Outsourcing/President's Trip To India

[Sara Sheppard]

Ok...for my disclaimers...I voted for Bush. I don't know when outsourcing white collar jobs really took hold - if it was with this administration or before.

The President's trip to India is not being viewed too well where I work (in a place where most are republicans). Mosty because it hurts us emotionally and people are afriad. We have literally seen our friends and co-workers lose their jobs to folks in India and people are running scared that they are next.

I'm a college graduate with an accounting degree, some graduate work, and about 10 years accounting/auditing experience. I can personally see a time in the near future when I won't be able to be employed in this field here in the US. I've already been outsourced once. A friend of mine was outsourced last fall, took a new job, and was told last month that his new job is now headed to India.

When I was a child, blue collar/manufacturing jobs were being outsourced so everyone knew they needed to go to college to get a "secure job". What do we do now? I'm still trying to pay off the debt that I got into going to college - I can't go back and get in more debt to change my career path.

I have friends/former collegues/business associates I know all over the country who are being outsourced. This is a very serious problem for the business workers today. I feel my only hope is in a small business, but that likely won't pay well or won't have benefits.

Its not just corporate accountanting either, its tax services. That's right, the good old US tax returns are being prepared in India. Its also computer programmers, and and next time you go in for an MRI or CT Scan - it might be "read" by someone in India who reports back to your doctor.

Its a sore subject with me and while I'm sure the people in India are wonderful people and I certainly hope the best for them as a nation, I don't want to see it at the expense of people here. :basic04

Sara

[Marsha Gupton]

I'm not sure when outsourcing white collar jobs began, but with TAA/NAFTA a lot of your apparel industries outsourced to Mexico and Canada and then elsewhere. NAFTA was under the Clinton Administration. I am not sure when TAA came about. My office has to work with companies being affected by outsourcing which is TAA. We get multiple petitions per day. In the 12 years that I have been with Employment Security, I have seen this increase drastically.

What is bad employment-wise in Tennessee, is in the rural areas where a plant closes and sends their operations to a foreign country. Many people employed at these plants do not have the skills or education to do anything else. One example was the closing of all the Levi-Struass facilities a few years back. But through TAA benefits those workers can get free schooling and receive unemployment benefits while they are going to school. Then after they finish their schooling they have the skills necessary to get a better job (hopefully).

Just try calling any call center help desk in the computer industry. Talk about frustrating.

We need to keep jobs in America.

[Cecil Wallace]

Just try calling any call center help desk in the computer industry. Talk about frustrating.
We need to keep jobs in America. I called Dell recently, and I spoke with someone who definitely was not from Texas (where Dell's HQ is located.) At the of our conversation, I asked the lady where she was located, and she said "Phillippines."

And, yes, even though companies have a hard time staying competitive here, we do need to keep more things "at home."

I doubt that ANY president has much to do with it. It is a matter of competition, and companies take advantage of that.

Ducking,

[Sara Sheppard]

I don't know that a Pres. has much to do with it. But, I think we could have serious tax consequences or some sort of penalty for companies that offshore. For instance, for each job lost in the US but replaced by someone overseas, then a $X penalty.

If we give tax incentives (and we do it ALL the time), we can give tax penalties......of course it'll never happen, our gov't is controlled by lobbiest of these large companies and our leaders are stock holders of the large companies and want to see profits rise....

A couple I know, she is a CPA at a large accounting firm and her husband is a trainer at Dell. Both were outsourced within a few weeks. They have 2 children, a mortgage, college debts. :(

The real grief comes when they bring your replacement over from the far off country and you are forced to train them or if you don't you won't get your severance pay. Try swallowing that pill!
Sara

[Bruce Carriker]

As I recall, the real outsourcing...and rewarding of outsourcing...began during the second Reagan term - first Bush administration. But then it was the outsourcing of things like the steel industry, textiles, shoes, non-computer electronics, home appliances...big ticket, durable goods.

Bush I was really big on the North American US Job Export Act, also known as NAFTA. Although it was not finally passed by the Senate until after the 1992 election and signed by Bill Clinton, it had been in the works for some time and was really something Clinton and Bush can share the blame for.

As has already been mentioned here, Clinton was big on exporting manual labor jobs to China...that is, the ones that weren't already in Taiwan, the Phillipines, Singapore, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

Then, under Bush II, we started exporting computer and customer-service jobs to places where they don't speak English. I'm not sure which is more frustrating...computerized customer service menus that never allow you to speak to a real person; or finally reaching a real person, only to find out that you can't talk to them, either.

But none of this is surprising. It is the predictable result of a system that worships the maximization of profit as the ultimate good, and sees the worker as merely another expendable resource to be used up and then discarded.

[Gina Stevenson]

I'm not sure which is more frustrating...computerized customer service menus that never allow you to speak to a real person; or finally reaching a real person, only to find out that you can't talk to them, either.

