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IT Worker Who Trained H-1B-Visa-Holding Replacement Aims For Congress (computerworld.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Computerworld: Craig Diangelo was an IT worker at Northeast Utilities in Connecticut until he completed training his H-1B-visa-holding replacement. He was one of about 200 who lost their jobs in 2014 after two India-based IT offshore outsourcing firms took over their work at what is now called Eversource. Diangelo, at first, was quiet, bound by severance agreements signed with the company. Then he started speaking out. Now, Diangelo is running for Congress. offering up a first-hand perspective on IT outsourcing that resonates with many other workers in his state. "I've seen the injustices that have been done to us," said Diangelo, who is not optimistic lawmakers will deliver on H-1B reform. "You can't let this matter die down, because when you stop talking about it nothing seems to get done." Diangelo isn't a one-issue candidate or political novice. He previously served two terms as an alderman in his hometown of New Britain and remains involved in city planning work. The 64-year-old has filed the necessary papers to run for office, has a campaign manager, a website and knows he has to raise an awful lot money to challenge Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Esty, now in her third term. But Diangelo has no illusions about his odds. Even so, he may be the only person to run for Congress, at least in recent times, who has trained his replacement. He went to college hoping to be come a teacher, but when that proved difficult, he wound up at Travelers Insurance in Hartford -- in the company's data processing center.
Most likely it is his age. At 62, it is very hard to get hired in IT anymore. There is discreet filtering going on for age at this point.
Not everyone can just quit, especially when they know finding a job will be difficult once it is over.
Those "agreements" are unenforceable. You can say whatever you want. Take the money and run. That is what the executives do. Don't be dumb.
Age.. and it's cheaper to higher younger or offshore in this case.
So everyone is happier to pay more for goods and services as long as it's made by the USA?
Funny how this restaurant that charges $150+ for a dinner for two is just one block from McDonalds in my town. Yet somehow they haven't gone out of business. Pay for crap you get crap. Pay for quality you get quality. The only problem is making sure that the crap salesman isn't trying to pass his shit off as top quality, which is what happens nowadays.
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vote in your primaries. Gerrymandering means that guys like this don't have a chance in the General. But in the primary anything goes. Change your party affiliation to the one that's owns your district if you have to, but vote in your primary. Also, call your representative and remind them you'll be voting in their primary and if they don't put a stop to this crap you'll kick them out.
They're not afraid of losing the general. They _are_ afraid of their primaries.
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What makes this comically tragic... is the daily/weekly/monthly news about the need for STEM programs in the U.S.. They continue to betray our children and tell them there are paths to a secure future in the tech industry if they pursue a STEM based career. Yet this is another betrayal of that storyline. How many of our children will finally finish their degrees only to find that the U.S. outsources their skill-set to India/China/world+dog as long as wages for those jobs are well under a livable wage in the United States.
Hello fellow /.ers.
For years we've watched this happen over and over again. When are we going to draw the line in the sand? Trump *might* do some things, then again he might not do anything. He has no skin in the game so to speak. Here we finally have a candidate who's been through what many of us have been through. We need to make sure he has the support he needs to win. Hopefully he either knows how to run a campaign, or has people to do that stuff for him (Speaking as an IT guy that has done a TON of campaign volunteering)
To the Indian /.'ers.
This is nothing against you, but the way you've been leveraged to drive down US IT worker wages has been unfair to us. I know you're simply looking for a better life, but when you take that H1-B job, and you're being trained by the person you're replacing, just remember what karma is. This has happened over and over and over again. Besides hurting us, you're not getting any closer to being "American". Your visa is designed to turn you into a low wage indentured servant, it is not a path to citizenship. I've seen how you and your brothers get treated, and I can't imagine why you guys haven't risen up yourself to unchain yourselves from this oppression. My only guess is you come from someplace worse than here, and that fear of going back, and being called a "failure" by your family, your village also weighs heavily on your minds.
The 64 year old. Good lord. This is what the future is, eh? Maybe the issue is that you can't retire at 63. Maybe the issue is you expect or need the same job at that age. That's kinda messed up. You might as well want the same things as a union at that point. Yet I kind of doubt this guy is pro-union.
"Old man yells at systemd"
It can't be that much worse than what we have now. Just saying.
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Your replacement will know how parentheses work.
H-1B is intended to find workers with skill sets you can't find locally.
It was not intended to find workers will skill sets you CAN find locally.
Seniority has nothing to do with it.
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Thank you for displaying your ignorance of reality. In IT, your age is held against you. Age is hardly ever the only factor in determining who to make an offer to, so other attributes may override any particular hiring decision. However, all things being equal, experience and age are a minus in IT, not a plus.
The work ethic of the employee is beside the point. Hiring an H1-B when there are US citizens who are willing to take the job is illegal. Training your H1-B replacement is a situation where, by definition, there is an American who will work the job.
+1. When was the last time you hired a programmer in their 60's? The "safe" route is to go into management, but some of us just love programming, and will do so as long as we are able.
There are cultural issues, not just overt age bias. As a total noob in Java working among 20 and 30 year olds right now, I wish I were 22. Then, my co-oworkers, who are awesome in general, would offer to mentor me, teach me, etc. Instead, I have been mostly on my own for two years, and have been given every task that came along that involved C or C++, meaning I couldn't work with my teammates. In my workplace, that means editing code that other teams "own", which is a special kind of purgatory.
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Agreed, and note that in general, I am an H1-B fan. We benefit a great deal in the US from this program. However, no one in the US should be asked to train a replacement with an H1-B. This is not the situation describe in this article: they were training remote replacements without H1-Bs. Frankly, that is at least as bad, even if it does not involve visas of any kind. Also, it rarely works: companies off-shoring their design staff typically are on the financial rocks soon after. This is typically an act of either desparation (the company is already on the rocks) or stupidity (unfortunately, most big companies).
Celebrate failure, and then learn from it - Nolan Bushnell