IBM: Women at the iconic firm listened at a leadership conference in India. US employees facing layoff have been offered the chance to apply for positions abroad - at local wages.
(Aijaz Rahi/AP)Photos (1 of 1)
For laid-off IBM workers, a job in India?
An IBM program offers some incentive to relocate. Americans who have migrated overseas find less pay – but a good lifestyle.
By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer/ March 26, 2009 edition
Reporter Ben Arnoldy discusses how an Indian outsourcing company is using an American literary classic to help Indian employees deal more effectively with Western clients.
Reporter Ben Arnoldy
IBM announced a major round of US layoffs on Thursday, even as the company has been hiring workers in developing nations like India.
But over the past year, the company began offering US workers who are facing a job cut a novel carrot: If you apply for a new IBM position in a foreign country and are hired again at local wages, we will cover some of the transition costs like visa fees.
Few IBMers have taken the offer, and the firm has taken public relations lumps over it. But a handful of pioneering Americans at other firms have started to shop their skills on the Indian market, finding fulfillment and job security at a time of deep recession back home.
The IBM offer hints at a future where it’s not just skilled Indians who might have to travel halfway around the globe for a job. It’s likely that more American job seekers will have to think globally, say analysts, and the experiences of Americans who have taken jobs with companies here say it’s not something to fear.
“I was making six figures when I left the States. I’m making six figures here – in rupees,” laughs Jeanne Heydecker, a marketing executive now living outside of Delhi and working at her third Indian company. The salary for this single mother actually translates to roughly $50,000 a year. But it would be a mistake to suppose her quality of life has gone down.
Most everything she could want is available in Delhi. The healthcare, she says, has been top-notch and bottom-dollar. And like most Westerners and wealthy Indians here, she is able to hire people to cook, clean, and drive for her.
“You can come home from work and focus on your family, not on maintaining the car and the housework,” she says.
She left Chicago in 2007 after realizing that she was bored at work and didn’t see companies nearby that were hiring “new people to do new things.” Through the social-networking site Linkedin.com and Skype, Ms. Heydecker talked with the head of a Calcutta technology company who eventually hired her sight unseen.
Not yet a well-worn path
Hers is not yet a well-worn path. But in the coming decades, it will be, says Arvind Panagariya, an expert on the Indian economy at Columbia University in New York.
“Does the average American [worker] think globally? No. I don’t think we’re at that stage yet. But it will happen,” he says. “Such a massive technological revolution will cause the borders to blur, if not disappear.”
So far, there isn’t much evidence of Americans expanding their search beyond places less like Peoria and more like Pune.
“In previous recessions, we have seen such an increase in interest in overseas jobs, but not this time,” says Lisa Hystad, publisher of the International Career Employment Weekly. “Perhaps that is due to the many news stories stating that the economic downturn is worldwide.”
In IBM’s case, fewer than 20 people have taken up the offer for help in locating a new IBM job overseas, estimated company spokesman Doug Shelton, speaking Monday before the latest layoffs. He declined to make any employees available for interviews.
But the jobs in places like India are worth considering, Mr. Shelton suggested, saying that the cost of living is lower and international experience is highly prized in a global marketplace.
“It didn’t go down very well,” says Lee Conrad, a national coordinator with the Communication Workers of America who is trying to unionize IBM. “It was like people felt they were seeing not only their jobs offshored but their citizenship offshored.
“It’s definitely a huge loss in wages to the American worker,” he adds. “I think that’s why it isn’t being so readily accepted. In years past, IBM would transfer an employee to another country, but they would stay with their US wages. That’s changed.”
Mr. Conrad adds that IBM workers are upset at having to train Indians to do their jobs, only then to be laid off.
The sizzle of India’s growth has slowed some, declining to 5 percent this year. Prices for outsourcing services, a key industry in India’s new economy, could be slashed up to 20 percent by 2010, according to Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn.
Still, there remains a whiff of opportunity in the air in places like Pune, a mid-sized city in southern India that feels far from America’s economic doldrums. Construction cranes tower in the sky and spools of cable and piles of pipes line the roads as apartment buildings, office buildings, and hotels continue to be built.
