IBM is going the way of American itself. . . At one time it was the icon of business. The blue shirt and tie became the IBM Uniform and set a standard for all IT companies to follow. They were the greatest - no they are becoming a self-serving, profit hungry shell of it's once great business model.
They are selling out America for profit. They were one of the few companies that showed a profit in 2009. Why? Not because of their good business practices, great product or superior service. Because they were off-shoring American jobs to India and South America where the labor force is cheaper.
Thousand of American's have lost their jobs with IBM. Not only full-time IBMers, but the contractors that they hire have suffered monthly notices of layoffs, hour reductions, wage reductions and reductions in benefits. All to bolster IBM's bottom line.
My husband is a contractor to IBM (hired through a third party vendor to work for IBM). In December of 08, a week before Christmas he was notified that the company he worked for would no longer be working with IBM and therefore his job was being eliminated. They gave him the name of another company that would be contracting to IBM and said there would be no restrictions if he went with them. With no other choice, he hired on with this company. To keep a job, he took a $5,000 cut in pay, the loss of his accrued senority for vacation time (5 weeks) and kept his fingers crossed that it would work out.
Since January 2009 - he has been laid off twice, and had over 5 hour reductions and mandatory time off without pay. Luckily, because of what he does for IBM his supervisors have been able to keep him from being laid off and up until this last reduction were able to keep his hours. But this last round of reductions have not been avoided. He now has been reduced to 34 hours a week, absolutelty no overtime and he has to take 4 non-paid days off before July 2. So basically they cut his pay 15%. But the projects he works on are dependent upon him. So he has a choice - work and not get paid, or let the projects he has created fail because he can't put the time in they need.
That's bad, but there's more. In January 2009 they were notified, with 2 weeks to make the decision, that their benefits would be increasing. For medical it went from approximately $700 monthly to $1300.00. Who the hell can afford to pay $1300 a month for medical benefits????? Not when you're making $60,000 a year.
So IBM cuts their own people and makes their contractors do the same all for a bottom line profit. Beware customers of IBM if your servers break or you need support you will be talking to India. What used to be repaired in 24 hours now will take days because the knowledge base of IBM has been destroyed. What used to have 15 on-site technicians now will have 3, with all other support coming from off-shore.
Why has our government allowed the off-shoring of our jobs to continue. Our unemployment rate increases, not only because business have stopped growing or gone out of business - because the money hungry giants are off-shoring good paying jobs to other countries. Also, IBM not only is off-shoring the jobs, they are bringing in cheap labor on H1B1 Visas. This is totally WRONG!!! To qualify for one of these Visas the company must indicate that they have tried to find qualified American workers, but were unable to and that is why they are brining in foreigners. You can't tell me that IBM can't find 20 qualified AMERICANS for each position they have available. But Americans are paid more, so I guess that makes them unqualified.
Monday, May 31, 2010
College & University's Rip Off
My daughter's a sophmore in college at a major university. First it's rediculous what the tuition is, but what makes that worse is the fact that so many of her "professors" aren't really professors. They are "part time lecturers" or worse graduate students. I don't pay over $3,000 a course for her to be taught by non-professional teachers. I pay that kind of money so she can get the best education! No so somebody can get part time money or pay off some of their tuition by teaching!
The other problem - and this problem is occuring everywhere - not just in college - is that the teachers are not engllish as a first language professors. Or to be policically incorrect - they're not Americans. Why do we have foreigners teaching in our institutions when I'm sure there are enough qualified American born teachers looking for the opportunity to be a professor. Her hardest courses (for her) math have all been taught by part-time, non-engligh speaking "teachers". The subject is hard enough for her, but then she has to deal with the problem of actually understanding them when they are lecturing.
Would it be too much to ask to have english speaking professors in an American institution???? Is is that hard to find qualified American teachers? Maybe this is why our country is behind in math and science compared to the rest of the civilized world. Because the institutions don't provide adequate instruction from elementary school on. The worse teachers my daughter has had have been math and science teachers. Then she gets to college and the same thing happens again.
Maybe instead of spending millions in sports stadiums and gyms and "pretty" buildings the universities could spend the money on hiring qualified teachers that the students are actually able to speak english and be actual teachers. Teaching is something that is learned, just because you're good at something does not mean you are able to actually teach it. It's like being a coach in a sport - just because you can play the sport well does not mean that you can teach it. For example: Magic Johson of the Los Angeles Lakers was a fabulous basketball player. When he retired from playing, he attempted to be a coach. It didn't work out. Teaching is the same - just because you can be a mathmetician, doesn't mean you can teach it.
So on top of the $3,000 for each course, I am having to pay additional for tutoring (outside of the university) so she can understand the material. Why outside the university - because their tutoring is again, not done by teachers - it's done by students that want to earn extra money. And again, just because they passed the course previously does not mean they can teach somebody else how to do it.
I just want to get what I'm paying for - if you give me a graduate student or a part time non professor - then charge me less because I'm getting less than I paid for!!
The other problem - and this problem is occuring everywhere - not just in college - is that the teachers are not engllish as a first language professors. Or to be policically incorrect - they're not Americans. Why do we have foreigners teaching in our institutions when I'm sure there are enough qualified American born teachers looking for the opportunity to be a professor. Her hardest courses (for her) math have all been taught by part-time, non-engligh speaking "teachers". The subject is hard enough for her, but then she has to deal with the problem of actually understanding them when they are lecturing.
Would it be too much to ask to have english speaking professors in an American institution???? Is is that hard to find qualified American teachers? Maybe this is why our country is behind in math and science compared to the rest of the civilized world. Because the institutions don't provide adequate instruction from elementary school on. The worse teachers my daughter has had have been math and science teachers. Then she gets to college and the same thing happens again.
Maybe instead of spending millions in sports stadiums and gyms and "pretty" buildings the universities could spend the money on hiring qualified teachers that the students are actually able to speak english and be actual teachers. Teaching is something that is learned, just because you're good at something does not mean you are able to actually teach it. It's like being a coach in a sport - just because you can play the sport well does not mean that you can teach it. For example: Magic Johson of the Los Angeles Lakers was a fabulous basketball player. When he retired from playing, he attempted to be a coach. It didn't work out. Teaching is the same - just because you can be a mathmetician, doesn't mean you can teach it.
So on top of the $3,000 for each course, I am having to pay additional for tutoring (outside of the university) so she can understand the material. Why outside the university - because their tutoring is again, not done by teachers - it's done by students that want to earn extra money. And again, just because they passed the course previously does not mean they can teach somebody else how to do it.
I just want to get what I'm paying for - if you give me a graduate student or a part time non professor - then charge me less because I'm getting less than I paid for!!
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