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Adobe's Cost Reduction Program

I worked for Adobe Systems in San Jose, CA from Oct-Dec 2005 in a software engineering group as a contractor. Upon starting work I noticed that the company was jammed to the ceiling with foreign guest workers - mostly from India and China. In IT positions in the company there were barely 15% Americans overall. Our tiny group was mostly Americans because all worked on a niche computing platform that doesn't focus on Windows. Most of my coworkers were Americans and my immediate boss was an American. However, his boss was from India and was apparently new to the company and had only been there about 5 months before I got there. In meetings I would notice that this senior Indian manager would constantly talk about "cross-training". The company had rooms full of foreign guest workers doing nothing but sitting around learning new skills, not developing products. I would notice many of these foreign workers often going to the office of the technical lead in our group to ask him how things were done. The senior Indian manager himself didn't really seem to know what he was doing as I would always hear him asking rudimentary development questions in the project manager's office adjacent to mine. One time I even heard him asking the project manager where he got a prerelease installation CD for Microsoft's upcoming operating system. The answer of course was "MSDN". The project manager was an American also. One would think a highly skilled, highly educated senior IT manager from India would know such basic IT information, but apparently not.

There was also another engineering manager in another group who appeared to be from Viet Nam. She spoke broken English and was difficult to understand at times. I was tasked with writing some software for her group. Upon starting the project I asked her for a project GANTT chart for the tasks I was to work on. A GANTT chart is a standard project planning tool used on all properly run software projects. She didn't even know what a GANTT chart was. Her idea of good software development practices was to send daily emails to developers saying "Oh and one more thing...". She of course went home at 6 every night so she could watch TV while we had to stay until midnight to struggle with the ensuing chaos she created. She didn't know the first thing about developing software. It does make one wonder why we are bringing these people into the country if they don't already possess the skills claimed.

After about two months Adobe acquired Macromedia and it was announced a few weeks ahead of time that there would be layoffs as a result of the merger. I didn't mind the layoffs so much as the way they happened and *who* was and was not laid off. I ended up getting laid off, as did my American boss, as did the American project manager in the office next to me. One other senior American Windows engineer in our group was laid off after being with Adobe 8 years. In a former life he had worked on the Xerox Star at PARC. Nope - no skills there! I guess he is one of the American workers who is not smart enough to work in American companies or one of the highly skilled American workers that companies claim they can't "find". In the end 5 people were laid off from our group. One was of Chinese descent but the other 4 were Americans - U.S. Citizens.

Two of the 4 laid off Americans in our group were REPLACED with two foreign Indian workers from within the company. One took my old manager's job, and one took the Windows installer engineer's job. The new Indian manager who replaced my boss came running around with a big smile on his face shaking everyone's hand the next day with glee introducing himself and telling everyone he would be managing the group "going forward". He could barely constrain his excitement. Both Indian workers were directly promoted to their new positions by the senior Indian manager in our group.

So in the end the senior Indian engineering manager took the merger and layoffs as a prime opportunity to slash Americans from the workforce, and to promote Indians into the same positions. I've seen this happen at nearly every company I've worked at. It's an American worker replacement program. These people coming into the country possess little or zero of the skills claimed. The real goal is to get them into the country, TRANSFER the skills of existing American workers to them first, and then lay off the American workers. This has been the case at nearly every software company I have worked at in the past 8 years. It's a mass skills transference plan on a national level. Of course, the CEOs and executives high up in these American companies are too ignorant and stupid to know that they are being conned, because all they see are the dollar signs from the money the Indians promise they will save. Of course in the end it never works because after 8 years of these shennanigans Silicon Valley is a wasteland of FOR LEASE signs.

None of these imported workers have delivered any of the economic benefits we were promised in 1998 when these programs were increased to mass levels. In fact, the opposite has happened. Instead of keeping the 90s booming economy going, these 3rd world workers have sucked it dry. Silicon Valley is dying and it is because these stupid companies are importing millions of fake workers under fraudulent pretenses and then the workers aren't producing anything. All the 3rd world workers know is "IT is a good way to get rich". So they come to Silicon Valley and the companies collapse. They move from company to company kicking out productive Americans, taking skills and money, and then not producing anything. When the company collapses they move on to the next one. One company after another goes under and the CEOs wonder why they can't make this business model work anymore.

