[HamsterDan]

Workers need to tread carefully here. If you there's no need to be in the office, what's to stop corporate from replacing you with an Indian that costs 1/3rd as much?

Push back too hard on RTO and you may not have a job at all in five years.

[paxys]

What stopped them from doing exactly this 20 years ago? Turns out the differentiating factor isn't salary but talent. They pay you $$$$ because they can't find equivalent talent in India. And the talent that does exist in India isn't going to work for peanuts.

[mocha_nate]

The talent abroad is also moving here for higher quality of life.

[dowager_dan99]

You are woefully ignorant here. There are lots of cultural challenges (ex: IME young Indians jump jobs even more frequently than young Americans), the time zone coordination, corporate organization, matching client time zone & culture, etc. Talent is not an issue.

Even blind statistics are not in your favor.

[mgh95]

I don't think you realize LATAM such as Brazil and CR is becoming the go-to destination for outsourcing, not India. IME, it's much more stable in SA than India.

[ggm]

Yet both of you align to the same answer: replacing us employees with Indian remote workers is less likely for a number of reasons.

But that said, you're also both ignoring relocation of the enterprise as a whole: employ Indians in India.

[iugtmkbdfil834]

Shrug. In our latest meeting our leaders had no problems hiring 'outside hires' for random unexpected project resulting from them trying to stiff US vendor ( don't get me started on how that makes sense ). Adding those contractors with the amount of time spent in meetings, we likely have already spent more than the money that would be paid to the vendor, but I digress.

Anyway, I am mentioning it, because the usual issues with quality of work that had to be QC'ed immediately came up. To be honest, there is nothing stopping corporate, but none of the jobs most of us do are so easily done that it can be just put in a simple step by step process ( and even then its hardly a way to guarantee accuracy ). I guess what I am really saying is: if they could, they would have already.

But they can't, because you get what you pay for.

[cjbgkagh]

Ah, the I’ll replace you with an Indian routine that’s been going on for over 25 years years of my career.

[dv_dt]

The only new thing there is they'll threaten replace you with AI

[0_____0]

Or Indian IIT grads with AI tools. For tis the sport to watch the engineers hoist by their collective petards.

[iugtmkbdfil834]

To be honest, I almost welcome major collapse resulting from AI intern imploding major US corporation with one bad code submission auto-approved by a contractor.

[ewhanley]

This always comes up in RTO discussions. Why haven't they already done it - why go through the pain of forcing an RTO when they can cut costs by 2/3?

[nielsbot]

Management will replace you with a cheaper worker whenever possible, foreign or otherwise.

Only way to ensure worker rights (and a greater share of your company's profits) is to fight for them and that's where unions come in.

[svillar]

This is a common argument that we hear time and again.

My take is that this assumes the job - any job - that can be done remotely, can also be done by just anyone, and that there is someone in India or elsewhere with the same or higher level of critical thinking and IQ and who is willing to do it for a lot less pay.

But maybe none of this matters. Maybe the company is OK with a below average warm body in a 3rd world country that can do a version of the job for 1/3 of the pay.

[somanyphotons]

They would have done this already if they could. Timezones matter much more

[TheGlav]

Maybe.

Quality of work, communication challenges in time zones, language barriers, and setting a company culture are huge barriers to entry for workers remote from India.

Minimum required wages of at least the prevailing wage and limited access for W2's are major ones for bringing them here. Even doubling the W2's wouldn't cover replacing all jobs.

[NegativeLatency]

> what's to stop corporate from replacing you with an Indian that costs 1/3rd as much?

I like to think the quality of my work and ability to be more than just a coder (setting priorities, goals, innovating on the product, etc) prevents that.

Ultimately most tech jobs are replaceable but that’s not a good enough reason not to. Especially since there’s already pressure making this happen. I recently watched a previous employer offshore most of the dev work and it seems to be going ok to bad for them.

[Devasta]

There is absolutely no anti-offshoring properties conferred to your job by having a shitty office cube.

These companies already offshore every change they can get, you aren't going to preserve your job by going in each day and staring at your boss with giant sad eyes like Puss in Boots.

[hibikir]

I already have teammates in Mexico, Argentina and Chile. Every day I chat with people in the London office.

If I was at an office, I'd be spending hours on zoom anyway.

[disambiguation]

My office is already 9/10 visa holders, I think the "replacement" is happening regardless.

[greenchair]

nope. you are comparing apples and oranges and everyone knows it.