<story><title>What the IBM Layoffs Look Like</title><url>http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-careers/is-this-months-ibm-layoff-for-rebalancing-or-is-it-really-for-offshoring#.VuHU1fevtY4.hackernews</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cortesoft</author><text>The difference is that as skilled tech workers, when we are laid off we can find new work as fast as we want to.&lt;p&gt;I have worked for a few companies that have gone out of business. Looking for work afterwards is mostly a screening job, picking the work I want to do out of the various offers. Every time, I have been hired for more money than I was making before (it is common knowledge that changing jobs is the best way to get raises)&lt;p&gt;It isn&amp;#x27;t like I am some hotshot developer, either. I am not a networking type person, so all of my contacts are just people I have worked with at previous shops. The reason it is so easy to find work is because there are simply more jobs available than qualified workers.&lt;p&gt;I know this because I have been on the other side, too (trying to hire people). It is really hard to find quality developers, because they always have multiple offers.&lt;p&gt;Why would workers in this situation want or need to collectively bargain? Every place I have worked needs me more than I need them.</text></item><item><author>thenewwazoo</author><text>IBM has literally no disincentive to do this, either de jure or de facto. The threat of H1-B applications being denied is either laughable or [there aren&amp;#x27;t enough of them anyway] depending on who you ask. And IBM employees, like most tech workers, don&amp;#x27;t think they need to act (read: bargain) collectively and thus have no recourse. Until the tech industry wakes up to the reality that they _are_ labor, companies will continue to treat their employees as fungible, on an increasingly global scale.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ryandrake</author><text>&amp;gt; The difference is that as skilled tech workers, when we are laid off we can find new work as fast as we want to.&lt;p&gt;Having been through two tech downturns, and unemployed at points in both of them, I can guarantee you the job environment you describe is temporary.</text></comment>
<story><title>What the IBM Layoffs Look Like</title><url>http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-careers/is-this-months-ibm-layoff-for-rebalancing-or-is-it-really-for-offshoring#.VuHU1fevtY4.hackernews</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cortesoft</author><text>The difference is that as skilled tech workers, when we are laid off we can find new work as fast as we want to.&lt;p&gt;I have worked for a few companies that have gone out of business. Looking for work afterwards is mostly a screening job, picking the work I want to do out of the various offers. Every time, I have been hired for more money than I was making before (it is common knowledge that changing jobs is the best way to get raises)&lt;p&gt;It isn&amp;#x27;t like I am some hotshot developer, either. I am not a networking type person, so all of my contacts are just people I have worked with at previous shops. The reason it is so easy to find work is because there are simply more jobs available than qualified workers.&lt;p&gt;I know this because I have been on the other side, too (trying to hire people). It is really hard to find quality developers, because they always have multiple offers.&lt;p&gt;Why would workers in this situation want or need to collectively bargain? Every place I have worked needs me more than I need them.</text></item><item><author>thenewwazoo</author><text>IBM has literally no disincentive to do this, either de jure or de facto. The threat of H1-B applications being denied is either laughable or [there aren&amp;#x27;t enough of them anyway] depending on who you ask. And IBM employees, like most tech workers, don&amp;#x27;t think they need to act (read: bargain) collectively and thus have no recourse. Until the tech industry wakes up to the reality that they _are_ labor, companies will continue to treat their employees as fungible, on an increasingly global scale.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Apocryphon</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Why would workers in this situation want or need to collectively bargain? Every place I have worked needs me more than I need them.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Every skilled craftsman in every generation in the history of civilization has made this claim. Why do you think your position of privilege is any more lasting than that of weavers or threshers?</text></comment>