<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER  No. 2057 -- 9/24/2009 >>>>>

Two very sad articles were published about the plight of American tech
workers.

The first one is called "How Well-Educated, Hard-Working Americans are
Treated in America", by Rennie Sawade. As you might guess, the answer to
the question is: "not very well"!

The horror story about Diane Drozdowski shocked me and seemed almost too
bad to be true. I managed to contact Diane to make sure that Sawade got the
story right. Her response: "I wrote the entire part that is my testimony.
Rennie didn't change a word of it."

Unfortunately Drozdowski is still without a job. She is hoping that 2010
will bring her better luck.

Rennie Sawade helped to produce a video called: "WashTech on Microsoft
Replacing American Workers". Sawade starts the video by talking about what
is going on at Microsoft. He is followed by compelling testimony by a
computer programmer named Chris Fox who lost his job at Microsoft. The
video production is quite amateurish but the content makes it a worthwhile
watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwnvkK94o3I
WashTech on Microsoft Replacing American Workers

Since that video was released Chris Fox managed to find another job. At
least we have one happy ending!

The second article is from the BBC and is titled: "Living in 'The Hotel
Honda'".

Stories about displaced Americans are mostly shunned by the mainstream
media who seem to be much more interested in joining the chorus about how
the recession is over. Stories of jobless tech workers seem to be
especially out of favor because they contradict the media's preconceived
notions of labor shortages. Considering the millions of jobs that have been
lost by Americans there is very little follow up reporting on the people
who can't find meaningful employment. Perhaps elite media moguls simply
ignore what is going on in the real world, or maybe the newspapers have
eliminated so many journalists there is nobody to investigate stories
anymore. 


http://washtech.org/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=5363
How Well-Educated, Hard-Working Americans are Treated in America


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7681978.stm
Living in 'The Hotel Honda'


If those two articles weren't depressing enough and you get HBO, be sure to
watch their new documentary called "The Last Truck".
http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_DETAIL=DETAIL&FOCUS_
ID=679449

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://washtech.org/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=5363

September 14, 2009
WashTech News

How Well-Educated, Hard-Working Americans are Treated in America
Rennie Sawade

Many American IT workers are being forced out of their careers, while
corporations continue to offshore jobs and hire non-immigrant guest workers
on corporate Visas, such as the H-1B and L-1.

Some of these American IT workers are being forced into homelessness, due
to the lack of an adequate social safety net in this country. One such
homeless IT worker is Bruce Richall, an IT consultant in Connecticut. You
can read his story on the BBC news site.

After his lay-off from a bank, he has been unable to find another job.
After going through his savings, he was forced to leave his apartment. "I
now sleep in the back of my car, while I wait for a bed to become available
at the homeless shelter. I call it The Hotel Honda."

Another homeless IT worker, Rob, is blogging about his experiences. He also
continues to write about such topics as "cloud computing", which he feels
is the next major paradigm shift after virtualization.

Another IT worker, Alice (not her real name), was laid of by Microsoft back
in January. She worked on a team of 7, four of which (including the
manager) are on guest-worker visas. She was the only one on her team that
was affected by the lay-off. None of the other guest-workers were laid off.
She also states in her testimony:

    Guest workers occupy every management position at every level of my
former management chain. The lowest level American manager is the Senior
Vice President, a second level direct report to the CEO, Steve Ballmer.



Here are some more excerpts from her testimony:


    I am an American citizen, displaced Microsoft employee, and one of the
MS1400 (1,400 workers laid off from Microsoft Corporation January 22,
2009).

    I have worked in the high tech industry for over 20 years and never
been unemployed. I grew up in a typical middle class American family, the
daughter of a career Army Sergeant (POW and recipient of two Purple Hearts
and a Silver Star) and Pharmacist. I attended Goucher College on a full
scholarship, thanks in part to Senator Paul Sarbanes.

    In 1985, I completed my MBA in Computer Applications from New York
University, attending graduate school nights and weekends while working
full time. I started out working as a file clerk for a company that
provided tuition reimbursement so I could pay for graduate school. Through
hard work and perseverance, I worked my way up the corporate ladder,
transitioning my career from pink collar jobs to Systems Analyst and
promoted to Vice President, JP Morgan at age 31.

    In 1992, I transitioned into my career into Software Sales and
Marketing working for top firms including IBM and Microsoft. In 2004, I
joined Microsoft as a Marketing Manager, and have been working in the same
role as Product Manager, Microsoft Office since May 2006.

    On January 22, 2009, I was the only person on a team of seven people
laid off.