In one of the new office high-rises, Mindcrest, a legal outsourcing firm, has recently hired three Americans – and has plans to hire more Westerners in the coming year. Like Heydecker in Delhi, the three women are mid-career and weren’t sent here on a temporary foreign rotation by a multinational firm back home.
“The [jobs] situation back home doesn’t make me want to go back,” says Michelle Vega, an attorney in her mid-30s who hears friends in the US describe businesses closing and mass layoffs. “I’d rather stay in Pune where people are still happy.”
It’s perhaps doubly surprising to be employed in a happy workplace when the office is a large room filled with hundreds of lawyers sitting at cubicles. The company hires mostly Indian attorneys to provide basic legal services – such as research, document reviewing, and contracts management – to large companies and law firms in the West.
Ms. Vega and her American counterparts Deirdre Byrne and Rana Rosen help the Indian attorneys understand what the Western clients want. None of them believe their work takes away American jobs, but say it instead frees young lawyers in the US from some early-career drudgery.
Over lunch, the three women laugh about stashing pine nuts, manila folders, and lint-remover rolling pins in their luggage when they come back from visits home. There are other challenges: power cuts, the bureaucracy of setting up basic services like a cellphone, and the more pervasive scenes of deep poverty on the street here.
Demanding job, nice lifestyle
But Ms. Byrne, who has worked as a high-powered Manhattan attorney and a realtor for Sotheby’s in the Hamptons, sums up the consensus: “We have a very nice life, and for a fraction of the costs at home” – even with smaller salaries.
She stresses that the work is demanding “on the scale of a New York law firm,” but comes with a “bonhomie” generally absent from Big Apple offices.
As for why more Americans are not considering work abroad, expatriates here admit it grows more complicated for those with more family ties.
Heydecker’s teenage son had to give up friends and skateboarding but has adjusted well, she says. She adds that the advantages to working abroad are often not communicated well.
“I don’t think companies like IBM are getting people in touch with those who are out here doing it, and showcasing those success stories,” says Heydecker. “It can be isolating in the beginning, but eventually, your life is pretty sweet. It all depends on how open your mind is.”
( More stories )
Comments
2. Jeffrey Greene | 03.26.09
Nice to see that someone is writing about these opportunities. Is there a limit on age? I am retired from another profession. What opportunities are available? I like travelling and interacting with other cultures.After retiring, I taught English as a Second Language and was surprised to learn that so many populations remain very interested in learning English. Many of my students were very well educated professionals. I often used your articles in the classroom to share international information and as an opportunity for students to practice reading and improve their vocabulary and pronuciation skills.
3. Rich in Calif | 03.26.09
I retied from IBM in 1997 after 30 years of service. When I joined IBM they told us that we would spend “at least” 10% of our time with the company in some sort of training so we’d be equipped to handle the future. I’m sorry to say it appears IBM has chosen the path of least resistance and most profit by sending jobs overseas. IBM employees are no longer loyal to IBM because the company is no longer loyal to them. It’s understandable that low skilled jobs would be farmed out. However, importing H1B employees is just another excuse for not spending the money and time to train your own employees for the future jobs. I’m glad I no longer have to work in this environment at IBM. Time will tell if this will make IBM “just another company” instead of the great company it was in the past.
4. Uncle B | 03.26.09
You know the economy is fried when the intelligentsia start jumping ship at third world ports! Next, our cars will come from China, and even before GM’s corpse is cool, China is at the door. SEE:
China’s New Hybrid Cars: Almost Affordable in China
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/chinas_new_hybrid_electric_cars.php
AND:
“The astounding Chinese have epoched the great GM, of U.S.A. in producing an Electric/gas/plug-in car! They are driving them in the streets of China as we speak, they will be retailed in the U.S.A. by 2011, they will cost half the price of a “Volt” and they are “On Order” for Israel! GM, take a deep breath, your naughty parts have just been cut off by a Chinese high-tech competitor, and the “Volt” is still “Vapor-ware”!” See:http://www.cleantech.com/news/3983/chinas-byd-sells-first-mass-produced-plug-cars
The President himself said our schools rated very poorly in the world, and we did not compare as students! China has more post-graduate students with IQ’s of 130+ than the U.S.A. has high school students, dropouts included! And, there are more people in China that speak English than the U.S.A. has people - period! More than the end of the cheap oil era is hitting the U.S.A., even the Indian sites agree, although the American Military Machine is the most powerful ever know to mankind, the Americans simply do not have the military personnel to man it! and it becomes a “White Elephant, rusting and mothballed for posterity in yards through-out the U.S.A.! China is about to demand “collateral” for loans to the U.S.A. knowing full well the Americans are broke and have little of value to offer. The next few years will see unhappy transformations in the very fabric of America and leaving for a good secure high-tech job in India or other parts of Asia might be the best bet going. Sadly, we witness the fall of another great Empire and await as China emerges to replace it on the world scene. Sad but true.
