Posted on 06/27/2004 4:52:11 AM PDT by neutrino
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Jolted workers rethink life's basics
09:54 AM CDT on Saturday, June 26, 2004
Mark Olesen and Jerry Dugick live 181 miles apart. They're strangers to each other, but they share a common bond. Losing their tech jobs to overseas workers cost each of them more than paychecks and pride. For Mark, a former software engineer for IBM in Austin, it led to bankruptcy and nearly a year away from his family, driving big rigs to natural gas fields around the country. Jerry, a former engineer and project manager for Cadence Design Systems, sold the Dallas home he treasured to eliminate debt. He can pay for his daughter's first two years of college. But he doesn't see a way to cover the rest of her tuition with a part-time job. The upheaval in both their lives illustrates why moving U.S. white-collar jobs overseas has caused so much anxiety and controversy. In many cases, the disruptions go far beyond lost income. The irony: Offshoring has been a boon to American businesses, consumers and Third World workers – boosting profits, cutting prices and increasing incomes. "We are kind of a victim of our own success," says Dane Anderson, program director of outsourcing and service providers for META Group, an information technology research and consulting firm. White-collar workers affected by offshoring usually land other jobs. But for the first time in their lives, many are struggling to adapt to a lower standard of living. And the emotional toll can be just as burdensome. Most worked hard to get a good education only to discover what plenty of former manufacturing employees already know: Workers overseas can do their jobs for less money."There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," Carly Fiorina, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co., declared earlier this year. "We have to compete for jobs."
Humbling experience
Offshoring has come full circle for Mark, a 37-year-old with curly brown hair and a wide grin. Three years ago, his job was moved overseas. Now he spends his nights at his north Austin home collaborating with a group of programmers in Israel. The group is updating software used to help companies and entrepreneurs figure out whether their products will sell on eBay. The programmers perform the work, and Mark sends them sales data. The job pays $36,000, about half of what he earned at IBM. He and his family lack health insurance. And with Israel eight hours ahead, he stays up most of the night. During the day, he talks to his boss in Utah and other folks. But the software engineer isn't grumbling. He's relieved to be employed in the tech field again, especially since the small firm from Provo, Utah, that hired him is owned by one of his college buddies. A year ago, Mark rarely saw his wife and the two teenage girls he helped raise. He spent his days at natural gas fields in Colorado, Michigan and other states, setting up and moving pumps and other heavy equipment. His nights were spent sleeping in strange hotels. Most of the men he worked with hadn't gone to college. And the pay: $10 an hour plus overtime. It was the best he could do. When Mark lost his job in the midst of the tech slump, he couldn't find anything that would allow him to use his computer science degree from Brigham Young University. Employers were interested in hiring only foreign workers on H-1B visas. The months dragged on. One of his cars was repossessed. On the brink of losing his house and unable to hold off his creditors any longer, he filed for bankruptcy.
Moving on
The move allowed him to reorganize his finances and clear away enough debt to save his house. But it also frightened him, leading him to sign up for the oil services contracting job. "It was a humbling experience," says the Star Trek fan who grew up in Long Island, N.Y. "You start to really realize how fragile life is." It's the last thing Mark expected to happen when he decided to study computer science. "I wanted to go for a career that provided me with some security," he recalls. One day while out on the road, Mark received a call from one of his college pals, asking whether he'd be interested in a job. In October, he began working from home. Today, Mark is paying off medical bills for his family and struggling to make his property tax payments. He hasn't bought a pair of shoes for himself in more than a year. And like many other laid-off tech workers, he has lost his respect for corporate America. "It's really hurting the American people," he says of offshoring. "They are strip-mining society." But the turmoil in his life has yielded an unexpected benefit: a newfound appreciation for what he does have. His family has learned how to have fun the low-cost way – with barbecues and visits to state parks. "I don't think I take things for granted anymore," he says. "Life beats you down. You can either stay down or get back up and try to live."
Absorbing the shock
For Jerry, offshoring has been more of a one-way street heading south. For seven years, he was proud to work for Cadence Design Systems, a company in San Jose, Calif., that sells software used to design microchips, printed circuit boards and other items. A trim man with alert blue eyes and closely cropped hair, Jerry spent most of his time interacting with Cadence's customers. He taught them how to use the software and listened to their concerns. Most recently, he was in charge of making sure chipmaker Intel Corp., one of Cadence's biggest customers, received top-notch technical support. The questions he encountered often proved so complex that he needed a team of engineers to find the answers. The work was rarely dull. He never lacked for something to do. And he earned more than $100,000 a year. One day last August, after dropping off his daughter at the University of Arizona for her first year of college, Jerry returned to North Dallas to find an e-mail from his manager. Would he be at work the next day? The next morning he was told his job was moving to Noida, India. Cadence could hire three or four engineers for what they were paying him, Jerry learned. Until that point, Jerry hadn't thought much about offshoring. He knew Cadence wanted to staff a technical support center in India and had started eliminating jobs in the United States. But the University of Missouri electrical engineering graduate never thought one of those jobs might be his. "I had never been fired or laid off in my life," said the 43-year-old from St. Louis. "This kind of shocked me." He felt like he'd been pushed from a train. Once he got over the initial shock, Jerry started looking for another tech position. He quickly realized just how many people with master's degrees couldn't find work. His wife had just received her MBA and was also searching for a job. To prepare for the worst, the couple decided to sell their house in North Dallas, where they had lived for the last seven years. It sold the day they put it up for sale, at the asking price. The couple rented another house nearby so that their 14-year-old son wouldn't have to switch schools. With the money, they paid off debts and made some investments. Jerry got a few interviews, but nothing came of them. The one offer he got required him to travel more than 80 percent of the time. He turned it down. "My job is not worth my life," he says. In the meantime, he took some classes at the University of Texas at Dallas, passed an exam and got certified in project management.