    My team of seven, a supervisor and six Microsoft Office Product
Managers, in similar roles, employed four guest workers. Three of these
guest workers have worked in the United States less than one year. All
guest workers on my team retained their jobs as full-time US employees of
Microsoft Corporation.

    Despite my seniority, contributions, and qualifications, the management
team of my organization, exclusively guest workers , chose to lay me off
and retain less experienced, less qualified guest workers, including two
L-visa guest workers in similar roles, each working in the United States
less than six months.

    That same day Microsoft also notified me "as a result of the
reorganization and restructuring at Microsoft Corporation, your position is
being permanently eliminated as part of a layoff."

    The director of my department informed me that my role was not
"strategic", therefore my position was permanently eliminated, and I was
laid off.

    Later I learned that my role had been split between a Microsoft
full-time employee and contractor replacement(s).
    A top corporate priority project I initiated was immediately
re-assigned to another employee.

    This employee assumed my role as project manager and is continuing my
work with the vendor I hired to help me, on the work I specified, to
complete milestones I defined, and invoice against the Purchase Order I
opened.

    Microsoft has engaged Artech Information an H1-B outsourcing company,
to replace parts of my role with a contractor.

    Imagine my surprise, just three weeks after I was laid off, to receive
an email and voice mail from Artech Info on February 12, 2009 with an
urgent need to fill a contractor position at Microsoft for a Product
Manager.
    The contractor job description - a watered down version of my former
eliminated position!

    The recruiter from Artech informed me 02/12/2009 that the maximum wage
for the job was $32/hour. This wage, 50% lower than my salary one month
earlier, is 63% lower than the 2007 median BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics) wage for the job role, Marketing Manager. According to the BLS,
there are an abundance of qualified Americans to fill these highly coveted
roles.

    According to Artech, the lower wage was "due to economy".

    Artech needed to know my intent to apply for the position immediately.

    Why? They had a previously scheduled meeting the next day with the
hiring manager to present candidates.

    Sadly, my situation is not unique.


Alice was just notified a couple days ago that she does not qualify for the
Emergency Extension of Unemployment Benefits. She was also just notified by
her mortgage company that she does not qualify to have her mortgage
renegotiated.

Another tech-worker, Diane Drozdowski, was forced out of her job at
American Express in Phoenix, AZ. After her manager used "bully tactics and
psychological warfare" to try to get her to quit, resulting in a mental
breakdown, she was replaced by two Indian workers based in India. American
Express flew these Indian workers to Phoenix and forced her to train them,
upon threat of losing her severance pay.

Diane Drozdowski's testimony is below:


    I had been working for the American Express service center in Phoenix,
AZ for four years. I was basically a "data miner" for the Merchant Services
group. I had access to all the different databases and data warehouses that
captured merchant data. I worked with internal customers to query the data
in order to provide reports for merchants or to drive business initiatives
by locating process gaps and using the data to prove the gap existed and to
provide insight to possible solutions based on my knowledge of the data and
the business.

    For three years, I received exceptional reviews. Each year I was with
the company, I received a better review than the previous year. That all
stopped when an Indian woman took over the management roll for my team. She
instituted monthly one-to-one sessions, which I thought would be a great
way to provide me constructive and positive feedback to better my work and
my career. That was definitely not the case. In each one-to-one I was met
with her blatant hostility toward me. She picked apart everything I did and
did not give me positive feedback. According to her, there was always
something I should've done better and faster. I am admittedly a
perfectionist, so I took her negative feedback very much to heart and tried
harder than I ever had before in my life to meet and exceed expectations;
whatever her expectations were, because I could never get her to tell me
exactly what she expected.

    Instead of things getting better, things got worse. Every single
one-to-one I had with her, she came down on me for not doing a good enough
job. Once when I was at her desk waiting to have an informal meeting with
another colleague, she announced to me very loudly that I better start
trying harder and doing better work, or I would get a "does not meet
expectations" on my review. This astounded me, as I have never in my entire
business career gotten a review like that. If anything, I'm always the one
who excels and achieves the "goes beyond expectations" review. Plus, since
she said this in a public setting, my peers sitting around us heard this,
and I was publicly humiliated.