5. Rudy | 03.26.09
It’s very sad but these companies don’t give a crap about American workers. We are here to pay taxes, go to war and defend the interests of these emerging countries like India. My fellow Americans do not despair we can still continue going after “illegal aliens” for their jobs wetting the grass and cleaning the toilets BECAUSE THESE ARE THE ONLY JOBS THAT ARE GOING TO BE LEFT FOR US. When it comes to the issue defending these good jobs going to India we are lazy and lack the courage to fight back.
How come we are so good when it comes to moving voters to elect a president but we are so lazy to defend our way of life.
6. Mr. Jack C. Neale | 03.27.09
In 2004, when my wife and I decided to take early retirement, we knew social security and a small pension would not go far in the U.S. We felt we had a lot of knowledge and experience to share with people but that was not in demand in the U.S. We decided to return to Thailand where we had lived in the early 1970’s. Living and working in Thailand is both comfortable and rewarding. Comfortable in the sense that the way of life is much easier here and the cost of living is much cheaper. Rewarding in that we are helping people who really appreciate what we do for them. My wife volunteers with different organizations and I teach at a local school.
Our monthly income is a small fraction of what we made in the U.S., however, we can live a much better life here in Thailand. There has never been a day gone by that we have regretted making the move to Thailand.
As the author of this article points out, “It all depends on how open your mind is.” I work with many expats here in Thailand and that is true, you have to love people and be willing to learn new ideas and ways of living. You can not bring your American way of life with you. You must be able to adapt to your new culture. The adjustment can be very rewarding and you can enjoy a wonderful life abroad.
8. Wupta | 03.27.09
IBM is an American company. It was incubated by US taxpayers money and has major government contracts. Laying people off to send the jobs abroad seems a little ungrateful, oops wait a minute this is a corporation what was I think of? I have lived in India for 7yrs. There is nothing wrong with India, it’s just not the United States. It seems nationality and citizenship is the next Union that the corporations need to crack to get at more profits. Where’s Hugo Chavez we need a little help here.
9. newbalance | 03.27.09
The falling dollar will take care of this. China will eventually have to write-off large protion of the US debt and IBM will not save a dime unless they relocate workers to Ghana.
10. alainb1 | 03.27.09
A new life awaits you in the Off-World colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure…New climate, recreational facilities…absolutely free. Use your new friend as a personal body servant or a tireless field hand — the custom tailored genetically engineered humanoid replicant designed especially for your needs. So come on America, let’s put our team up there…
11. Virgil | 03.27.09
Let’s send our lawyers and politicians to other countries to work, and start fresh here…
12. Nik | 03.27.09
Business is about creating value for people (and societies), not about creating jobs for their own sake. I’m not willing to pay more than I have to for the goods and services I consume - why should a business pay more than it has to for the goods and services (and people) it needs.
The shifting of labour markets is the natural consequence of the global economy we have all supported for decades as a way of gaining access to markets and resources. No different than the millions who have migrated to the U.S. over the years to pursue economic opportunity.
13. Nina | 03.27.09
This is what the unions are doing to the American worker. It’s not IBM alone many companies are firing due to Obama’s policies and the threat of card check. Many companies will leave as well as the hands of goverment thread into the private sector.
14. Mekhong Kurt | 03.28.09
Nik may be a little blunt in saying “Business is about creating value for people (and societies), not about creating jobs for their own sake,” but the underlying principle is true.
