IBM to offshore as many as 4730 developer jobs in 2004...
Category IBM/Lotus
News is breaking this morning that IBM company documents show a plan to move as many as 4730 development jobs offshore to places such as India and China. Around 947 will be notified at the end of January, with no details yet on the rest.
One quote from the story really irks me...
"Some workers are scheduled to be informed of the plan for their jobs by the end of January. After that they will be expected to train an overseas replacement worker in the U.S. for several weeks. The IBM workers marked for replacement have 60 days to find another job inside the company, likely to be a difficult task at a time when IBM is holding down hiring."
It never ceases to amaze me how management thinks that something like this will work... You expect me to be outsourced offshore, and then spend the few remaining months of my life with the company training my replacement??? Not only am I irritated that I'm losing my job, but I'm losing my job to someone from another country who's sole qualification is that they are cheaper... sigh... I understand the economics of this whole offshore movement, but this type of treatment ("train your replacement") is just wrong...
Here are a couple of links to stories currently out there, and I'm sure there are more to come...
http://www.forbes.com/work/newswire/2003/12/15/rtr1180635.html
http://www.quicken.com/investments/news/story/?story=NewsStory/dowJones/20031215/ON200312150014000006.var&p=IBM
News is breaking this morning that IBM company documents show a plan to move as many as 4730 development jobs offshore to places such as India and China. Around 947 will be notified at the end of January, with no details yet on the rest.
One quote from the story really irks me...
"Some workers are scheduled to be informed of the plan for their jobs by the end of January. After that they will be expected to train an overseas replacement worker in the U.S. for several weeks. The IBM workers marked for replacement have 60 days to find another job inside the company, likely to be a difficult task at a time when IBM is holding down hiring."
It never ceases to amaze me how management thinks that something like this will work... You expect me to be outsourced offshore, and then spend the few remaining months of my life with the company training my replacement??? Not only am I irritated that I'm losing my job, but I'm losing my job to someone from another country who's sole qualification is that they are cheaper... sigh... I understand the economics of this whole offshore movement, but this type of treatment ("train your replacement") is just wrong...
Here are a couple of links to stories currently out there, and I'm sure there are more to come...
http://www.forbes.com/work/newswire/2003/12/15/rtr1180635.html
http://www.quicken.com/investments/news/story/?story=NewsStory/dowJones/20031215/ON200312150014000006.var&p=IBM
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Comments
The real issue here is not this small symptom, but the root cause which is multinationalism amongst big companies. Increasingly, larger companies have a declining interest in patronizing one country's economy over another. IBM, originally a US Company, has grown to an international corporation. Their bottom line is no longer dependent upon a strong US economy as there are plenty of emerging markets abroad to plunder. What I think they fail to realize is that, while the US is not the ONLY economy and market they can invest in, it IS the world leading market. Until only recent history, the US market has dictated every other major financial market WORLD WIDE. The recent exception, of course is the EU.
If IBM, GE, etc. continue to move money out of the US economy, their strong root will begin to wither. No matter how far your ivy may creep, you still need to water and feed it at its root.
Posted by Jerry Carter At 09:50:44 On 15/12/2003 | - Website - |
Posted by Tony Kelleran At 06:55:17 On 15/12/2003 | - Website - |
I share your concerns. There is an exhaustive survey in "Software Development" along with North Dakota starting to compete with these countries.
www.sdmagazine.com/articles/2004/0401 (Has This Trend Sprung a Leak?)
www.sdmagazine.com/articles/2004/0401 (North Dakota: Is This Near-Shore Enough?)
www.sdmagazine.com/articles/2004/0401(Outsourcing: What Works)
More importantly the premier programming laguage being shipped out is Java .
Rick MacGuigan
MNYNUG
Posted by Rick MacGuigan At 06:57:37 On 15/12/2003 | - Website - |