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LOS ANGELES TIMES: Outsourcing Ax Falls Hard on Tech Workers
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-programmer30may30,1,2543631.story?coll=la-home-headlines
THE NATION
Outsourcing Ax Falls Hard on Tech Workers
As the slump persists, some train their low-cost replacements before being
shown the door.
By Warren Vieth, Times Staff Writer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The global economy finally caught up with Cliff
Cotterill.
On Friday, the software engineer drove his pickup truck to Building 54 at
Agilent Technologies Inc. in Santa Clara. He made his way through the warren
of partitions to his cubicle. Then he turned in his laptop computer and
employee badge and said goodbye to 25 years of his life.
There were no parting ceremonies, no official farewells. His department had
held a big lunch in August, when he and others were scheduled for
termination. Cotterill was given a brief extension.
But this weekend, when he was only 11 weeks away from being eligible for
early retirement, the ax finally fell. Cotterill, 54, joined the growing
ranks of computer professionals who so recently occupied a prized position
in the U.S. economy but are now seeing their jobs disappear - many
outsourced to foreigners.
In the months leading up to his layoff, Cotterill was assigned to work
alongside programmers from India who are taking over tasks formerly done by
Americans, a process his company calls Knowledge Transfer, or KT.
Just a few years ago, his profession was at its peak in this country. An
increasing reliance on computers, the takeoff of the Internet and the Y2K
reprogramming boom put U.S. software specialists such as Cotterill in high
demand. Their pay and prestige rose commensurately.
His fate is emblematic of what has happened to many in his profession. With
the crash of the technology sector and overseas outsourcing, thousands of
U.S. jobs are disappearing and salaries are under pressure. The late-'90s
sense of well-being is diminished.
Experts disagree over how much of the job loss and salary slippage can be
attributed to outsourcing, but most say it has clearly been a factor.
"It is unprecedented, the turn of fortune that has occurred in the high-tech
industry," said Marcus Courtney, president of the Washington Alliance of
Technology Workers in Seattle. "Less than five years ago, we were talking of
adding hundreds of thousands of new employees every year in this industry..
We've gone from that to widespread job losses and stagnant wages and
benefits.
"The reason it's happening is companes are exporting jobs overseas to
increase their profits and not creating jobs here in the U.S."
This growing class of dispossessed and demoralized tech workers is creating
new economic and political fault lines. For the first time, large numbers of
technical professionals are losing their jobs to lower-paid counterparts in
other countries, a phenomenon once associated mainly with blue-collar
factory work. Some remain unemployed or underemployed for long periods, and
some are beginning to challenge policies that give rein to globalization.
The practice of requiring U.S. workers to train their replacements has
become a flashpoint in the intensifying debate over "offshoring" jobs to
other countries and the use of temporary visas by foreign nationals who come
here to learn their employers' systems.
Critics have denounced the process as inhumane, and some members of Congress
are trying to curtail it.
Agilent executives declined to discuss the specifics of Cotterill's
termination. They sympathize with employees who lose their jobs, they said,
and do their best to ease the transition by providing competitive severance
packages.
"It's been very, very difficult for everyone at Agilent to see friends and
colleagues leave the company," said Jan Copes, spokeswoman for the company's
information technology, or IT, department, where Cotterill worked on
in-house projects to support Agilent's infrastructure.
Outsourcing is one element of a broad transformation undertaken to return
the company to profitability and position it for growth, Copes said, and the
training of replacements is a necessary part of the process.
For Cotterill, who worked as an art critic and aerial photographer before
getting in on the ground floor of the technology boom, the politics of
globalization have become personal.
"I guess I wasn't paying attention when it was affecting other trades or
professions," he said. "It's probably been going on for manufacturing and
electronics and cars and steel all along. But it's not until it hits home
that you really pay attention."
Growing up in the East Bay suburb of Castro Valley, Cotterill felt torn
between art and science. In high school, he considered becoming an
astronomer. At UC Davis, he majored in fine arts.
His early jobs were editing at Artweek magazine, production hand for Rolling
Stone, disc jockey for a San Mateo soul station and sole proprietor of Cliff
Cotterill Photography, for which he used his pilot's license to produce
aerial landscapes to sell at art galleries and craft shows.
That was a tough way to make a living, so he entered an electronics training
program that got him a job testing "Tank," "Breakout" and other pioneering
arcade video games made by Atari. In 1979, he got a better offer from
Hewlett-Packard Corp.: testing circuit boards for an early generation of HP
computer terminals.
Over two decades, he bootstrapped his way into HP's information technology
operations, signing up for a series of classes and certifications that
taught him how to develop software and do a variety of IT jobs.
Several past and present associates said they regard Cotterill as an
exemplary IT professional who devotes time and energy to making sure his
"skill set" stays current.
"Cliff does that religiously," said Jay Spencer, an independent software
consultant who occasionally turns to Cotterill for help. "He is really at
the top of his field. For Web-type applications, he's top-notch."
A lifelong bachelor, Cotterill "is married to his job," said Pat Moberly, a
former HP co-worker who remains a close friend. "He uses a lot of his spare
time taking courses, usually on his own. He attends every class and does the
homework and really learns the stuff."