Companies, particularly publicly-held ones, are not social welfare organizations.
I live outside the U.S., and have for years (China and Thailand). Why? Even once I obtained a master’s degree, in English, the job market was wretched. And that was in the go-go 1980’s. And no one was hollering that some outfit ought to give me a job (nor, indeed, should one, absent any need for anything I might be able to do).
I’ll head off one potential criticism before it evens arises. My personal situation allowed me to retire when I was 46. Every single cent of my “retirement” income is from rental property in the U.S., not from any public or private pension, including not social security, for which I’m too young. And counting all levels, just shy of 40 cents of every dollar I receive goes for taxes. So, even from halfway around the world, I am doing something for my country. On the private level, the professional costs associated with owning rental property goes to American* ones — my lawyer, property manager, accountant, etc.
So, I feel globalization is the wave of the future, but I don’t see that as necessarily meaning the U.S. has to go *down,* but that maybe other countries can go *up.* Look at what we did in Europe and Japan after World War II, effectively binding Germany and Japan to us for decades, and improving their people’s lots substantially. Which eventually provided markets for our products, made by American workers.
Moving abroad isn’t for everyone, of course, and it can be darned tough. But that doesn’t mean we should engage in foreigner-bashing or criticisms of Americans who do choose to explore other countries.
15. JackP | 03.28.09
I do hope that the last American leaving turns out the lights and flushes the toilets.
16. Mike | 03.28.09
>>“I was making six figures when I left the States. I’m making six figures here – in rupees,” laughs Jeanne Heydecker, a marketing executive now living outside of Delhi and working at her third Indian company. The salary for this single mother actually translates to roughly $50,000 a year
$50,000 a year is about 2,500,000 rupees. The typical white collar professional job in the US offshored to India would pay in dollars 1/10th to 1/7th, maybe 1/5th, of what it paid in the US. So, if you were making $100,000 in the US, expect to make somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000 in India for the same work (and this is really pretty high - I have seen a lot lower). Ms Heydecker’s situation is more akin to that of an Expatriate making a non-local salary than to a typical white collar Indian salary. Even her duties as described sound like a very specialized position that is not what most of the IBM employees would be dealing with.
17. Jeanne Heydecker | 03.28.09
I have to agree with Nik. It’s a solid business decision. Employees with a global point of view and experience will be highly sought after in the years to come. Acting as if globalization can be stopped is quite harmful to the future. Americans need to understand that they have to be part of the global economy and work with it. Having employees in other countries makes companies stronger, not weaker. Right now, the jobs Americans take overseas are management level and require mentoring and other soft skills like knowledge of their own culture that are not readily available in other countries. We are needed here. Why not make the change? I did it and have, in all aspects, been quite successful. I recommend it to anyone with an open mind and a sense of adventure.
18. Michael | 03.29.09
Remember when we were supposed to get Computer Science degrees for the jobs of the future? Remember that? I did. I work at Microsoft. More and more we are using “contracts” with vendors to restrict hiring to effectively only Indians and Chinese. Then we move those teams back to India and China.
Soon we will have no jobs here. America will be a shell. It will truely be a “ownership” society. There will be the owned and the owners. Its the second rising of slavery.
And Americans just sit around on their asses while it happens. They are getting what they deserve.
19. SEHar | 03.30.09
IBM is now trying to patent their offshoring system that maximizes government subsidies while sending jobs overseas!
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090330/BIZ/903300315
20. arun kumar shukla | 04.01.09
HI…
I’M ARUN KUMAR SHUKLA,I’M PURSUING MY B.E.(FINAL YEAR),IBM IS A DREAM COMPANY FOR ME.I WISH TO IBM A REASON TO BE PROUD OF ME.
I’M AGREE TO WORK WITH YOU IN ANY CONDITIN.
21. Nirupama | 04.03.09
Indeed a good article. What the article hints is also on mindset .What quality of life you are living is more important than WHERE you are working .
India gives you all opportunities of living life kingsize .adaptability and thriving in difficult times is the need of the hour.
