CRUELTY of Corporate America: "Train your replacement or no Severance Pay"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/09/BUGPJJA66348.DTL&type=business

BofA: Train your replacement, or no severance pay for you
David Lazarus
Friday, June 9, 2006

Bank of America has been steadily moving thousands of tech jobs to India. The latest to go are about 100 positions that handle BofA's internal tech support.

While many of the bank's Bay Area techies accept the inevitability of their jobs heading abroad, what rankles them is the fact that, in many cases, they're being told they have to first train the Indians who are getting their gigs.

"If people want their severance packages, they have to train their replacements," a senior engineer at one of BofA's Bay Area facilities told me. "There's nothing in writing that says this -- the bank's been careful about that. But it's made clear at meetings what we're supposed to do."

Shirley Norton, a BofA spokeswoman, confirmed that while workers aren't being explicitly told they have to train their replacements or risk losing severance pay, they are being instructed that severance pay is contingent on satisfactorily completing their jobs.





I fucking DESPISE the people who have turned our culture and our industries this way, and that includes shareholders who vote for crap like this and politicians of either party that REFUSE to ban or penalize this offshoring garbage in any way.

And certainly this "train your replacement" shit is ABUSIVE. I hope someone sues in the 9th circuit and takes BofA for a bundle. CRAP!

I am going to start praying before bed every night that the scenario at the end of the movie "Fight Club" comes true.

I may kick this one several times. This shit pisses me off.

x( :mad: :mad: :puke: :argh: :banghead:

pisses me off, as well. :grr:

K&R

blackmail.

Yet.

It amazes me how people get the impression that such abuses are new. While there's no question that where the cracks in the dam that opened up 25 years ago used to be there's no dam any more, it's disgusting that I was playing "Paul Revere" 15-20 years ago and "my fellow Americans" wallowed in denial.

"That won't happen to me."

"I'm smarter than to let that happen."

"My employer thinks I'm indispensable."

"I just got a BIG promotion so I'm happy."

Bullshit!!

It's appalling how many people think they have a nice cozy lifeboat and ignore the people drowning all around them!
:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

for earth link, same deal, go to India and train and then get some severance pay or you can just leave the company today.

they would be perfect employees (snarf....I laughed at my own sarcasm)

Then PROVE it was my fault they could not learn anything or turned out to be duds....you know, maybe the employer just hired a stupid replacement that could not work themselves out of an open box.

Plus, I have already cashed my check.

I've heard of this before - having to train your replacement or no severance pay - but what I wonder is exactly how many people train their replacement the WRONG way on purpose.

I would.

I'd be training my replacement like this:

Start of day...8AM.

- Show up a little late, like 8:30...it's all good.
- Get in and get on your workstation, pick your nose and d/l some p0rn for an hour...just look busy when the boss comes by.
- Continue to look "busy" until lunch.
- Lunch...take a few hours, enjoy yourself, have a few drinks, it's OK.
- After long lunch break, come back & continue to look busy for the rest of the day, then slip out 30 min. early unnoticed.
- Go to happy hour & have fun when you're off, it's OK to come hungover/stoned.

With the way people are being treated by corporate America these days, it won't surprise me at all.

Severance pay here is mandatory and govt-regulated. To forfeit it you have to do some serious shit like stealing from the company, assaulting your boss etc.

6 years in corporate radio and I got let go with no more than what they already owed me. Anyone on here who ahs been in radio knows it's not exactly something you can walk across the street and get another job in. I was unemployed until my UI ran out and longer.

This is bullshit, it is anti-American, and it should be illegal.

Of course, with the assholes we have running this country right now, it's not surprising. I hope the people who voted for Bush all lose their jobs in this manner, they deserve it.

their employees, their communities or the environment. Enough. They don't have the right to exist.

If companies pull this sort of trashy stunt, Americans need to WALK OUT. There comes a point where there's more in this world than one's self. Even if it's our turn to starve in the gutter. :( We all cry for the tv character who pulls a selfless act. Why are we so much against ourselves being selfless? Or is that a facet of socialism?

A coworker of mine made a comment (seriously) about destroying information he'd made. The person he talked to, who is close to him (friends), said he'd have to expect a lawsuit. I heard that firsthand. The guy is also a Republican (complete with autographed pic of *) though he recently (a few months' back) claimed he'd vote Libertarian. But he quickly clammed up and left on a good note.

Walk out and forget the severance pay; it'll cost these screwballs far more in the end. :think:

Do a class action suit if possible. But when you work for a company, they pay you and what you make is theirs. Destroying it is a no-no. Having the new people work it out for themselves will make up for the severance pay and much more. Especially when you add in the cultural divide and linguistics issues, these foolish companies are merely slashing their own wrists while they proceed to slash ours. And we are 100% guiltless.

It's one thing to do something selfless and allow yourself to starve in the gutter, but it's quite another - bordering on child abuse - to forfeit money that could be used on housing and food and allow your children to go homeless and/or starve.

I, fundamentally, agree with what you're saying, but I don't think I'd have been able to do that when I was a single mother with no consistant child support coming in.

I'm not talking physically destroy (I'm scratching my head as to why you would think I meant that)... economic destruction can come from doing the things that you say... like denying them the employment of Americans, or taking consumer actions, or whatever.

My choice was do it or quit. I had 27 years of severance built up. If I quit, I lose that.

I trained him. :shrug:

I hate it, too. This is just a side effect, though. We need to stop the exporting of jobs, then these things wouldn't happen.

kick.

Do what is expected and nothing more.

I've had a few Republicans tell me that too.

Didn't stop me from feeling guilty and letting my replacements know all the details... not that it helped them in the end, the new system was complex and management distute (the opposite of astute? :D )

:kick:

Not the identical context, but close enough.

Especially when I had to learn everything from scratch.

Whatever; last I heard my replacements couldn't do it.

If companies valued their employees in the first place. We're all supposed to be Americans. Right?

the pain of it all?

There's so much FUCKING injustice, I don't know where to begin.

... I mean - look at the situation this way:

They're not required to give severance at all, are they?

(Assuming not required)

Then what's wrong with the company saying the following: "We're gonna lay you off Joe, without any severance. However, if you want, we'll pay you a couple grand to train this other dude."

That just seems like a deal you're free to enter into, or not.

Cruel, yah - illegal? I don't think I think it should be.

I can see that happening too. 'He wasn't trained good enough' despite giving the replacement every single bit of information; the fact being the replacement is a dunderhead who won't do anything above what's absolutely necessary.

Again, I would walk out. Corporations tend to cheat consumers, so as with electricity, it's better to take the path of least resistance. Get the smeg out of there.

... on that sorta thing, rather than get an unhappy surprise later...

So the problem isn't so much the *deal*, but rather *reneging* on the deal?

That oughta be illegal fo sho - renegeing, I mean.

If only for the stupid student loans (and the degree that has yet, after five years, to get me a graduate-level job)... I would just be a waitress.

Don't have kinds, probably don't want any... still young enough to drop out, so I'm doing it. While I can.

I HATE the Bank of Fuckmerica, as I call them, too. Long history of being annoyed by the policies. Refuse to do any business with them now. I use a local university credit union that I maintained my student account at all these years, expressly for this eventuality.

:grr: