These people lost high-tech jobs to low-wage countries. Try telling them that offshoring is a good thing in the long run.
Kyle Bonds
Camp Hill, Pennsylvania
Bonds, 44, was a contractor at IBM when he heard rumors of work moving abroad. Figuring his job could be next, he took a lower-paying but more secure post elsewhere.
"If I had stayed, you would be talking to a truck driver with a waitress wife."
Myra Bronstein
Mercer Island, Washington
Bronstein, a software engineer, says she had to train her offshore replacements herself or risk losing her severance package and unemployment eligibility.
"My industry just crashed and burned. I think it's shortsighted to try and get another job in this field."
Charles Buhrmann
Greenville, Texas
Before his position went to Canada, Buhrmann was a contractor for an insurance company's policy management system. Now he designs Web sites part-time for $8.50 an hour.
"If they're going to offer a job overseas for half the pay, why not offer it to the person here?"
Melissa Charters
Los Angeles, California
Charters had 15 years of experience in IT when her job as a system security administrator was outsourced, then offshored to India. She's becoming a home-economics teacher.
"How can our country's information stay secure when it's all being done over there?"
Lidia Estes
Bedford, Texas
Estes, 55, learned her job managing programmers with Computer Horizons was going to be offshored in late 2002. Now, the woman who has worked in IT since she was 19 sells Mary Kay Cosmetics.
"I don't know what to do. This has been my whole life."
Linda Evans
Matthews, North Carolina
In 2002, Evans's programmer husband was laid off and forced to train his Indian replacements. A new employer threatened to fire him after he was interviewed by a local paper.
"We never feel safe. When he gets called in for review, he thinks, 'This is it--it's all over today.' "
James Fusco
East Brunswick, New Jersey
Since IBM sent his work to Canada, Fusco has a new job as a systems analyst--at less pay. He has joined a lawsuit seeking retraining for software workers.
"The most important thing I've lost is an intangible. It's the loss of a secure feeling, because I really lost a career."
Michael Gist
Fort Worth, Texas
For Gist, 41, a software engineer who was replaced by a temporary worker who later went back to India, losing his job meant more than losing income. Although he now runs a home-furnishings store, he's lost his passion.
"I just love writing code. I'm a computer geek inside and out."
Corey Goode
Dallas, Texas
Goode, 34, had a contract job with Microsoft to support its call centers. It included secretly setting up user accounts for workers in Bangalore who'd replace domestic employees. Just before his first child was born, he says his own job moved to India.
"Globalization is here to stay, but we need to ease the growing pains."
Email
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
