I feel like everywhere I work, we have this term, and it’s become increasingly more common over the past decade as the USA becomes more and more hateful and aggressive towards the working class people… The offshore team. I really, really hate hearing about the offshore team. It’s from a certain country in Asia that starts with I But I have nothing against those people that come from that country, it’s simply out of concern for my well-being and my survival that it bothers me…
You look at a country like Germany, and how they have a workers council, and a country like France that has proper retirement, then you see the USA and how We have millions of computer science grads who struggle to find work, can’t get a job, universities churning out new students in the tens of thousands per year… We shouldn’t have an offshore team, at a company that makes billions of dollars, led by people that have so much money amassed up that they could survive for a thousand years spending millions.
It’s just embarrassing, that as a society, we are so horrible to each other.
Oh I feel this in my soul. Recently my company was going to buy some very important welded structures, and instead of working with the American company that we promised the business to, one executive went over everyone’s heads to buy these from the offshore team, despite protests from literally everyone.
They came in today each one is $100k worth of scrap metal. Absolutely unsalvageable pieces of shit. Truly a colossal level of fuckup.
Will the execs learn? Probably not.
Not to mention the fact that the qualifications and the ability to communicate complex concepts and information without issue (in the language used by the rest of the company on shore) are almost always extremely subpar.
Too often I’m asked questions and I give thorough examples and ask if it makes sense and get a “yes” back immediately and then the next day rolls around and I’m asked the same questions by the same people and am forced to repeat the process.
I’m told these contractors are seniors with 10+ years of experience but act like junior interns.
But hey, the c-suite sees the real incentives here! Cheap labor!
Yep they’re called offshore not because they’re foreign but because in general they’re terrible at their jobs
The people responsible for your anxiety are not offshore, they’re upstairs.
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Since it isn’t happening to you personally I guess it would be hard to back up with evidence but is there not somewhere you could anonymously report these abuses and concerns to? Any government department? At the very least the misrepresented conditions seem like they must be a violation of something . If it’s anonymous hopefully you’d be shielded and you don’t personal face the same risks to your well being. If there’s anything that is actionable it could result in better conditions all round.
Your tip might be a piece of information that they can add to any other such information to trigger an investigation maybe. Here in Australia at least, the government does at least sometimes act on abusive labour practices, they’ve swooped in on farmers employing fruit pickers who are almost entirely foreign and who suffered absolutely blatant wage theft and abuse and other high profile instances such as foreign embassy staff being treated as slaves.
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I feel like everywhere I work, we have this term, and it’s become increasingly more common over the past decade as the USA becomes more and more hateful and aggressive towards the working class people… The offshore team. I really, really hate hearing about the offshore team
…and…
then you see the USA and how We have millions of computer science grads who struggle to find work, can’t get a job
There’s a couple factors in play and depending on how old you are (or how long you’ve been in this industry) some things may not be apparent.
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IT spending/staffing is cyclical. Boom and bust. This happens every 5-8 years. There is massive spending by organizations in IT for various reasons. This drives up the need for IT staff and as the talent pool is exhausted, salaries rise sharply as companies try to poach from one another. IT workers win in this case. However, when the pendulum swings expensive IT staff are on the chopping block. For the cycle we’re in right now, that started about a year ago and the cuts are still ongoing, but to me, it feels like it will start swinging back in the other direction in the next 8-12 months with hiring picking up again.
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In-source vs Outsource/ onshoring vs offshoring cycle - Many businesses have short memories and “the grass is always greener” mentality. If they are heavily In-sourced and onshore they look at their budgets and see this MASSIVE number next to the “payroll” line item. They start asking how they can lower this number and save money. Consultants come in and convince them that the company can save money by cutting out a segment of the company’s operations and outsourcing that to another firm that quotes them an attractive rate. The company chooses this option, fires their own staff, contracts out the work. The bottom line is appropriately attractive, and executives get a bonus for making cost cuts. Inertia from the previous staff keeps the org going much as before for awhile. However, the service begins suffers because the contract company is attempting to provide the least amount of resources and money to fulfill the contract. Many times this means using offshore staffing themselves. After a few expensive outages for outright rebellions from the company business departments, the company fires the contracting company hires their own staff again and brings the service back in house. This pendulum swings again for another 8-10 years.
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International pay disparity - IT workers in the USA are crazy expensive compared to nearly anywhere else in the work. I’m not just talking about a little more, but by a factor of 10 or 15 times more expensive than other nations that provide similar skilled staff. A $150k USD IT worker in the USA can be replaced (mostly) with a $15k USD worker in India with the same level of skill. That same IT worker skill level would earn $75k-$100k CAD in Canada. In Germany that same worker would earn €60-$90. During boom times that USA worker might be able to earn $175k-$300k USD.
As a worker, you can see that working in the USA will earn you the most money when you can get a job. So the trick is to save during the boom times knowing the bust is coming. If you earn $300k for one year, and are unemployed for two years afterward you’ve effectively earned $100k per year for 3 years straight. Being unemployed in IT for over a year is unusual. You can usually find a lower paying job in IT to cover your living expenses and then some until the boom occurs again.
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The company I work at is considering moving some/all of the “not business differentiating” work (aka boring or terrible yet still critical work) to teams in India. I agree with roughly colocating teams (by time zone. Working 12 hours apart from half your team isn’t practical). I disagree with the Indian teams taking all the bad/boring work.
