On 12/16/06, Lan Barnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Fri, December 15, 2006 10:59 pm, Robert Donovan wrote: > > > I am not at all surprised that > U.S. >> companies have trouble keeping highly skilled third-world employees. It >> seems that many large corporations have the idea that people in third >> world >> countries ARE interested in the company vision beyond the extent it >> results >> in getting paid more. To proceed as most U.S. corporations have with >> outsourcing to low-wage countries assumes either that people in the >> third >> world won't seek the highest possible wage for their work just like >> anyone >> else. A U.S. business may pay these folks three times the going wage >> in-country, but those Pakistani and Indian programmers can certainly >> figure >> out that their current employer's competition may just be willing to pay >> them more if they have expeience, skills, or figure out a way to do >> something better. So they employ the obvious strategy of getting hired >> at >> the lower wage jobs, get experience, and take that experience to get a >> better job. I'm betting that foreign companies in these places have an >> even >> harder time enforcing non-disclosure/non-compete agreements that we do >> in >> the U.S. > > Ya know what, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that there is a degree of unconcious racism in their uninformed expectations. You know, the plan as they discuss the opportunity in the boardroom in New York, "those wogs will be thrilled to have any job at all and won't go anywhere. Oh, and rupees aren't real money anyway."
Don't know if it's racism(possibly) or ignorance coupled with a kind of unconcious, self-agrandizing, Thurston Howell III superiority(almost certainly). "Why we're giving the poor and down-trodden Pakistanis the chance of a lifetime. My, what fine and generous souls are we." Remember, the upper managers don't even work with these guys when they
import 'em to undercut our salary expectations. Nobody imports vice-presidents from Bangalore (maybe they should -- they'd get higher quality ;). We're the ones who work with these guys and develop respect, often friendship.
Agreed. All too often, it seems that the suits look at workers as specialized worker widgets that you can plug into their specialty with little or no regard to things like culture, education, personal circumstances, language skills, etc. Throw in the facts that these folks have never met(nor will they ever meet) the people they are hiring, may not ever have been to the countries in which they reside for longer than a week or two, if that, and the peculiarly American tendancy to believe that those who have very little money are somehow different than "regular" people and need all kinds of undefined "help," other than a decent opportunity, and you have the makings of tragic comedy(comedic tragedy?) if I ever saw it. RD -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