The Indian workers could care less about whether they destroy the companies or not. All they care about is taking. As one Indian worker said "We have to get our money before the Chinese do". Yes, GET is their operative word. CREATE is not in their vocabulary. Meanwhile the very American workers who created the industry are deliberately being kept out of the workforce by managers like the senior Indian engineering manager at Adobe - so that unskilled Indian workers can have "jobs". What is actually happening is that these imported workers are enjoying the benefits of the 20 million jobs Americans created in the 90s long before they got here. The imported workers are enjoying having those jobs now but they are not maintaining them nor are they creating new ones. They are getting a free ride coasting on jobs Americans created. Meanwhile the very American workers who GAVE them these jobs are being kicked out of their own job market by the imported workers themselves. That is the way 3rd world gratitude works I guess. This entire thing has been a fraudulent racket from day one.

There are plenty of IT jobs in America - it's just that Americans are not being allowed to work in them and ones who are working in them are having their skills stolen from them and then they are being kicked out of the industry they have created. This is happening all over America on a huge scale. Americans can't find jobs because they are being deliberately excluded from their own job market by racist Indians who will only hire other Indians for positions in IT. Our government is either complicit in the process or else they are too stupid to know they are being conned also.

The fact that nearly none of these workers possess the skills claimed and the fact that they are being given skills from existing American workers means that these guest worker programs amount to fraud. They are intended to deceive the American people. Intent to deceive is fraud. All guest workers imported since 1998 should be deported immediately and the jobs be given back to American workers. Laws should be passed that impose criminal penalties and jail time for any American executive that participates in such acts of fraud. Imported guest workers who engage in such behavior should be banned from ever entering the country again.

Now you know the truth about these fraudulent guest worker visa programs. Greedy CEOs and executives are giving away America's most important economic engine to unskilled, uneducated 3rd worlders just so they can save a few bucks right now. These programs have been a total disaster for California's economy and for Silicon Valley. They should all be ended immediately before they destroy the U.S.

Chinese Spies at Intergraph

 If you will remember, I worked for Intergraph Corp and was laid off for H-1B's to get a job. If you will remember me telling you a long time ago about how my foreign supervisors were flooding the development operations with Chinese Nationals including ones we Americans on the project were reasonably sure were spies.

Here is how it went! The US Navy faced with a serious problem in the cost of production of US Warships hired Intergraph Corp in Madison, Alabama to write advanced production control software for the building of LPD-17 through LPD 25. LPD-24 and LPD-25 were damaged by Katrina when it landed on the Avondale shipyard in Louisiana. The rest of the series is completed. We did a DAMN good job on the software. We cut the cost of a warship by $4 Billion a ship. We cut the production time from something like 7 years to about 10 months. Some accomplishment for a team of just 36 persons! Especially because the savings was actually achieved in the most part by a team of 4 persons of which I was one. Not bad for a new BSCS Grad.

We also hired the Chinese to design the software which they pirated. When the project shifted from accelerated development into ship production the maintainance of the process was given entirely to Chinese and Indian nationals under management by French and Dutch managers. The software was pirated to China. The detailed design information most definitely was compromised. (stolen!) How would you feel when confidential US Government data is held in a lab where the foreigners are not even allowed in without an escort and the management and nearly all of the staff is in fact foreign? Of course the control was not in American hands. They laid off the Americans! This is at the very heart of this spy case you are reading about. This is what China stole in order to be able to absolutely know inside and out how our warships worked. They were in on their very most basic design.

I was there! This is the damn H-1B program at its brilliant best! For the Congress critters. They sold us down the river. For the President does the word TREASON come to mind? Its damn hard to keep the cows in when the barn door is ripped off. For our governmental idiots, " If you get us all killed because you leave our secrets in the hands of people, who do not have common citizenship with us, these damn Chinese nukes will fry your ass just as dead as they will fry me. You can't collect your pension after you have been blasted to plasma. It won't matter
what your GS number is then." Same message to our fine company management...!

To be painfully blunt this globalism has no loyalty to the USA. It is infact a bigoted racist position against the USA.

My problem is I was there. I cared.

