Another offshoring success story

[TRexx]

Big excitement at today's "Global Resource Team" conference call. A contractor in Colorado who has been supporting a system for almost 3 years was told that as of 1 July his services would no longer be required.  The folks in Corp It have decided to replace him with someone in Brazil, and at today's meeting our Portfolio Manager announced that he would be spending the remainder of his time training his replacement.  

He said "No, I won't".  

When the  PM asked for an explanation he said "I discussed this with you last week. I  was hired to support this application, not teach someone else. I will not be available after today."

The PM was bit flustered and accused him of being "unprofessional" and leaving with no notice.

He reminded her of the decision in December to furlough all contractors for or a week with no advance notice.  He said he would be shipping his laptop and ID badge back to her via UPS and hung up.

The application owners are going apesh*t.

 

[Rastus P Shagnasty]

Ah, a little payback.  Sweet!

[codger]

What a great story! This should happen every time a contractor is told to train his replacement. If you're not hired as a trainer, why would you want to spend time playing teacher? Move on ASAP.

Note that the only time professionalism is mentioned is when the consultant is accused of acting unprofessional.

Sounds like the PM is a real idiot.

[TRexx]

Quote:Sounds like the PM is a real idiot.

That's a given.

[John Masterson]

I love it. Brought a satisfied smile to my face, seeing a bit of justice in the world.

[The Original Dinosaur]

The only thing I would criticize in the contractor's actions is that I would have said, "In view of [client's] unilateral demand to alter the terms of our agreement, I am forced to withdraw, effective immediately".

A colleague had a similar experience a while back, and thinking it over, there just doesn't seem to be any way but to bow out immediately.  No training, no "turnover", just say "sayonara".

[pm4hire]

[tiberius2000]

That is great in all...but I would have handled it differently:

Take the assignment and do nothing for 2 weeks.  Really what are you going to teach someone in Brazil in two weeks?

First I would ignore most calls and emails....Say their is a communication problem.

Send them documentation until it is coming out of their ears...then when you do talk to them talk really fast and in circles using big words and that sound impressive (kind of like managment)(Most offshorers will just nodd their head...and pretend they know what you just said)...after all they all were taught to never admit they don't know the answer.)

Then after your two weeks leave saying here is my email (give them a bogus account) and say you are open to questions.

Guess it all depends if you want to use this client as a reference...if not then I AGREE SAYONORA.

[codger]

Quote:Most offshorers will just nodd their head...and pretend they know what you just said)...after all they all were taught to never admit they don't know the answer.)

Most of them will nod as if theyunderstand and agree, and as soon as possible, they'll ask someone else the exact same question - to verify your answer which is evidently suspect.

I'm so glad that I don't have to put up with this BS anymore.

[unixwindmill]

What's the point in leaving early?  That's a lot of $$$ left on the table just to make a point.   The PM has a lot of added stress but at the expense of the contractor's wallet.  Secret job hunting on the clock and deliberate obfuscating of the training material would be better for the wallet.  They're willing to pay the contractor for a month and a half of job hunting even though they don't know it.

Still, this is a client that deserves two minutes notice rather than the standard two weeks.  Only the timing of the notice is bad, IMHO.

[JTGalt]

Professionalism works in both directions.

One of the big scams is whining about how someone is not professional if they do not just stand there and let someone abuse them.

There is a never ending dynamic that is always at work, businesses will always try to break down and commodize their workers to turn them into an ever cheaper commodity. In some professions the workers successfully resist this but in many others especially Information Technology the workers tend to be young and with the type of personality that is easily manipulated.

Incidents like the one you described are unfortunately too rare. If there were more of these then the climate in this profession would be a lot better.

There really are two types of workers.

If you have to be trained after you are hired then you definitely are on the lower wrung, which might be necessary if you are just starting out and have to learn the business.

But after ten years you should have enough experience to be one of the trainers. The service you offer is knowledge about how to get things done and getting things done.
You should be the one telling them how to do things.

Its one thing if we agreed before hand at the beginning that my role would be as a consultant to train your employees, that would be fine, but if you expect me to go along with an arbitrary change that I would agree to pass along the knowledge and techniques I have developed to a competitor who is going to replace me you are just out of your F*ing mind.
I would have done the exact same thing.

[David Cressey]

Way back when,  whenever the teachers went on strike, they were accused of being "unprofessional" by everyone:  in the editorial page,  over the back fence,  at the barber shop.

But if the garbage collectors went on strike,  nobody raised a peep about "unprofessionalism".  They were too busy telling the mayor to capitulate.  

[The Gorn]

A lot of times in this industry your peers can be warped, backstabbing pieces of excrement who believe that the duty of all workers is to freely accept abuse and who will pile on someone who takes such a stand.

A few years ago on THIS board, someone asserted that they were asked to do the same kind of thing and that they were declining the directive and terminating the contract if they were forced to train their replacement.

One or two people from this board (I don't recall the thread's participants exactly) lambasted the scab refuser for lack of professionalism and self indulgency.

I couldn't believe the weenie factor at work there but I'm just saying that there appears to be no such thing as "geek solidarity", not even among contractors.

As well as a real lack of common sense in discerning what is right and wrong.

Does anyone remember this thread? I can't even recall the year. Could have been 2002 or 2003. Could have even been Janet's board which would have been earlier.

[JTGalt]

Quote:Does anyone remember this thread? I can't even recall the year. Could have been 2002 or 2003. Could have even been Janet's board which would have been earlier.

That was cguru back on October 16, 2002 on the other board.

He was asked to train his H-1B replacement Yoshi and refused.

For daring to stand up like that he was called things like a "spoiled prima" and worse.

Another typical comment...

"Good luck, cguru. Hope you grow up before you blow another good contract."

The thread still exists...

p222.ezboard.com/Canned-T...1050.topic

[The Gorn]

Thanks for digging that up. Actually the preponderance of the opinions in that thread were in favor of waving off the training portion.

It's good when at least contractors can take a stand like this, because often the FTE's severance is tied to enabling the new scab lackey labor.