New priorities
Without a job, Jerry started to take stock of his life. He realized that he had been working for his family and his company but not himself. If he had died the next day, he says, his tombstone would have read, "He was a good employee." Jerry began volunteering and networking with others who'd lost their jobs. He vows to make the next 20 years of his life more fulfilling. "I am not going to become a slave to some corporation," he says, still stinging from the memory of how he sang Cadence's praises before it dropped him. A few months ago, he walked into the office of a small engineering firm in Dallas. It was the first time he'd dared to drop into an office to leave his résumé and cover letter. He knew the owner from his days at Cadence. What do I have to lose? he asked himself. Today, Jerry is working part-time as a project manager for Circuitpac Corp. in Dallas, earning about a third of his former salary. He and his wife, who speaks fluent Spanish, hope to start their own business, selling computers to Hispanics. "I feel more stress than I used to," he says. "I'm still trying to figure out where Jerry is going to be a year from now." |
I am sure a whole WHOLE lot. I don't want to be here a month of Sundays point out things in minute detail though...
If America is producing capital at the highest levels in history then we are kicking as all round. Per worker production, in terms of cash continues to build; what part of that don't you understand?
How is ensuring property rights of 3rd worlders in terms of real capital hurting the American producer? How is the American producer doing worse, when they continue to earn real power and liberty in their choice?
Can you ask those questions in English please? One at a time.
In America, continued growth leads to innovation; near-commodity goods supplements current investments allowing for the "time" to explore new ideas. Time is spent on creation rather than survival- sort of like artisans, in fact, I bet it can be argued we are an artisan society today.
They don't because they can't. Take a hard look at your next proxy; it doesn't have a choice for "fire the CEO."
Not even worth a reply...
Okay, you have no point or you believe the production of tennis shoes in China and the scritping of code in India will somehow break the US economy.
What you believe in is what is called "Chicken Little Economics"
For that matter, why should she go to college? Really, she'd be better off learning some useful skill like bar-tending, or waiting tables, or being a pastry chef.
If she goes to college, the job will be sent to China or India anyway.
Of course, that means that we as a nation won't have any technical skills to draw on...but, what the hey, right?
I didn't say college was unnecessary. I said that if she wants it, she can help pay for it, or pay for the whole thing.
I suppose it's useless to ask for sources beyond your own feelings.
Not clear in the story I quoted is the data used fall under a category BLS calls "extended mass layoffs," which reflect job losses at companies employing at least 50 workers where at least 50 workers filed for unemployment in a five-week period and the layoff lasted more than 30 days.
I'm not a businessman. You never outsource before reaching 50 employees? Once there if you're going to out source you do it blocks of fifty or more in five weeks or less, I suppose.
This Washington Post article (below) also questions the data along with several other skeptics. One made a good point, what if the data were 100 percent true, nevertheless "When a company is expanding and creating jobs in Singapore rather than San Jose, that's also outsourcing."
None said, "Oh well, companies with fewer than 50 employees are just too small to outsource. The BLS is correct"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33998-2004Jun11?language=printer
That brings up another hindrance to the argument. Was a job lost to off shore without first having an American lose that specific job? I've seen that nuance in the debate over offshoring.
Alllrite, I'll bite. How was my original post incomprehensible? I just don't be a gettin' the luddite part, either. Please preach to the class.
Manual labor versus machine; have you Googled Luddite?
Yes...she can even join the military to gain tuition benefits.
There are a great many things we can do if we must. But do we really want to see how austere a life we can endure? Wouldn't it be better to protect America and Americans? I think it would.
Huh? In my post I was pro-machina (having a factory spewing out 12 miles of glass, run by 20 people, is a Good Thing). Are you advocating manual labor over technology? Why not just say what's on your mind? Go ahead, you can do it.
That sow is a piece of work. I don't buy H-P no matter what the price.
4 - "Most of the men he worked with hadn't gone to college
OMG! The poor man, having to associate with the dregs of society! /sarcasm"
You missed the whole point. What a waste of an education and experience. People are our major resources, so wasting these resources is just plain stupid.
And you accuse others of being incomprehensible - hahahahahahah. Nice post. How very articulate. Let me guess, you're an English professor? Bwahahahahahahahaha. Have you Googled Humor?
5 - "What happened to the employees of the candle-makers, the buggy-whip companies, and the astrologers? Oh, wait, they're still here, but in fewer numbers"
Well, let's just outsource your job too, it's obsolete.
19 - LOL - "When I read horror stories like these, I again thank God I'm a federal government employee. We're not getting rich, but at least we've got job security and pretty good benefits, including a fully-funded pension program and the best health care program around -- and the latter is included in our retirement package. Every time I read stories like this, I know I made the right decision when I started my government career over 20 years ago."
Just wait a few more years. They have spent your pension fund already, and it is going to be worth zilch shortly, when they devalue the currency. Timeframe - 2008-12.
we find it hard to find people... no wait we find it hard to find GOOD people at the moment. the IT market is on the upswing but the quality of many applicants isnt up to scratch, and people have learned its better to turn down work than try performing it with bad resources. it costs you more to fix in the end.
47 - You've nailed down the free-traitor profiteers pretty well there:
"As long as there are enough young, patriotic Americans to enlist and fight to protect them they will continue to loot America and profit -- oh, and BTW, those young Americans have no right to a job when they return from war. "
Let's turn the guns on the free-traitors.
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