    On another occasion, I was informed I was being considered to
participate in a grand jury for a federal court case. I did not have a
backup at work. My backups were laid off years ago, so I had been doing the
jobs of three people with no way to take time off since management had
never established a backup for when I was gone. When I took vacation time,
work just didn't get done, as no one else in the department had the skill
set to be able to actively step into my roll and provide adequate backup
support. Instead of understanding that jury duty is my civic duty as an
American citizen, my manager instead put pressure on me to get out of
going. The rules around jury duty have gotten much stricter in the past
years, and the government has made it very difficult to dodge jury duty.
Seeing as I had no disability to keep me from going, I had no recourse but
to go along with it, and I was on call for jury duty for approximately
three months. Each time I'd call in to see if my group had been picked for
duty, I dreaded having to tell her the status, because this would incite a
barrage of hostility from her. She told me that if I were to get called to
go to the court house that I should "get drunk first" so that they would
kick me out. This upset me, as I do not drink because my grandmother died
from complications of alcoholism. She also pressured me to "act like a
crazy person" to get kicked out, and also to "tell them you endorse (name
of local politician withheld)" to get kicked out. This really upset me as
well, as I do support the local politician she named, and it made me feel
like there was something wrong with me for feeling that way.

    The last straw for me was the day she ripped into me for my supposed
lack of good time management skills. I have always prided myself on my time
management skills and have been given nothing but positive feedback from
customers, peers, and past managers for my sense of urgency and my timely
communications regarding project turn around times. It was common for me to
fulfill a request for data in as little as 30 minutes from time of receipt,
even though department standard was three to five business days from time
of receipt. But instead of applauding this, she directed hostility toward
me. She requested that instead of sending an email to a customer to set
expectations of a turn around time for a request (if I knew it was going to
take longer than three to five business days to complete) that I wait and
send one big email at the end of each day to everyone who had requested
data to let them know the turnaround timeline expectations. When I repeated
this back to her to make sure I understood her expectations, she
immediately took on a defensive and hostile tone with me. She replied that
wasn't what she wanted me to do, and that instead, I should go to the
requestor's desk in person to set expectations verbally face-to-face. I
found this confusing, because an email took me 30 seconds to write and send
(plus it provided an audit trail). Getting up from my desk and trying to
find customers in the huge service center building seemed like it would
take considerably more time than just shooting out a quick email. When I
questioned her on this, she blew up at me. I remember her asking me in a
very hostile tone, "Why do you always have to do everything I tell you to?"
And then I remember her telling me that I need to be thinking of ways on my
own to work most efficiently. I explained that I was already doing what I
thought was most efficient for the company. I honestly can't tell you what
she said after that, because my brain felt like somebody flipped the "off"
switch on it. The last thing I remember is her just hanging up on me.

    I somehow managed to contact my husband at work, and I was so upset
that he was scared for my safety and immediately came and got me. I called
my doctor's office and told them I thought I was having a mental breakdown.
They booked an appointment for me to see one of the physicians immediately.
I remember the lady on the phone asking if I was having suicidal thoughts,
and I told her that yes, I was. The realization of feeling as though I'd
rather be dead further drove me into breakdown. I was advised to go to the
emergency room immediately if my condition worsened before my scheduled
doctor appointment.

    At the appointment, the physician observed my physical and mental
symptoms and diagnosed a mental breakdown. He advised me to not go back to
work for minimally six weeks in order to recuperate and heal from the
experience and the toxic work environment.

    My husband called my manager to let her know I'd be out on medical
leave for minimally six weeks. She demanded that he tell her what was wrong
with me, but we knew our rights under the HIPAA act. Technically, she was
not allowed to ask what was wrong with me. My husband remarked that she
took on an angry tone with him when he refused to tell her about my medical
situation.

    During the first six weeks of my medical leave, I spent the first two
to three weeks in a trance like state. I had been put on prescription
medications to treat depression and anxiety. I was instructed by my
psychiatrist to take Xanax during the day to keep from having panic attacks
and to take Xanax at night just to be able to sleep without having
nightmares about my job. I began psychotherapy immediately and went to
sessions one to two times per week. My psychotherapist also concluded I had
experienced a mental breakdown and advised me that my manager had used
bully tactics and psychological warfare on me to push me to my breaking
point. My manager had put me in a "fight or flight" situation, as I had
been trying to control and repress my composure for the five months she had
served as my manager. My body's response was flight. The physiological
response of the body to flight is to just shut down to protect the brain
and body from further harm. I wished I could just die, and I felt paranoid
for weeks thinking people were following me in my car. I couldn't even go
to the grocery store by myself, because I thought everyone there was
staring at me and knew how worthless I was. I could not concentrate and had
a very hard time speaking. Thoughts would come into my head and before I
could even voice them, they were gone. I often felt like I was just a lost
soul.

