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I find it funny that with the WFH movement people some to have forgotten the lessons learned from the early 2000s outsourcing/offshoring craze. Many companies
by posnet 4y ago
I find it funny that with the WFH movement people some to have forgotten the lessons learned from the early 2000s outsourcing/offshoring craze.
Many companies tried to move their development offices offshore to India, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Ukraine, anywhere with significantly cheaper labour. And the first lesson these companies learned was the second you've trained a person from that area to the point that you are happy, they will quit, because now they have the skills to get hired by another multinational and leave for a more affluent pastures.
It wasn't until people realized to took more to build offshore workforces. You have to build teams of people, you have to support their families (especially is south east asia), you need to provide benefits and incentives for them to stay in their home town. But most of all you need to become part of the local community. Otherwise you will always be a naive multinational to be taken advantage of as long as it's convenient. And the intelligent and driven people, the exact people you want to hire there, all know this.
I can see the exact same thing playing out in the WFH movement, with managers proclaiming that now that they can hire anywhere they can do away with much of the support and non-financial compensation inherit to office work. But they will run head first into the same problems as offshoring. A job is more than money, especially in an creative/problem solving industry like software development (and if you disagree, you are lying to yourself), your work, your colleagues and your company shape you, (should) support and reflect on you to all future employers. Loyalty has to be earned, and if all you are doing is relying on salary for this, then your loyalty is worth the dollars between you and your competitor.
My view is that we'll settle on a bimodal steady state. With WFH first companies that put in the time, money and effort needed to support a remote workforce. And traditional office work (with maybe a bit more flexibility) going back to full time face to face. I don't think the hybrid model can work.
- throwawayboise 4y ago> the second you've trained a person from that area to the point that you are happy, they will quit Isn't this a significant problem with developers in the USA also? I keep hearing the advice to change jobs every year or two in order to keep building skills and compensation.
- 4887d30omd8 4y agoIt is. It’s one reason why the job market for experienced developers may be hot while juior developers are unable to find work. A company has little incentive to train someone who will likely quit.
- krageon 4y agoIt depends, a lot of modern companies (perhaps even most) have lost the ability to see workers as people. Turns out when you treat people like objects, they won't like you and will leave the moment someone comes along that treats their "property" better. This is less of an issue for the rare companies that still see you as a person to be investing in.
- dyingkneepad 4y agoNot exactly, because most of the good growth opportunities are in the US, so you have a reason to stay in the same company if you can see that dangling promotion carrot. If you're an offshore employee (even if you work for the, e.g., Elbonian subsidiary of the US company), you know you don't really have much opportunity to grow and get the cool projects or become part of management. You see your US teammates all growing and up, and you know that by staying outside you won't. So after you get experience, you find a way to either be transferred to the US within the company (which is great since L1 visas are cooler) or show your nice shiny new resume to the other employers who may want to sponsor you, now that you have experience working for Path-E-Tech Corporation.