I go to US and earn more and Work more -No quality life as i am the maid /car cleaner/gardener etc VS Stay in India earn what you deserve ..may be more and spend QUALITY time with family …
nk
22. B Ghosh | 04.04.09
“You can not bring your American way of life with you. You must be able to adapt to your new culture.”
This is very true.
As a corollary, may I suggest that Americans seriously consider ammending the ‘American (synonymous with highly consumptive)’ way of life in America to have a better chance of survival of their jobs within America?
As for US$50K PA salary in India, it is not that uncommon these days among middle and senior management cadre, depending on the industry you serve. The point is, with that kind of money or even less, one can live a more comfortable life in India than one can in the US. Average Americans need to open their eyes to look beyond their own shores and learn to adapt.
23. kimmy | 04.06.09
I was laid of from IBM in December with no offer of a job anywhere - just the knowledge that if I didn’t sign the client severance agreement (6 weeks severance pay, and agree not to work for IBM for 6 months)I wouldn’t get jack. Nice, IBM! Instead of bring the jobs back to the US to boost the economy, you want to spin it as though there are “opportunities” in India.
Please!
24. tori | 04.26.09
I don’t understand why Americans will not defend their jobs here in America. At a time where more people have lost anything how can companies even think about exporting more American jobs to India?? My job just annouced they were sending some of my departments work over there. No one cares about America or it’s citizens. Neither do we as US citizens care about our rights for liberty and freedom. I have not understood why Americans have not gotten together to do something. Especially, at a time when so many are unemployed. Instead, each day they go to these job fairs to fight one another over miminum wage jobs, when they should be fighting employers who layoff American workers and hire overseas. These companies should be boycotted and plus I thought the next President Obama would do something about this.. Forget taxes, they should be charged with traitor charges and everything elese for abadnoning the U.S in these hard economic times. In fact, these companies are traitors to the US because for every worker laid off that is less money that will be spent and more banks who will have loans which can’t be paid on. Think people…”Use your brain, Use your brain” by tupac shakur
25. tori | 04.26.09
sorry for the misspelling those were typos and I didn’t bother to proofread until I finished typing
26. George Costanza | 05.17.09
Nik, you hit the nail on the head.
The world IS a “world economy” and there is no such thing as job security anymore. Business decisions have to be made such that the company survives. That’s the long and short of what’s happening with outsourcing.
LOYALTY??? That’s something that our parents and grandparents relied upon. These days, even unions can’t (and shouldn’t) guarantee long-term job security in order to protect the dead wood in a company. Look at the Big 3 automakers and where they’re at!
For some sad reason, many people out there seem to have a “the world owes me a living mentality.” Sorry, this surely isn’t the case anymore.
NOBODY… let me say that again, NOBODY owes you a living!
Boo hoo… suck it up and ADAPT! Otherwise, it’s nobody’s fault but your own.
This is the reality of life in the new GLOBAL economy.
27. PigDog | 09.05.09
Hi
I found the article very interesting. Personally I would like to live and work in another country for personal experience. However I can imagine most people would not want to leave there homeland. America has basically given away their future to satisfy corporate greed. They say that globalization is inescapable. That is pure lies, otherwise the world would have remained globalized for the last 2000 years via the Roman Empire. Globalization actually goes against basic human values of ethnicity and diversity. Do you think India is globalized. Absolutely not. They have very little in the way of imports. They are a fairly closed society that imports jobs from overseas and exports bytes. Globalization will end. As in this thread reasonable people are speaking out against it. I saw a talk by Nouriel Roubini predicting Deglobalization. It will happen in as few as 5 years, probably due to a military cue and martial law in the US.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
4. Is this the beginning of America’s brain drain? | Blackinformant.com - African-American culture, news commentary, politics | 04.06.09
8. RT @Blewy007: You REALLY need to read this. IBM offers Indian and Brazilian jobs to laid off American workers: features.csmonitor.com - Twitoaster | 04.19.09
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. richard green | 03.26.09
Now the propaganda begins. Lost your job? Things are better overseas.
Corporate America will start spinning the advantages of offshoring.
Congress won’t do anything, because they are owned by big business.
Wall street loves it. That don’t give ahoot for the American worker if it means bigger profits. What is left for the average American?
Maybe it is time for a second American Revolution.