There's a Slashdot item s'morning suggesting some U.S. tech jobs may move north to Canada instead of overseas -- offshoring being logistically more awkward than, whaddayasay, "off-bordering"? (I guess, among other things, that would be taking advantage of Canadian national health coverage to avoid paying benefits. But is the Canadian standard of living really different? Graeme, how big is your fridge?)
The other day J. had this caper-movie idea about a U.S. programmer who follows his own offshored job to India with resulting cultural confusions, unexpected friendships, and other trappings of the "Man Goes On Journey" four-word plot. I guess the story might not be as dramatic if the guy moved to Canada but we could picture him outskated by little old ladies at an ice rink or something....
Posted by Martha Bridegam at July 16, 2004 09:38 AMThe standard of living isn't all that different even with universal health care, so I'm a little surprised that programmers make 40% less. Well, maybe not so surprised. A good friend of mine works for an tech firm and has him working a manditory 48 hour work week (which goes against every employment standard rule imaginable) with no increase in pay and a hefty increase in workload. With the collapse of the tech sector six years ago, though, everyone's happy for a job.
Posted by: Graeme Burk at July 16, 2004 10:25 AMMy personal experience has been mostly positive.
After slogging through the tech bust for a year, my employer reduced staffing in my position from 15 to 6, and cut our QA staff entirely. After a couple of years with the remaining developers spending 50% of their time doing QA, we hired an Indian firm to handle that task. Things were a bit shaky at first, but results have been good since then. We've started hiring again, but not for the QA spots we cut.
Of course it's easy for me to feel positive, as 1. I didn't get cut, 2. I hate doing QA, and 3. I'm not out of work looking for a QA job stateside.
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at July 18, 2004 12:37 PM