My job is being outsourced to Cosa Rica

Fireman32

On Thursday morning I went into work as usuall, had a meeting with my boss and started my day. My cube is right by the executive confrence room and I saw alot of the big bosses going in for a meeting. Didn't think anything of it as they have meetings all fo the time. Then we got a e-mail from the big boss stating that they are providing lunch for us today and will be meeting with everyone to discuss an anouncement. I know the we were working to partner with HP to run the IT department at Pfizer and I figured that was what the announcement was about, i might be getting a new boss or something like that. Well my boss came out of the meeting and came over to my desk and asked me to be in the next meeting. I could tell by the look on his face that it was not good. Well I walk into the meeting and we get told that the whole help desk is being dissolved and being outsourced to Costa Rica starting in October and going through to April. They are planning to offer us a retention package to stay on though the transition and hope to relocate us into another contract within the company. There is a slight chance that my team which is project management might get to be one of the teams that does not get moved. Well I am updaing my resume and have to start hunting for another job now as I am not going to rely on my current job to place em somewhere else. Wish me luck and hope I can find something good.

bobman1235

Good luck.

The other option is to move to Costa Rica. I visited there once, it's a pretty nice place Pura vida!

disneyjoe7

Good Luck.

Hope you can laugh about this when you can look back at this later.

amulford

Good luck, Dave. I'm making a career move myself, I know how you feel. Just keep the faith...

Fireman32

Thanks everyone. While I was really stressed out I have now calmed down and hope that this will get me a better job than I have now. Anthony I hope your move goes well. Let me know if you need anything bro.

Mike682

A big part of the stress involved with losing a job is the feeling of having no control over what is going on

While this will be a rough time, remember to focus on what you can control and the positive aspects of this change.

good luck

BaggedLancer

Hey Fireman, same thing happened at my company, Gillette. When it was acquired by Procter & Gamble, they outsourced to HP in Costa Rica as well(GBS Support Desk). My IT job will be officially gone by January 2008. They are working on getting me another full time position in another facility.

Our local IT will be completely eliminated and all work will need to be done over the phone calling the HP support desk.

I can tell you now, your employees will be miserable when these fools start messing up their computers and can't get things fixed. It's no long a couple hours to get anything fixed, it takes days. As of right now we are in transition mode and all I do is fix everything those fools in Costa Rica break. You'll learn to love them during your transition time as well.

I assume this also means that all computers are your work will be moving to an HP deployed Windows Xp image.....wait till you use that. .

Fyi, those Costa Rica people do everything through Netmeeting so learn that.

Good luck, sorry to hear about it but its the exact same thing that happened to me.

opus

Ha, I always thought you were a Firefighter:o

Anyways good luck and remember that a positive attitude will greatly help your situation. While everyone is spending their time and energy bitching and complaining make the moves neccessary to move on or move up


Good Luck.:)

Fireman32

BaggedLancer wrote: »

Hey Fireman, same thing happened at my company, Gillette. When it was acquired by Procter & Gamble, they outsourced to HP in Costa Rica as well(GBS Support Desk). My IT job will be officially gone by January 2008. They are working on getting me another full time position in another facility.

Our local IT will be completely eliminated and all work will need to be done over the phone calling the HP support desk.

I can tell you now, your employees will be miserable when these fools start messing up their computers and can't get things fixed. It's no long a couple hours to get anything fixed, it takes days. As of right now we are in transition mode and all I do is fix everything those fools in Costa Rica break. You'll learn to love them during your transition time as well.

I assume this also means that all computers are your work will be moving to an HP deployed Windows Xp image.....wait till you use that. .

Fyi, those Costa Rica people do everything through Netmeeting so learn that.

Good luck, sorry to hear about it but its the exact same thing that happened to me.

Thanks for the heads up. I hope that they are able to get you another job. I also told my boss that I would relocate if they can find me a job. I know they have offices all over the country and mabye a move out of New Jersey might be what's needed for me. I will take it one day at a time.

Fireman32

opus wrote: »

Ha, I always thought you were a Firefighter:o


Good Luck.:)

I am...I'm a volunteer in my town.