In 1999, HP spun off part of its business into a new company called Agilent
Technologies, which makes scientific instruments and analytical equipment
such as spectrometers and oscilloscopes. Cotterill was offered the chance to
work at either company. He chose Agilent, where he specialized in designing
and implementing Internet-based applications.
But the company started posting big losses when the tech bubble burst. It
began aggressively reducing its workforce and outsourcing many functions,
some to U.S.-based contractors, some to foreign providers whose employees
could do the same work for much less pay. Since 2001, it has shrunk its
worldwide workforce by more than a third, from 44,000 to 28,000.
Cotterill dodged several initial rounds of outsourcing, but his luck began
to run out last year. He was called into his manager's office, handed a
folder full of termination documents and told that his employment would end
on Aug. 15.
"They tell you you're a participant in the Workforce Management Program," he
said. "That means you're laid off."
The material included suggestions for dealing with the trauma of
termination. Among them: "Don't say or do things you might regret later" and
"Maintain emotional control through exercise - walking, jogging, bicycling,
swimming or striking a pillow with a tennis racket."
The going-away party was arranged. "Four or five other people were being
laid off then," he recalled. "The manager posed for the picture with all of
us. Everybody came. They said, 'Thank you for your hard work, goodbye, it
was nice knowing you.' "
Only two days before his scheduled departure, Cotterill's sentence was
commuted by a sympathetic executive who arranged to have him assigned to a
new project. Cotterill thought he would be able to keep working at Agilent
until his 55th birthday in August of this year, when he would qualify for
early retirement.
His elation didn't last. Earlier this year, Cotterill was called back to the
manager's office and told his last day would be May 28. "They didn't have to
explain it again," he said. "They just gave me the papers and said, 'Thanks
for understanding.' "
He received the standard package for long-term HP/Agilent employees: six
months' severance pay plus another two months' wages if he signed an
agreement to not sue the company. He would not participate in the
early-retirement program, which would have provided slightly better
benefits.
For months, Cotterill had watched as foreign IT personnel began occupying
cubicles in his work area. They were employees of Satyam Computer Services
Ltd., the Indian firm hired to take over most of Agilent's IT operations.
Some stayed in Santa Clara, and some went back to India to oversee the work
of other programmers. A Satyam executive declined to discuss the firm's work
at Agilent.
Last month, Cotterill received a memo informing him he would be taking part
in the Knowledge Transfer process. "Hello All," it began. "Attached is the
first draft of the training calendar for the KT. If you are being sent this
message, you are one of the trainers."
His role involved preparing material for presentation to the replacements.
For the most part, he avoided contact with them.
"They're all glad to be here making money," he said. "I don't know if
they're aware they're taking our jobs or they don't care."
Cotterill said he blames Agilent's U.S. managers, not the Indian
programmers, for what he regards as the betrayal of American workers.
"Twenty years ago, they said there were all these white-collar jobs and that
if you got your training, you'd be OK. Then they outsourced that," he said.
"It's not good for the country. I've occasionally thought they should reopen
the House Un-American Activities Committee and bring all the CEOs up to
Congress."
Cotterill tried to find another position inside Agilent, without success. He
applied for a tech job in the marketing department. As part of the process,
he was asked to write a 500-word article presenting Agilent's perspective on
outsourcing.
The story he turned in probably took his interviewers aback. "Agilent CEO
Ned Barnholt attacked over eight quarters of consecutive losses with all the
tools at his disposal," he wrote. "Across-the-board layoffs, downsizing and
outsourcing were the implements of choice in his management arsenal for
guiding the company back to profitability, if only for the short term."
He decided not to pursue the job, which would have involved a pay cut.
Only days before his scheduled departure last week, another Agilent
executive helped him lodge a last-ditch appeal to extend his employment for
at least 12 weeks so he could qualify for early retirement. It was not until
late Thursday that he learned the request had been rejected.
"The difficult reality is that your situation is one of many where someone
has a very real reason for requesting a WFM [Workforce Management]
termination delay," the memo stated.
"However, it is imperative that we consistently set termination dates based
on business need. So while we certainly understand your reasons for wanting
a delay, we must maintain adherence to the WFM policy and with the business
decision that has been made by IT management."
Although Cotterill has lost faith in Agilent, he hasn't given up on the
computer industry. He has lined up a two-week contract with a small
consulting company, and a manager at Agilent wants him to do several months
of consulting on an unfinished project. The catch: He would receive less pay
and no benefits.
Meanwhile, he has been applying for jobs online and received callbacks from
four IT recruiters. Three of them had Indian accents, he said. Among the
first questions they asked: "Can you work in the U.S.?"
Friday afternoon, Cotterill cleared his desk and turned in his computer
gear. His manager approached him and apologized for not arranging a
department luncheon. They talked for a few minutes, then the manager began
preparing a Functional Exit Interview Memo he wanted Cotterill to sign.
"When he started filling it out, he asked me how to spell my name,"
Cotterill said. "I've been working for him three years, and he still didn't
know how to spell my name."
+++
Subject: WHERE ARE THE JOBS GOING???
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