justifications for laying people off. Replacing them with lower paid H1B visa holders is one of those.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Yah. An AC. Go figure.
I'm sorry you miss the obvious problem that employees are forced to take cuts in salary and benefits while CEOs continue to get obscenely huge salaries, benefits, and separation packages which contribute directly to the cost of a product or service. And the only ones making decisions about a CEO's salary are other CEOs that sit on the company's board.
Note that the CEOs are not the free market. Neither the free market or the investors have any influence re CEO salaries and benefits. And also note that even when shareholders vote to reduce or limit a CEO's salary and benefits, the board (again, typically made up of other CEOs) can choose (and typically does) to ignore the shareholders' request. So no free market controls on CEO salaries and benefits, but there are on the employees'.
Yup. That seems fair.
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.