BaggedLancer

Fireman32 wrote: »

Thanks for the heads up. I hope that they are able to get you another job. I also told my boss that I would relocate if they can find me a job. I know they have offices all over the country and mabye a move out of New Jersey might be what's needed for me. I will take it one day at a time.

They gave us 1 onsite HP "technician" to do on-site work on the HP imaged PC's. This guy can't do anything. We got some new HP servers to convert our network and he couldnt even figure out how to mount them in the racks....absolutely incredible.

Just wait, you'll grow to love them

engtaz

Good Luck and best wishes.

pearsall001

How quickly things can change. It wasn't too long ago when you were at my place you were so excited about getting the promotion that is now being dissolved. Keep the faith brother, everything will work out for the better. Best of luck!!!

sucks2beme

They outsourced first line tech support for my company's products to India.
Fine idea. When I'm in the field and get one of them, I can tell quickly that
they have no idea what the hell I'm talking about. Then it's a matter of
escalating it to someone stateside.
They might re-think the whole thing when the senior execs can't get their
pc running for that big dog and pony show.
Good luck. I hope you can find a hook to keep employed there.
This is a trend that will backfire at some point. Is the extra downtime
going to be worth the money savings? Any more, if your pc is down,
you might as well pack up and go home.

wingnut4772

Good Luck! You could always move to Costa Rica. It's beautiful there. I wouldn't mind retiring there myself.

kingtut

I can't stand outsourcing. First, it was manufacturing. Now more and more of our technical jobs are going to other countries. We have to start monitor the outsourcing, or there won't be any jobs left for us. Perhap, the companies that outsource their work to another country should pay additional outsourcing taxes.

schwarcw

Be a gentleman about it, go about your work in a professioanl manner. Start looking for a job. If you find a good one, tell your boss you've found a job and you must look out for your career and your family. Tell him tht you'd consider staying on for a long term contract, at a substatial amount of money. They may be a long shot, but you never know. Being a professional about these adverse circumstances says a lot about your character. They may want you around. Good, loyal people are hard to find. If they say no, you've got nothing to lose. Make sure that you have another offer in hand, and most important that you've passed your physical (drug screen, etc. - we all have to take it nothing personal) Good luck!

PolkWannabie

Outsourcing jobs overseas is one baby step above hiring illegal aliens ...

At the rate it's going it'll be intersting to see in a few years whether or not anyone left in the US will be able to afford to buy any of the products or services being marketed on the salary they make from flipping burgers ...

halo

Good luck broham

Carl gave some great advice.

Thoughts and Prayers

Fireman32

Carl, thanks for the advice. I am going to take that route and do my job to the best of my abiltiy to the end. I'm predicting that half of the help desk with are contractors and not employees jumping ship or just not caring which makes my job of quality assurance that much harder.

George Grand

Good luck man.

reeltrouble1

Move to Jaw-ja, we don't outsource, we insource.

Sorry to hear Dave.

Ted

Ricardo

Hope this turns out in a better job for you; Good Luck!!

polksda

"Hola, senor! Ju are haveeng problem wit jour computer, jes? Ju tell me problem, jes?"

Wonderful. With phone support being outsourced to India and Central/South America, it's no wonder that any time I call ANYONE, from Dell to Dish to my credit card company, I cannot get someone who speaks English natively.

When does the backlash come? When do enough people get pissed off about it?

*harumph*

madmax

Best of luck to you. I went through a company buyout last year and things are still up in the air for me with temporary extensions. On the plus side maybe you can make out with retention bonus, etc. But yea, I'm sure you can go out and get a better job anyway.
madmax

jdhdiggs

Yup, take the retainer money, ask for an education benifit, get some schooling while job hunting and get that 15% pay raise! With the right approach, this might be the best thing to ever happen to your job! Keep your spirits up and don't let yourself become a victim. Cheers, and good luck!

Fireman32

I should find out sometime this week about the retention bonus. They told us that it was going to be 10% of our pay plus 1 month pay. I also asked if they were paying our health coverage at all or was it going to be cobra, im waiting on an answer.

madmax

They may need some training or management for the offsite help. Put your foot in the door for that if it makes sense.
madmax