Its all a sham
A lay off in US was on the cards for about a month now. It was featured and gossiped in the area portals.
So the announcement as such was not shocking. But what was indeed shocking was that some of the folks I had personally interacted with and who are the best have been asked to go.
It’s all fine to calculate like 1 resource in US = X resources in India. But there are some good resources who are invaluable. They can hire ten resources like me in India and yet we cannot compensate for that one critical guy who knows the product in and out for the past 5 years. I do not understand this logic of 1 guy with normal vision = 5 blind guys. Forget sentiments, this does not make business sense.
I cannot talk about this to the folks here since these are sensitive topics and NOT to be discussed. I cannot talk to the victims since they think they got fired because of us.
All this is done ostensibly to reduce costs. But some of the folks have been given benefits which are two years their annual salary ON HAND. So how does this reduce costs? My hunch is, and I may be wrong, its a mere accounting gimmick. A one time settlement, even if its a huge one will be written off from the company’s reserves, a Balance sheet item, while salaries which is a recurring item will be charged to P/L books periodically. These guys are going to show the analysts that we are reducing the salaries, and hence will increase profits in the P/L books in future while doling out two years pay from the balance sheet. They should have huge reserves in the balance sheet so it should not matter.
I think we are taking the adage, ‘Numbers don’t lie’ a bit too far. While numbers don’t lie, they only speak half the truth.
They weave a story of cost cutting which is stupid in the first place, and then spend a lot at one go as a result of such cost cutting! If the last sentence do not make sense, you are not alone.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Other than being book keeping fraud in many instances, a lot of it is just plain petti-kutti deals. It’s pathetic to watch even very techie driven startup companies being forced to outsource due to investor pressure. You need to stand back a little and stop sipping the “India Shining” kool-aid a bit to realise what a fraud most of these outsourcing deals are.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:53 am
BNB
Its hard to put down my thoughts on the US folks who work with us.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Lot of these American folks are very proud folks and they even think protesting is beneath them. I wonder if we are capable of even mentally withstanding a similar fate. For us middle class folks here, the unwritten assumption is that our life is one steady upwardly rising graph, especially the IT crowd. In the US they are in general more ok with ups and downs - huge cultural difference; Read about this cab driver who missed the Nobel prize:
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081011/NEWS/810110328
This whole business of replacing with one US techie with x indian techies is just laughable. I have been lucky enough to work with some great American techies and the very thought of making those guys unemployed is just … like you I am at a loss for words. Our great IT boom is fueled by shady business deals.
October 12th, 2008 at 7:20 am
BNB
This issue kinda brings my contradictions to the fore honestly.
Not sure if its bcos I am confused or bcos I am honest or both.
I am okay if all this globalization if it leads to overall good… i’ve benfitted a lot personally… its good if it bring jobs to developing countries.. but i am kinda embarassed if that happens with job cuts in US.
I’ve experienced this with my prev organization as well…
When i said i am leaving since i am anyway jobless for 3/4 months.. my manager promised me my colleague in US will be fired in 3 months and i can take up that work
I was equally enraged then though i guess i did not blog about it…
It almost looks like as if the whole economic dev. nonsense is a zero-sum game even though numbers suggest it is not.
October 13th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I have experienced exactly the same. In fact my position was a little more worse in that I had to be in US training with a guy whose work was being moved here. Even though you feel bad about this, there are few things you should know about work life:
1. Outsourcing or not, there is no developer/tester that is not dispensable. You might feel the ‘guy-in-us’ is the best but the fact that he is being replaced simply means he is expandable. You must realize the same also applies to you.
2. As much as possible try to create value for your company. The smaller your company/ group is the better chance of visibility. In a large company your efforts might drown in a large group but always maintain to keep creating something that you think benefits the company. Your manager may/ may not agree but you should try the best. This is one good way to decrease your chances of being ‘dispensable’.
3. Get over outsourcing. Your job is to get the work delivered as best as possible. You are not paid to worry about the other guy’s job. I know losing a job is bad for everyone…but you have to realize delivering your work is your ‘dharma’.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I assume you work one of those services companies in India. They do suck the lifeblood out of you. If you really care to look around, you will find some very interesting companies in India, right in Chennai.
Large American companies are as pathetic as the services companies in India you have worked for (in fact, they influenced the culture of the Indian service shops!).
October 14th, 2008 at 1:42 am
IndianObserver
Your assumptions about my workplace - partly true. There is more to it though.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:08 am
Sesh
>no developer/tester that is not dispensable.
I agree. but i am still not convinced about the business sense of laying off a good worker experienced in a product.
October 14th, 2008 at 5:27 am
Outsourcing helps no one.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Sesh,
It sounds to me that the poster is pointing out that in his particular case, the outsourcing that he’s seeing is, overall, detrimental to the company…even if some accountant somewhere can come up with a balance-sheet justification for it. That isn’t an indictment of outsourcing overall…but obviously there are instances of outsourcing that are done poorly and will not result in a benefit to the company.
In that context, your answer of “don’t think about it, just do your job” is…unhelpful. The poster makes a valid point–switching out developers isn’t the same as switching out construction workers, and sometimes the company doesn’t take some of the less tangible effects of outsourcing into account. As well, some of the layoff packages are large enough that an honest accounting would reveal that the ROI for outsourcing won’t appear until year 3 or later.
And so here we are–company management is making a poor decision, and it’s obvious to all of IT, both in the outsourcing teams (in India) and in the team being outsourced (in US). Because of the dynamic of outsourcing, though, these teams can’t talk to discuss if there’s a better approach. Frustrating–from both sides.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
YetAnotherAmericanITGuy
Precisely!
October 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Jamil Kirmani
I think YetAnotherAmericanITGuy summed it up very well.