Sincerely,
Paul Noel
 

Cisco's Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)

I worked for Cisco Systems of San Jose, CA for almost four years. I was the last American to work in the Oracle Database Administration department of approximately 25 individuals at this site. Almost all of the remaining DBAs are from India on H1-B visas. Other technical departments have extremely similar demographics and it is obvious to all that only Indians need apply for technical positions. Several times, I attempted to submit resumes of qualified candidates only to be told 'they wouldn't be a good fit' - and this was without interviewing or even looking at their resume beyond their names. I understand that even Indian US citizens were turned down for interviews when they mistakenly told Cisco representatives that they did not require sponsorship. I was given a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan), ironically enough, shortly before I had told several people that I was planning to leave the company soon as well as around the same time I sold a number of my stock options, a practice strongly discouraged by management as options become invalidated if an employee is terminated, saving the company large amounts of money. At my going away lunch, virtually the entire department, except for my manager who had also gotten rid of the earlier American DBAs, came to the lunch. I had very good relations with my Indian colleagues who could undoubtedly speak on my behalf as to my dedication, skills, and conscientiousness. When I was terminated, I was given a termination package but no reason was provided, despite my repeated requests. The best the PIP could do, was to say I did not answer my telephone by the third ring. The plan was followed but no matter what, I was told that it was not good enough. I was told that if I protested or considered legal action, my termination package would be revoked. If I was not planning to relocate, I would have pursued the company regardless as I was without doubt, discriminated against and very openly. Additionally, I was several years older than my manager as well as several years above the average of the generally younger group.

Stephen Kraus

My horror story...

I began my work in IT in 1982 but in 1989 I did a bachelors in Biology (from scratch) because I wanted to do biomedical research. In '93 I ended up at Harvard Medical School doing a Ph.D. in a biomedical research field.

Much to my surprise I found that the post-doc market was filled with folks from other countries and that my 'starting' salary as a post-doc fellow was going to be in the mid-20's.

In '96 I left and went back to IT full time, only to see H-1B and L-1 visa holders decimate IT and drive my salary down there as well. In a previous position I had my salary cut twice and because the market was lousy I had to accept it since I couldn't find a new position. When the third pay cut came (which resulted in a 50% cut from my original starting salary 3 years earlier), I couldn't afford my house payment anymore and resigned. The company was trying to get rid of me so they kept cutting my salary - it worked. They had my H-1B visa replacement waiting in the wings and he started the day I resigned - imagine that!

If the NSF or AAAS truly wanted to encourage US citizens to become scientists it would ask that those visa programs be stopped and living wages (including medical insurance) be given to US scientists.

But alas, all it wants is continued slave labor for research labs.

FWIW, of my incoming Ph.D. class - the majority of the ones who stayed in science were independently wealthy. Unfortunately I was trying to think ahead and see how I could raise a family making $25K a year. My conclusion (as many other in the field have likewise figured out) was that it was impossible.

While I have a great love of science and wish I could be doing biomedical research - I would rather have my wife and 3 kids live in a house in the suburbs rather than a rent-controlled 1 bedroom apartment in the inner city subsisting on food stamps - which was all I was going to be able to afford if I stayed in science.

I was out of work for 6 months but I am now gainfully employed in IT again but I don't know how long my dreams of keeping the house in the suburbs will last. My current company is looking to outsource some jobs to a company that ships work to India. With essentially zero openings (for US citizens) - IT is a very hard place to be right now.

Until the government changes the corporate welfare program and eliminates ALL H-1B, L-1 and any other visa schemes - the US labor force of citizens won't have a chance against foreigners who are more than willing to work for peanuts.

I personally feel that our elected representatives who are being paid by foreign nationals (Indian PAC's) are committing treason by selling out citizens for a few $$ in their re-election coffers.

A H1-b visa experience

I am sending you this email to share with you my personal experience with H1-B visas. Sometimes it is still difficult to talk about, but I am ready to now.

I have a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Purdue University. In the summer of 1999, I took a job as a scientist at a company called Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) in East Millstone, NJ. This company does toxicology and safety testing on new drugs and chemicals.

My starting salary was $45,000 a year, which was 25% lower than my wife's starting salary. She works in the same field for another company. After a six month probationary period, I was given an excellent performance review and a 11% raise (twice what was in my contract). When I interviewed with HLS, I was informed that if I was given a salary increase of 11% at the end of my probationary period that that would be an indication that the company was making a significant commitment to me.

