

Pink Slips at Disney. But First, Training Foreign Replacements - boh
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html?_r=0

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Splendor
Previous discussion on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653389](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653389)

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rubyrescue
This type of use of H1-Bs is really frustrating for people that legitimately
have developers who have a true need for the visa.

I've hosted FWD.us events, and I've applied for a number of H1-Bs (among other
visas). It's hard to advocate for immigration reform when you see abuse like
this.

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maplechori
Make it easier for H1-Bs to change jobs and companies will be less compelled
to bring underpaid foreign workers.

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theophrastus
Yes indeed. I worked with groups of Chinese chemists all on H1Bs. They had to
work ridiculous hours and assigned the most mind killing labor. If they made
trouble they were told they'd lose their job and it was deportation. Finally
the company fired all its non-H1Bs, including me; eventually giving up the
pretense and relocating overseas. Where was the department of labor and
industry? One of my coworkers contacted them and they wouldn't even return the
call. H1Bs are simply licenses for a form of slavery.

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joshstrange
This is why I'm EXTREMELY skeptical of companies calling for more H1-B's. I'm
all for making the path to citizenship easier but these companies don't give a
shit about that (However that's what they ACT like). They want cheap tech
workers who they can use to replace their American workers. There isn't a
shortage of tech workers, there are a shortage of tech workers that will work
for shit. It's outsourcing 2.0.

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civilian
The other discussion thread is talking a lot about the humiliation of having
to train your lower-cost foreign replacements, all mostly from India.

So my first thought is rebellion. I wonder if there's some cultural blind
spots that the trainers could exploit? It'd be the social equivalent of
leaving a timebomb in the software. Don't explain how to weigh the options of
which system to take down? Make the deployment system more obtuse? Make all of
the hard decisions for them during those three months, so even though the
trainees have been "doing the job", they haven't been exposed to any of the
hard decision tradeoffs that were made?

I imagine that it would be hard for management to spot this kind of
subversion.

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soylentcola
I understand that this is almost par for the course in corporate America (and
certainly elsewhere) but it's always a bit more striking when it involves a
company whose business is selling fun and entertainment.

I mean...Marvel movies! New Star Wars movies! Pixar movies! All of the
cartoons we loved as kids!

But yeah, their damage to U.S. copyright law and stuff like this always makes
for a quick reminder that even when your brand means "fun!" it's still based
in the calculating world of profits and shareholders.

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cpwright
I wish I could think of a good way to produce incentives that would negatively
affect Disney; but Disney isn't the one doing this hiring its Infosys. So
although Disney is reaping the benefits of Infosys's cheap labor; it is
Infosys who is using the H1-Bs. The added level of indirection makes it more
difficult in my mind to come up with a sane way to disincentivize this
behavior.

~~~
sopooneo
We have to trace the corporate call stack to find our point of blame.

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seldonPlan
I feel the article doesn't really capture the whole story. (My comment in the
other thread)...
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653389#9660767](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653389#9660767)

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ra1n85
What does this same scenario look like in 30 years?

Sorry to have to let you go, but please continue to perform your tasks so that
your roboplacement can learn your function?

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untothebreach
This is actually a (very) small plot point at the beginning of the book
'Sparrow' by Mary Doria Russell. A technician shadows you for an amount of
time, until he/she feels they know exactly how your job gets done. Then they
go off and teach an AI to do it.

~~~
sopooneo
It's roughly the underlying tension in Vonnegut's "Player Piano" as well.

