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The part about being a commodity, wearing business casual and not working remote is something that I experienced early in my career. So my thoughts and fears o

The part about being a commodity, wearing business casual and not working remote is something that I experienced early in my career. So my thoughts and fears of that time keep me motivated. All of us in tech right now are pretty lucky, but I suspect there are people in the industry that never experienced groveling for a job or having to toe the line. The idea of having to put on a tie or show up at exactly 9am is simply laughable! But, were the balance to change I have no doubt that is what we will all be doing. I've been enjoying the ride as much as anybody, but I'm sometimes surprised it's lasted even this long. Though I don't really agree with keeping the ride going by blocking immigration. I'm just not ready to join up with the "they took our jobs" crowd, even though it my be in my own, selfish interest. It doesn't seem that having an artificial shortage of workers is ultimately a good thing.

lgleason 12y ago
I remember those days and am really hoping that we don't end up back in that situation. Even as recently as 5 years ago I saw a shop that did exactly that in the gift card space here in the US. They were notorious for their semi business dress code, crazy hours, uncompetitive pay, culture of fear and had more H1B's than any other place I had ever seen. If anybody spoke up or didn't tow the line they were fired. I took a short term contract there during the peak of the recession and quickly moved on to something else, but the H1B's had no choice. Because of the economy a lot of Americans stayed because it wasn't obvious that there were other choices to them given the recession. When I was a kid my dad told me that in this capitalistic society, in business expect people to treat you the way they can afford to treat you. In the case of this company they could afford to tread you poorly at that point in time and they did. Was it wrong, yes. But if you are a commodity that has no options but to either get fired or shut up and tow the line more companies than not will treat you that way. H1B's are basically another form of indentured servitude the way they are currently implemented in the US. I'm not sure how to change that, but increasing their numbers is not the answer and is only going to make thing worse for everyone.

lgleason 12y ago

I remember those days and am really hoping that we don't end up back in that situation. Even as recently as 5 years ago I saw a shop that did exactly that in the gift card space here in the US. They were notorious for their semi business dress code, crazy hours, uncompetitive pay, culture of fear and had more H1B's than any other place I had ever seen. If anybody spoke up or didn't tow the line they were fired. I took a short term contract there during the peak of the recession and quickly moved on to something else, but the H1B's had no choice. Because of the economy a lot of Americans stayed because it wasn't obvious that there were other choices to them given the recession. When I was a kid my dad told me that in this capitalistic society, in business expect people to treat you the way they can afford to treat you. In the case of this company they could afford to tread you poorly at that point in time and they did. Was it wrong, yes. But if you are a commodity that has no options but to either get fired or shut up and tow the line more companies than not will treat you that way. H1B's are basically another form of indentured servitude the way they are currently implemented in the US. I'm not sure how to change that, but increasing their numbers is not the answer and is only going to make thing worse for everyone.