worst of the worst…

I saw this morning a story about Oliver, on CNN, who had been fired while he was on vacation, and is suing his former employer on the basis of Age Discrimination. I wrote to him, and to CNN the following:

to eolivercnn@gmail.com
cc cnnnewsroom@cnn.com
date Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 3:56 PM
subject age & cultural discrimination

Hello Oliver (& CNN news room)

I just saw the CNN presentation of your case. Let me say, right off that (unfortunately) I don’t have a job for you, but wish I did. I am looking for work myself, was infuriated (or inspired) by your story, and have specific experience with this issue. Most of the noise in the news has been about sub-prime mortgages, or the insolent behaviour of the corporations in dispensing bonuses, but there is significant evidence as to a core reality that leads us to the current explosion of discriminatory practice, specifically in technology.

Anyone in the technical fields (programming,systems,testing) has known for years that the outsourcing to India (and other countries, but particularly India) of technical services has been implemented by the major banks and financial institutions to reduce operation expenses, providing short-term increase in profits, and sadly, reducing the quality of products and services by these same companies to businesses, consumers and stockholders. There is a booming industry in India in ‘training’ software ‘experts’ in preparation for providing inexpensive services to American and European corporations. This is a broad statement, I know, but I will attempt to connect the dots.

Being a senior technical professional, over 40, but nonetheless experienced and qualified beyond the requirements stated in all jobs I am applying for, I have had several instances in these past 4 years of being laid off or rejected for positions because 1) I have not been an Indian, and 2) because of my age. I say this, aware it may be inflammatory, and can’t prove anything of course, but it is true.

Starting big time in 2002, executives in many of the major corporations were rewarded with bonuses because they reduced costs by outsourcing internal operations. This started with customer service, and now we have many stories of a customers who call the help line and are ’serviced’ by someone who can’t speak English, and tell us their name is ‘John Smith’ (really, I have had that one). There are exceptions, of course. GoDaddy, for example, has an exemplary help desk, and all their operators speak clear English.

Though I am over 40, I don’t actually look my age, and several times have been hired, or engaged as a consultant, only to be relieved when an Indian manager took over the project I was working on. This has happened at least four times in the last four years. I have been in the business a long time, never experienced any sort of discrimination until 4 or 5 years ago when Indian managers started coming in to run the technical operations. Thinking this was due to some lack of expertise on my part, I continually set myself to exceed expectations and excel in my skills, only to be once again, hired by a non-Indian manager, then fired when an Indian manager took over. Thinking again it perhaps was age-related, I nevertheless persued my professional goals, did not take it personally, and persevered. My personal economic fragility has been going on for years.

Now, in a recent interview, after hours of technical clearance, significant conversations with multiple senior executives, and indication that I was the leading candidate, I was rejected only when I submitted my info as to DOB and SS# for a security background check. I have no issues in my security, so this to me, indicates I was rejected soley on my age.

So, if I am not Indian, and I am too old (even though I do not look it), I am left out of opportunity to work in my chosen field, and I see evidence that those that are practicing in my field are providing sub-standard work. My specialty is Software Quality Assurance, meaning I test and provide assurance that software programs are technically sound, correctly presented, and provide the user with professional and correct behaviour. Not the least of these is the verification of correct spelling and grammar in public documents, including websites, manuals, emails, advertisements, announcements and internal documents.

So, while looking for work, I continuously run into mal-functioning submission forms, mis-spelled instructions, and, most upsetting of all, extremely bad spelling, grammar and open disclosure of unacceptably sub-standard skills and offensive inappropriate material in the services provided by my competitors!. I do, as a matter of due diligence in looking for work, examine the competition, to see what I’m up against.

Example: an Indian Testing Service/QA Educational Site available for hire gives out porn in their forums:
http://www.enjoytesting.com/

Example: an IT Compliance Officer asks how to do her job: “Can any body shares the user management best practices”

Example: a Software Quality Engineer asks how to make a resume: “How to make of professional resume? Any ideas? Please post some sample resumes.”

These are just the ones I found this morning. Needless to say, I am extremely discouraged, but not yet beaten. I don’t hate Indians, but I really don’t like what’s been happening in this not-so-small corner of the technical services industry.
Oliver, good luck in your lawsuit, and in your pursuit of a job. CNN, you can take it from me – there is discrimination against non-Indians in the tech world, and there is definately age discrimination, in Technology, where it matters least.
God help us all.