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@SortOfTested While I agree that skills and contributions should be reflected in the pay, the most common reason for out-sourcing is that it costs less and thus raising them to the same level could result in management not renewing their contract.
So to me a raise should either be proportional or able to afford the consequences.
And of course it should also be specified for the individual worker so it's not just skimmed by the company they work for. -
@Flygger
Enriching corporations does nothing to help people. It just goes straight to the company bottom line. US companies dumping skilled workers in the US, engaging in predatory labor arbitrage, and keeping wages depressed in cheap parts of the world just gravitates towards a tacit serf states where the nobility are board members and employees are wage slaves.
https://forbes.com/sites/... -
@SortOfTested I very much agree, but if the company chooses out-sourcing based on price there really isn't much you can do except trying to make them see how much they save by paying more for skilled people...
As my former head of dev put it to make the management understand better: "I'm really happy for you that the company's economy is so good that you can afford using cheap programmers" -
@Flygger
The only much I can do is continuously point out the elephant in the room, and encourage others to do the same until we reach a critical mass of awareness. -
@SortOfTested
This is why I'd recommend arguing for a raise that makes a difference compared to their current wages and living costs but is still not too steep causing management to a new place to out-source to for less... Either that or a raise that's big enough to carry them if it results in the contract being terminated...
I also find it important to make sure a raise in payment actually results in the workers getting paid more, not just the contractor they work for or their boss as a "Awesome Talent Sourcing Bonus" or some shit like that :/ -
@Flygger
I'm gonna disagree with that, even so. The companies themselves just pocket the difference between a local and remote workers. That makes the primary qualification for hiring price, which is a race to the bottom.
In systems that are dramatically unequal in terms of cost of living, companies should be required to pay their local market wage no matter where the skills are. The spreads the wealth, and makes the hiring criteria skills.
Contracting firms holding W2s to let companies push the benefits liability onto workers so they can cut staff without having to pay severance, and create an entirely externalized lower pay scale for the workers themselves should be outlawed as the graft and collusion it is.
But yeah, I'm leaving it there. That's enough derailing for one day ;)
I got a REALLY nice compliment from my dev team today. But first, the setup...
Tuesday night, I pushed some changes before I left that totally borked the build today when my team pulled changes (this is an off-shore team, so we more or less work opposite hours). Fortunately, my team dealt with it easy enough since (a) it was pretty obvious what happened, and (b) my commit message had enough information to help them know for sure, and they just reverted one file and were good to go for the day (they didn't fix the problem, left that for me to do, which is proper).
It was an absolutely stupid, careless mistake: I somehow copied the contents of a JS file into a JSP and pushed it. Just a simple case of too many tabs open at once and too many interruptions while I'm trying to code (which is typical most days, unfortunately, but this day it had an impact other than just slowing me down).
But, those are the reasons it happened, they aren't excuses. It was carelessness, plain and simple.
So, once I fixed it, I sent a note to the team explaining it. It basically said "Look, that was a dumb, careless mistake on my part, my bad, sorry for the inconvenience, it's fixed now."
I had a message waiting for me in my inbox this morning that said how I'm an inspiration because despite all my knowledge and experience, despite being a long-time lead, they (a) appreciate the fact that I'm human and still make mistakes, and (b) I stand up and take responsibility when it happens and then do what's necessary to reverse the mistake.
That made my day :)
To me, it's just the right way to be (I credit my parents 100%), never occurs to me to do otherwise, but the truth is not everyone can say the same. Some people are insecure and play the CYA game right away, every time. Some people act like they never make mistakes in the first place.
I don't care if you're an experienced dev or a junior, always take responsibility for your actions, especially your mistakes. Don't try and bullshit your way out of them. Sure, it's fine to explain why it happened if there were factors beyond your control, but at the end of the day, own up to them, apologize where necessary, and then put in the effort to make it right. Most people have no problem with people who make mistakes every so often - everyone does, whether everyone admits to it or not - but those who try and shirk responsibility don't last long in this or any endeavor (you know, putting aside the professional bullshitters who build their careers around it... that's not most people, thankfully).
rant