    My recuperation was slow, and by the time six weeks had come and gone,
both my doctor and my psychotherapist felt it best to take another six
weeks off from work to make sure my recovery was stable. There was fear on
behalf of my health professionals that returning to work too soon might
incite another breakdown, because I still did not have the appropriate
amount of strength in my brain to be able to deal with the toxic
environment at American Express.

    Within a few weeks after my medical leave had began, a teammate let me
know that my boss had posted two data analyst positions just like my
position, but they were open to Indian candidates only (in the American
Express India center in New Delhi). Upon my return to work from my medical
leave, I asked my manager about these positions. She told me they were
being hired to offer me backup, and that I'd be the lead over the team and
remain the central U.S. data contact for Merchant Services. But I could see
the writing on the wall. It was no surprise to me when I was pulled into a
conference room a month after my return and was told my job had been
migrated to India. I was told I had 45 days left with the company, and that
the two people from India who'd be taking my job would be flown to Arizona
for me to train. Not only did they take my job and my livelihood, but the
ultimate insult was that I had to train them to do my job, and if I didn't
train them well, American Express threatened they would withhold my 12
weeks of severance pay. So I spent the next 45 days training these men the
best I could. Neither of them had experience with data query nor writing
SQL code. It was my opinion that they lacked the skill set necessary to do
the job as well or better than me. It was as if they had literally hired
these two individuals off the street with no skills and no background.
Their only qualifying "skills" seemed to be the color of their skin and
their ethnicity.

    At the time, I was making approximately $47,000 a year. The two Indians
taking my job told me they were getting paid $10,000 a year each. How can I
even come close to being able to compete with that? Who in America can
support a family on $10,000 a year without taking state aid?

    In summary, it is my opinion that my manager purposely created a
hostile work environment in order to make me quit so that the company
wouldn't have to pay out the severance package to me. I could not go to my
director for help, because she was a huge advocate of my manager. I did not
feel comfortable going to her, as I knew it would be my word against my
manager's word. That's a battle that I'll lose every time.

    I also feel that I am the victim of reverse discrimination. I firmly
believe I was forced out of the company because my manager does not like
Americans, especially Caucasians. Since I left the company, many of my
colleagues have also had their jobs migrated to India. On my old team
alone, two new workers have been hired to backfill positions, and one is
from India and the other is from Pakistan.

    So now, here I sit at home on this computer writing my story to you. I
am well educated (BA in Sociology, Indiana University, 1994), I have 15
years of work experience, and I am unemployed. Due to the bad economy, I
have so far been unsuccessful in finding a new job. I'm over qualified for
what little jobs are out there. The jobs I am qualified for are not paying
very much, because companies know they can hire a foreign worker at a much
cheaper rate than what Americans demand. I'm not even getting called for
first interviews. Once I provide my salary requirements, I get the "no
thanks" letter. I'm very fearful of going on an interview, because my
manager made me feel like I am worthless and that nobody else would want to
hire me. What she did to me was long-term psychological damage, and I
continue to recuperate from it to this day. There is not a single day that
goes by where I don't think about what happened to me and how my manager
and that company treated me. It has forever changed my life.

    I'm now drawing a weekly unemployment claim, for which I receive $237 a
week. I can barely pay my bills or support my two children.

    I wish somebody could give me a good explanation as to how sending
American jobs to India or giving American jobs to H1-B visa holders is
helping the U.S. economy and American workers. Until you spend a day in my
shoes or the shoes of another American citizen who lost his/her job to
foreign workers, I ask you how you can do anything less than support the
H1B and L1 Visa Reform Act. This is just my story, but there are millions
more like it all across our country. Perhaps politicians should get down in
the trenches with people like me; people who spent a lot of money and time
to get college degrees; people who spent many years building upon their
careers; people who have worked 60 hours or more a week for years in the
hopes of "getting ahead." We are now sadly unemployed. We are the forgotten
Americans who have been left behind to suffer while we continue to watch
our fellow Americans losing their jobs to foreigners.

    I have never been on welfare in my life, and it sickens me now that I
must depend on it. But knowing I need to feed my children and keep a safe
roof over their heads makes me do things I thought I'd never have to do in
life. Goodbye, my pride.


Even union members are not immune to being replaced by guest workers. Char
was an employee of AT&T and a member of CWA in 2001 when AT&T closed the
Oak Brook, IL office. Char, and over 300 other employees were laid off, but
not before having to train their replacement guest workers.


    Within 2 weeks of closing our office in Oak Brook IL, AT&T had begun
busing in TATA contract workers on L1 visas to the closed office for
training (knowledge transfer). 2 CWA local presidents Steve Tsiza of 4250
and Dan Danaher of 4998 both went to the national CWA with complaints. It
went nowhere! Steve Tsiza, a member of the AFL/CIO of Illinois brought the
issue there too. The outcome - ILLINOIS's AFL-CIO made a public stance
toward opposition to the H1B visa program.

