Thread: Why do pink slips turn red in techie land?

[This article concerns temporary skilled workers here on the H-1B visa. Note the lifestyle and sense of entitlement]

Why do pink slips turn red in techie land?

First Published : 20 Dec 2008 10:39:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 20 Dec 2008 11:06:16 AM IST

The pink slip is actually red. Last Wednesday, in the Valley on business, I caught up with a techie family anxiously awaiting news about whether or not the breadÂ*winner of the family still had his job. Two hours into the wait that began at 9 am, the phone rang and the proverbial Damocles sword came crashing down.


Techie Umesh informed his wife he had been pink-slipped. Her composure crumbling, she asked him to drive home carefully. Watching a tense Umesh walk in, I wondered just what protocol the Big Corps followed when laying off employees overnight.

The ashen faced techie revealed that some of his friends at Yahoo who were laid off saw the writing on the wall when they received requests (from seniors) to be in the office by 9 am. Also, if one could not make it, the person was to ensure he or she was available on the cellphones for the next six hours.

Appalling. So if you were unable to come in, or take calls for some calamitous reason, would you be left a voicemail informing you your job no longer existed? Was the four-month or five-month severance package supposed to be the balm for your wounds? Worse still, some firms have gag orders against discussing the “pink slip processâ€

Been there, done that.

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

Techie Umesh informed his wife he had been pink-slipped. Her composure crumbling, she asked him to drive home carefully. Watching a tense Umesh walk in, I wondered just what protocol the Big Corps followed when laying off employees overnight.

Poor "Techie Umesh"...

Back in 1996 I was showing poor "Techie Umesh" how to download demos of Frontpage and Photoshop so he could learn how to make web pages. Then poor "Techie Umesh" got together with his fellow countrymen and had me laid off. On my last day of work "Techie Umesh" told me that I should leave work early (please), since it was my last day, and that they had pizza in the break room to celebrate my leaving. (There was even a vegetarian pizza for poor "Techie Umesh".) Free diet Pepsi. Can I take one of these unopened two liter bottles? Sure. When I went back to my cubicle to empty out my desk before leaving, poor "Techie Umesh" had already opened the case of my computer and was gutting out any hardware he needed to soup up his own computer; more memory; additional hard drive (with my huge library of software on it).

Poor, poor "Techie Umesh".

Right before leaving I said good-bye to "Techie Umesh" (but I refused to shake his hand. Somehow he didn't care). I asked him if there was anything I could have done to keep my job. He told me that I needed to know SQL. If I had known SQL, I could have kept my job. But I told Techie Umesh I already knew SQL. If knowing SQL was an issue, why wasn't I asked if I knew it? But Techie Umesh didn't have an answer.

Good-bye, "Techie Umesh", been good knowin' ye! Have a safe journey back to your native land. If your paper work lets you stay in the US, I hope your voyage through the land of donut shops, fast food burger politics and temporary pizza delivery jobs is a safe one!

God bless!

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

[This article concerns temporary skilled workers here on the H-1B visa. Note the lifestyle and sense of entitlement]

Why do pink slips turn red in techie land?

Good comment below. Why do Indians think they should be allowed to travel to the US but US citizens can't be allowed to travel to India to work? Wouldn't it only be fair?

"The H-1B is far more fortunate than the native U.S. worker when pink slips are given out. H-1Bs can go back to their native countries, which is what they agreed to do, since their visa was supposed to be temporary. Did they not know and agree to this? The native worker, on the other hand, must suffer the humiliation of job losses and homelessness with nowhere to run. Last I checked, India does not allow U.S. workers to go there and look for work unless they can prove that their job is to facilitate the offshoring of more jobs to India. "

A number of people on other boards I'm on have actually tried calling Indian consulates about getting work permits so they can go work in India. Once the consulate discovers that they are not of Indian origin, the conversation is over.