Well, not sure, either; I've told them I had to hang up and call back, as much as I tend to be able to understand those speaking another language as their first language; some are much harder than others. THEN there've been times when I've found myself talking back to the recording, because they keep giving all these options, none of which includes the one I need!

BTW, if some workers get angry enough due to having been outsourced, this duo -- Bush I & Clinton -- perhaps had best watch their backs, eh? Not that I'd approve of something like that, but sometimes there are some crazy people out there ....

[LoraineStanton]

One of our road service plans has outsorced it's operators. They tried to send us a tow truck from Plymouth, Minnesota for our car that needed it in Plymouth, Michigan!!!

[Stan Hall]

I read recently that a few companies (I think Dell was one of them but I could be mistaken) have started bringing some customer service jobs back to the U.S. because of customer complaints. I hope this continues.
I bought an Acer laptop a few years ago and had problems with the hard drive. Each time I called I waited on hold for 45 minutes and then talked to Rajid or Punjab or Siddhartha and we had great trouble understanding each other.
I explained and was told to send back the drive and they would send a new one. I asked how to back up the operating system to install on the new drive. Not necessary, the new drive would have it already installed.
Sent drive back. Got new drive. No operating system.
Called again. Sent drive back. Got new drive. Had operating system.
But it was the wrong drive. I was able to connect it and got it to work, but it was slightly larger and wouldn't fit in the case.
Called again. Sent drive back. Got new drive. No operating system.
Called again. Sent drive back. Got operating system disks. No drive.
Called again. Copied disks before sending them back.
Got new drive. Sure enough. No operating system. Used copies and installed operating system myself. After three months I finally got it to work, but they never did actually send what I needed.
(sigh!)

[Sara Sheppard]

For the "customer service" folks that the company I work for has outsourced, the Indian person always has a short English name like "blah blah blah...this is BOB or SUE or JOE" ha ha ha

I'm like, oh Joe, is that your name? I know that's their name. They just use that to make people think they are talking to someone in US, but I'm no fool. ;) (Well...sometimes I am.)

Sara

[LoraineStanton]

Well Sara, at least you can pronounce the name that you are supposed to call the person, because according to my husband (who is affiliated with the firm that you work for) no one can understand anything else that they say!

[Sara Sheppard]

Its so true Loraine. What is scary when we call about our insurance, we talk to someone over there. I don't mind talking to someone about my computer or "business" matters. But when it comes to MY BENEFITS, MY INSURANCE, ETC...I would like to at least talk to someone who actually knows/understands the US healthcare system. Try asking one of them about an HMO......LOL

Sara

[Gina Stevenson]

Once I asked one that was particularly hard to understand where he might be. Dallas ... yeah, right! Probably were told to say that if anything, because that company didn't want it to sound like they were actually outsourcing ... well, how did they think he sounded to those who called!? DUH! :basic05

PS * If he was in Dallas, he'd arrived at DFW the day before, it seemed. ;)

[Barbara Moulton]

Once I asked one that was particularly hard to understand where he might be. Dallas ... yeah, right! Probably were told to say that if anything, because that company didn't want it to sound like they were actually outsourcing ... well, how did they think he sounded to those who called!? DUH! :basic05

PS * If he was in Dallas, he'd arrived at DFW the day before, it seemed. ;)

Living in Canada, I can't assume that the person who I am speaking to in the call centre is in another country, even if the accent is very strong.

I have spoken to many individuals in Toronto on the phone who have Indian accents.

When someone is particularly difficult to understand...when I have to ask them to repeat themselves, I do have some suspicions though.

[Gina Stevenson]

Living in Canada, I can't assume that the person who I am speaking to in the call centre is in another country, even if the accent is very strong.

I have spoken to many individuals in Toronto on the phone who have Indian accents.

When someone is particularly difficult to understand...when I have to ask them to repeat themselves, I do have some suspicions though.

No, I can't assume anyone with an accent is living elsewhere, for sure, as we've plenty around here with Spanish, Indian, etc ... however, if they can barely make themselves understood (as has sometimes happened), well ... then, yeah, guess I "suspect" something. ;)

[Sara Sheppard]

Another give-away is their lack of common knowledge among people who live in your own nation. One time the person needed my address so I told them then I said nashville, TN. The next question "what country is that in"? I realize we are in the "south" but I think most North Americans know that TN is in the US. ha ha

Sara

[Barbara Moulton]

Another give-away is their lack of common knowledge among people who live in your own nation. One time the person needed my address so I told them then I said nashville, TN. The next question "what country is that in"? I realize we are in the "south" but I think most North Americans know that TN is in the US. ha ha

Sara

Yep..l knew that even before I went there for a visit last year :)

By the way, we are coming back the last week of April and staying in the same place. Hopefully will get to see some friends again?

[Sara Sheppard]

Oh Barbara....that is great. I'm looking forward to seeing you then.

Are your daughter's coming with you again?

Sara