Living in 'The Hotel Honda', and other sad stories
Living in 'The Hotel Honda', and other sad stories
Date: Thursday, September 24, 2009 2:48 AM
<<<<< 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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