    We had a special meeting with Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. He
promised to our faces he would get to the bottom of this. He did nothing.
When following up with CWA in Washington DC, we were ignored.


Guest worker programs also affect college graduates. Even graduates from
top colleges are not able to find jobs while local companies continue to
hire guest workers. Stephanie Berry is the daughter of the Programmers
Guild president, Kim Berry.

Stephanie Berry graduated from the University of Southern California with
dual STEM degrees, including a M.S. in Civil Engineering, Structural
Engineering. She graduated with a high GPA of 3.840. However, she has been
unable to find a job, even while the Department of Labor is reserving jobs
in the Civil Engineering category for H-1B guest workers. You can read her
full story on the Programmers Guild website.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7681978.stm

Living in 'The Hotel Honda'

Bruce Richall is an IT consultant based in the affluent Connecticut suburb
of Westport. He describes how the loss of his job at a multinational bank
triggered a rapid spiral into poverty. Having depleted his savings and
unable to afford rent, he now sleeps in the back of his car.

" In the back of my mind, I hoped it wouldn't happen to me.

I saw bank workers being escorted off the property, clutching their boxes.
It was very chilling to witness departing co-workers.

The bank where I worked had already undergone a series of lay-offs in the
previous months.

I really liked my job and wanted to keep it. I joined in February, and
having worked for many years as an IT contractor - with its inherent
instability - this position offered the potential of a full-time position.
It could become a "secure" job.

But when security guards made simple, routine rounds through the cubes and
offices, people would look up from their desks.

There would be a sigh of relief as the guards kept going.

" I never thought it would ever come down to this, but here I am - homeless
"
But it didn't happen this time. On a Friday, my manager came to my desk.
Usually he came by to ask me if I could put in some overtime. But, just by
the look on his face, I could tell. This wasn't an overtime request. This
is it, I said to myself.

Sure enough, I was told that my last day would be the end of the month.

Though I didn't show it outwardly, I was devastated.

I would have another month before leaving so that I could start yet another
job search. I immediately contacted my agency to let them know that the
assignment would be ending.

My last day at the bank was bitter-sweet. There was a cake and a card. We
joked but inside I was truly frightened. I asked myself what would happen
to me now, in such a difficult job market? Would I become homeless?

At the end of my last day, my manager came downstairs with me. We had a
cigarette and talked.

"Bruce, if I can get you back here, you know I will," he said. His words
were kind and well-intentioned.

My life today has changed dramatically since my brief tenure with the bank.

Now I'm facing a very uncertain future.


" I now sleep in the back of my car, while I wait for a bed to become
available at the shelter. I call it The Hotel Honda "


I'm no longer collecting a nice pay check, going to work every day and
returning home at night. I'm no longer a part of the team I so enjoyed
working with.

Months passed as my savings gradually dwindled. I was only collecting a
small unemployment check from a low paying "between-jobs" job that I had
prior to signing on with the bank.

I had to move from my apartment, put my belongings in storage and find a
homeless shelter.

I now sleep in the back of my car, while I wait for a bed to become
available at the shelter. I call it The Hotel Honda.

" What galls me the most is that about one third of my income is taxed. I'm
taxed on what I earn and taxed on what I spend "

I keep a good suit and a dress shirt in the back of the car for interviews.
I tell recruiters that I'm working.

This is not the life I imagined for myself when I graduated from
university. I never thought it would ever come down to this, but here I am
- homeless.

Unlike the Europeans, we in the US don't have much of a social safety net.

My meagre unemployment income is too high to let me qualify for Social
Services, yet far too inadequate to pay for my home, food, car, utilities
and health insurance.

HAVE YOUR SAY
I experienced the same thing years ago. It does something to you when you
live out of your car and have nothing. I will forever be changed by it.
Robert, Wisconsin, USA

I have hypertension, yet I can't afford a doctor, the emergency room or
vital medication. I need a corrective eye surgery that I can't afford. Even
routine check-ups are out of reach.

My meals are taken at a soup kitchen. This is poverty.

What galls me the most is that about one third of my income is taxed. I'm
taxed on what I earn and taxed on what I spend.

Now that I'm in need there is nowhere to turn.

Nobody is helping me except for my contributions to my unemployment
account.

Yet our leaders have found a way to bail out the very institutions that
have put myself, and others, at risk. "


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