« Tsunami Help Blog | Main | Meet the Fockers »

I hope you find a job that’s at least 3-10 times better!

Whenever I’ve been laid off I’ve spent the time between jobs fretting — when I would have killed for that free time when I did have a job. Hope you can make better use of the free time than I have.

One thing I haven’t seen anybody address is that free trade brings geographical freedom for jobs but not neccessarily for people. Right now, restrictions on immigration prevent people from following the jobs; they’re stuck with whatever’s local in their area.

Why are jobs freer than people? Seems backwards.

The people who suffer the most on being laid off are the H-1b’s. As I understand they get a few months to find another company to sponsor them or they have to leave the United States. Shanti should be fine ( I am presuming that she has immigrant status) Still I do find it a little evil that anyone should have to interact with his/her replacements.

U think it in the wrong way. You have now become an american, Think the same for mthe point of view of an indian. U have acquired a American citizens just a few days back. Before that u were an indian and u thaught like an indian. But things have changed now. U feel that you are loosing. that is why u r furastated and don’t want to teach a othere guy. Moodha i guess u parents are still living in India. Think. You can always mail me at the address above. Sorry if i hurt u.

Thanks, Lisa - I have atleast three more months that I am going to devote to job-search now, so I should fine something soon. I do agree with your points.

AM, I got my greencard just a few weeks ago, so I am fine in that area. I don’t have to worry about maintaining status and such anymore. It is not just evil but very insensitive to make your employees spend months imparting their knowledge to their replacements.

Sunil, I am not an American citizen - just a permanent resident. I am not reacting to this as an Indian or an American, but as someone who has to lose a job and then teach someone how to do it. I don’t care if it is an Indian, Chinese or Sudanese replacing me - I still will not lift a finger to help that person.

I dont think asking an employee to train somebody is wrong or insensitive. If they pay me for doing that then I have to do that.

If I have the right to quit a company to earn more money then I think companies have the right to fire me if they can employ somebody cheap.

Sameway I think companies have a right on asking me to share my knowledge about the process and techniques I used there. They cant ask me to train somebody in Java or C++. But they can ask me to share my knowledge about the company’s API, process etc., and if I get paid I think I have to share it.

The rule I will keep for me is, if I dont like training them I will quit rightaway.

If that isn’t moralizing, I don’t know what it is. Chok, having a responsibility is not the same as liking it. If I am directly ordered to help those guys, I will do as much as is asked of me. Why should I go beyond that? Why should I quit if I don’t like training those guys? I am getting to leave in three months anyway. The company is looking at its bottomline - I now care only for mine. Why should I be loyal to someone who doesn’t show loyalty to me?

Sure, a company can fire me to get somebody cheaper - they don’t have to rub my face in it. I don’t have to be happy to have my face rubbed in it.

In the US, you can barely open a magazine without hearing about “knowledge workers” and being exhorted to engage in “lifelong learning” — at your own expense, of course.

One thing that happens at “knowledge jobs” is that the employer gets very antsy when they realize that the worker has the means of production locked up in a bone box on top of their shoulders — guarded with two videocameras and a siren on the front, along with a sensitive smell detector finely tuned to sense corporate BS.

Who owns the knowledge you worked hard to get, when you paid for your education, the work and fees you put into your green card process, etc? You, or your employer? Are you required to give your employer the benefit of your knowledge if it’s against your interest?

As jobs switch towards knowledge jobs, watch for corporations to lobby for laws that say your thoughts and knowledge are their property. And don’t cooperate. All we really own is between our ears. If we don’t have that freedom, then all the other freedoms are moot.

Well said again, Lisa.

I went through the same thing in 2002 when our company shutdown and moved everything to Thailand. But I was able to find another job easily but had to move to Los Angeles. Learned lot of new stuff there and now get much higher salary :)

Good job, JK. I think purely thinking in terms of bottomline is not great in every situation as you might not get the same amount of expertise and dedication from an employee working cheaper as you do from someone you have been taking care of.

Let’s hope I can follow your success story without having to move :)

Shanti

If you were the CEO of your company or whoever is making this decision about outsourcing, how would you have handled it differently?

I haven’t been posting here for a while as I was traveling. I recently crossed over to the ‘other side’ (I mean er.. the evil side). After being in US for long time now I am stealin a job or two from the other side.

What you say about not lifiting a finger is quite easy to undertstand. But I will say one thing to feed your thoughts. Our team has to work with a ‘person’ who would not lift a finger to help us and the team pulled it off anyway (I guess its part of the fun!) and happily got a special bonus for doing it under such an environment. So are you helping somebody exceed his performance goals :-) ??

The point is, it is easy to talk about single mom’s losing jobs when it comes to IT jobs, because it is transparent to you. Who knows how many lost their jobs in brick and mortar economy (due to chinese imports)? As JK said, you’ll probably find a new job soon and a better one at that.

Prashant, if I were the CEO the minimum I would do would be to train the new employees some other way or get them trained by the employees who are being retained in the company and have the training happen off-site.

Ender, thanks. As for making the situation a bonus for the new hires, it doesn’t matter to me. Good for them if they do a good job. I don’t have anything against them really.

Shanti….what is the skill-set you possess. May be I can help…in Dallas too !!!

Hey,

Take it easy, if you own a business…. all you would care about is maximizing profit. All the people talk & prioirty in business is crap. I wonder how one could fall for it.

Everyone wants to get the best out of the situation. Being between jobs is part of the working professional package. Take it easy…