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What happened to IT is the same thing that happened to blue-collar workers. They’ll use you until they actively create a lower cost labor market.
by Podgajski 3y ago
What happened to IT is the same thing that happened to blue-collar workers. They’ll use you until they actively create a lower cost labor market.
- medo-bear 3y agoBut they can't do that to us, we went to uni and refused to unionise!
- hprotagonist 3y ago“there’s a power in the union..”
- mc32 3y agoIT is one of the easiest to off-shore; how would a union help?
- Podgajski 3y agoUnions can make deals as part of the labor contract that they will not offshore their jobs. https://www.dallasnews.com/business/technology/2017/03/03/with-new-union-deal-att-reverses-offshoring-of-thousands-of-jobs/?outputType=amp https://www.dallasnews.com/business/technology/2017/03/03/wi...
- bequanna 3y agoOk, so forcing a company to lock in high costs while non-union competitors can use offshore. Can you explain how this would even work? Why would any company agree to this?
- acdha 3y agoOffshoring projects very commonly fail because companies dramatically overestimate the savings and underestimate the cost of communications, company culture, and experience. If you have a workforce which is delivering good results, there’s often a solid benefit to continuing that rather than chasing a mirage.
- bequanna 3y agoNot my experience at all. I've been part of successful offshoring at a few different companies. It wasn't "one and done", that is, we had to try different countries, different subcontractors, etc but it is totally possible to maintain quality AND lower engineering costs by 50-75% by offshoring. For those interested, my best experience has been with workers in LATAM countries. Pry 75% were Brazilians. Great timezone and culture match also most of them have good written/spoken english.
- acdha 3y agoI’m not saying it’s impossible but that it commonly fails due to those reasons. Timezones are a common source of problems but I’ve also seen a fair number of problems which basically boiled down to outsourcing putting more stress on existing management problems such as inability to produce specs or delegate, and micromanagement were amplified by distance and cultural barriers. Basically the organizational equivalent of saying “our monolith sucks, let’s use microservices” without first contemplating how the existing system got that way.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoHow does an offshore employee set up a new workstation for a tech illiterate employee?
- mc32 3y agoThose guys and gals get paid $25, 30/hr. This is like asking how are they going to offshore McDonalds workers when discussing moving steel production overseas.
- medo-bear 3y agoIT is also one of the easiest to disrupt by industrial action. Immagine a Go-Slow in Amazon for example. Lol
- yesdocs 3y agoYes, there is a power in a union and it’s about time we unionize and unite SWE before AI takes our rights and jobs.
- qwerasdf5 3y agoWhich right is AI going to take from us?
- YetAnotherNick 3y agoHow would unions increase employment unless unions make employees less productive. You could claim that they increase employee's wellbeing, salary and make the job better, but it would likely have inverse effect for ease of getting the job. e.g. Film and fashion industries are unionized, but getting to them is significantly harder than software engineering.
- sailfast 3y agoOnly if the union shop can ship faster than the non-union shop.