IBM To North American Employees: To Keep Your Job, Move To India

Re:IBM To North American Employees: To Keep Your Job, Move T... by jrockway on Tuesday February 03, 2009 @02:33PM (#464486)

> From the article: "It's more of a vehicle for people who want to expand their life experience by working somewhere else," said [an IBM] spokesman. "A lot of people want to work in India."

A lot of people want to move to a foreign country to make less money? IBM is either lying, or the people they hire aren't very smart.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:IBM To North American Employees: To Keep Your Job, Move T... by wmf on Tuesday February 03, 2009 @05:05PM (#464771)

Keep in mind that many IBM employees are from India or China originally, so it's not a foreign country to them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:IBM To North American Employees: To Keep Your Job, Move T... by helveticaman on Tuesday February 03, 2009 @03:28PM (#464597)

That is the most pungent bullshit I've read in months.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:IBM To North American Employees: To Keep Your Job, Move T... by time_management on Tuesday February 03, 2009 @04:06PM (#464681)

I'm sure there are people who will gladly move to India for a few years, but if they are improving their careers, which is not necessarily (although, in practice, it usually is) mutually exclusive with a pay cut. However, no one talented is going to travel to a foreign country for the same job, much less a step back. Also, giving enough pay and perks that they can afford to see family in the US for at least 4 weeks out of the year is a must.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:IBM To North American Employees: To Keep Your Job, Move T... by helveticaman on Tuesday February 03, 2009 @09:35PM (#465169)

Sorry, I was too ambiguous with my use of "that." I was agreement with fallen_times...I was in disagreement with the quote from the IBM spokesperson.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:IBM To North American Employees: To Keep Your Job, Move T... by time_management on Tuesday February 03, 2009 @02:48PM (#464519)

You could get smart people to move to Third World countries for 50-70 cents on the dollar. Plus two round-trip plane tickets per year, 6 weeks of vacation (with a guarantee that this perk persists upon return to the US), increased leadership responsibilities and creative control, spousal job placement, and a guarantee of the option to return to the US with at pre-cut pay, plus 25 percent, in 5 years (when the economy has improved). This might actually be a very smart way of cutting personnel expenses in the short-term while giving people an opportunity they'll enjoy.

If you don't offer such a package, your talent is going to vanish and you'll only be able to send utter mediocrities overseas. No one with options is going to move to another country while remaining a subordinate code monkey doing grunt work for "the palace" an ocean away (which happens in branch offices of many multinational companies). Which means that your New Delhi office will be trained by the cast of Dumb and Dumber. Epic fail.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:IBM To North American Employees: To Keep Your Job, Move T... by nihilocrat on Tuesday February 03, 2009 @02:54PM (#464536)

"the palace"

Heh.

I can't agree more with your characterization. I work for a company whose main office is overseas, and almost every single dealing with the central office (especially if any work on their part is involved) is encountered with a "let them eat cake" attitude. You get used to the idea that they don't think any of the satellite offices exist.

[ Parent | on HN ]