IBM to Relocate Laid-off Workers to India, Elsewhere
IBM has been shedding employees at a rapid rate in the last few years as its mainframe computer and consulting businesses struggle to compete. In a novel twist, it’s new Project Match program will move some adventurous Americans overseas to be closer to new, lower-paid information technology workers.
“IBM has established Project Match to help you locate potential job opportunities in growth markets where your skills are in demand,” IBM says in an internal notice on the initiative. “Should you accept a position in one of these countries, IBM offers financial assistance to offset moving costs, provides immigration support, such as visa assistance, and other support to help ease the transition of an international move.”
InformationWeek says:
The climate is warm, there’s no shortage of exotic food, and the cost of living is rock bottom. That’s IBM’s pitch to the laid-off American workers it’s offering to place in India. The catch: Wages in the country are pennies-on-the-dollar compared to U.S. salaries.
The upside is that the cost of living is also much lower there, making the move potentially very interesting to some workers, especially during a recession at home.
“It’s more of a vehicle for people who want to expand their life experience by working somewhere else,” said the spokesman. “A lot of people want to work in India.”
I think taking advantage of such an opportunity would be a really cool thing to do, especially if one is young and/or childless. Working for a couple years in a foreign, exotic locale would be a source of some great life experience.
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Just don’t count on going back to the US on your Indian pension at the end of it all…..
THE NEW TREASURY SECRETARY GEITHNER WAS EDUCATED IN INDIA. YALE UNIVERSITY FOUNDER WAS BORN AND EDUCATED IN INDIA. PEW FOUDATION POLL SAYS AMERICANS ARE MOST(60%+) ADMIRED IN INDIA. FOOD, SHELTER, EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE, ALL COST PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR IN INDIA. THAT IS WHY INDIA PRODUCES SO MANY TECHIES AND IBM HAS MADE IT ITS SECOND HOME. FIVE BEDROOM HOME AND THREE CAR GARAGE, GAS GUZZLERS ETC. ARE OUT.
The info on Project Match that was included in my “resource action” package offered NO help in getting back to the US since it requires that you be hired by IBM Russia, IBM India, etc and have NO connection to IBM US. And it’s only available to the 5000+ people in this layoff group — of which, few are in their 20s and likely to be even interested in an “adventure” where they are “helped” to go to a country where they don’t speak the language, where they are likely to be resented as taking a job away from a local, and where they have to VERY quickly learn local customs, find housing, etc… IBM is offering to dump them in the country with “help” moving them and with visa assistance so they arrive with a promise of a job and nothing else (and no guarantee of a job in 6 months).