During this time, my wife and I were expecting our second child. The baby was overdue and my wife’s physician scheduled to have her labor induced on Tuesday, July 25, 2000. I informed my supervisor of this and took two days of vacation over this time period. My little boy was born on the 25th. I was scheduled to return on Thursday, but as the physician was examining my little boy he found that he had a heart problem and would need to see a cardiologist for more tests. After completion of the tests the doctors discovered my little boy has a heart arrhythmia. I phoned my supervisor and told her the situation and said that I would be unable to come to work until the following day (Friday).

I returned to work on Friday and went back to my duties. At the end of the day, my supervisor (Vice President of Research) called and asked me to meet her in a conference room. I meet her in the conference room where she informed me that I was being dismissed from my job. I was escorted from the conference room to my office by security (at this firm, the maintenance staff was also the security detail) and told to pack belongings and was escorted from the premises.

The following day my friends and coworkers called to see what had happened. They were all very much in shock and afraid for their jobs. I received an overnight package from the Human Resource department on Monday. I was absolutely crushed to see that my termination letter was dated the day my little body was born. Fortunately, I did receive two months of severance pay. During the subsequent three year period, I have had only contract employment (a 3 month stint a large pharmaceutical company). I have become very frustrated and am considering changing careers.

I have also discovered (from the nomoreh1b.com web site) that HLS has 28 H1-B visa holders, approximately 15% of their work force, including my supervisor (why is a vice president of a company on a supposedly temporary visa program?). Although I am not 100% sure, I believe that I was replaced by an H1-B visa holder, as she is from Japan. My replacement also received her degree from the same institution as my supervisor. In my opinion, this company is at the very least abusing the H1-B visa program, if not outright breaking the law.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Your web site is great! Keep up the good fight.
 

Downsizing and outsourcing

I have been reading and hearing the stories about outsourcing and downsizing. Here is my story. I want to keep myself anonymous, as my story did not go out of our four walls.

I migrated to US about 22 years ago from India. In
India I tried for 6 years to find a job after finishing my Masters degree. Because of rampant corruption, nepotism, political infuences (which I was lacking, and aginst my concious) I could not find a job. Then God listened to my prayers and I got an opportunity to come to this Land of Opportunity. After I came here, I was facinated by computers and technology, which I had never even seen a key board in India, and pursued my career. I worked $3 an hour to finance my ambitions.

I finished my BS, and MS Computer Science and positoned in a good job. I was even pursuing my Ph.D in Computer science. But all of a sudden these Indian labor started flooding here. They do not have a formal degree in computers, all they have is a one month programming training in some garage. Some of them not even have college degree and started making more money ( $80 - $100 an hour). I was frustrated with the situation and questioned myself that why I am wasting time in doing Ph.D, and making much lower salary than those high school graduates, and I dropped out.

In the mean time Indian colleges realized the computer boom and introduced a new program called 'Master in Computer Applications (MCA)' which is a one year diploma after high school. Indians started taking this course, and convinced US corporations that they have Masters degree in computer science. US corporations thought they are getting an MCA (Masters) for cheaper rate than what they are paying to BS computer science programmer, and started replacing them. At workplace where I used to work 9 out of 12 team members are H1-B Indians. They literally shine my
manager's shoes. Because the company has to sponsor
their green cards. They lie about qualificatins and
experience. One guy said he has been in Computer field
since 1983 in India. In India there were no PCs until 1987. The term 'computer program' was never heard there until 1988. Another "software engineer's" resume says he has been working as a software engineer since 1995 in Bank One. But his passport shows his date of entry to US as 1998. I have scores of such examples about these so called H1-B software engineers and their qualifications. "An Honest H1-B Indian" is good oxymoran in English language.
 

My wife and I have two masters degrees each in computer science, and engineering. Our combined salary was $230K till October 2003. One fine morning, the bomb (downsize) exploded- we both got laid off on the same day (we were working for different corporations). Today, our income is 'ZERO'. We could not even find minimum wage jobs. We are victims of outsourcing. No third soul knows about situation. Because it spreads fastly to back home and to old age parents.

I was interviewed couple of times by TCS, and Wipro, and they almost offered me the job. But the minute I told them that I am US Citizen, they said their project was on hold. So far I have not heard even single H1-B guy who is unemployed. Downsizing is effecting only US citizens. In my case, I was replaced by a H1-B. These Indian outsourcing companies are bribing the IT managers and successfully get their job done. The prime element that drove me out of India (corruption), is agin drove me out of my job.

I am ashamed of myself to call I am an Indian.

Sidelined By India