Home > Outsourcing Ax Falls Hard on Tech Workers
As the slump persists, some train their low-
cost replacements before being shown the door.
By Warren Vieth Times Staff Writer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The global economy finally caught
up with Cliff Cotterill.
On Friday, the software engineer drove his pickup truck
to Building 54 at Agilent Technologies Inc. in Santa
Clara. He made his way through the warren of partitions
to his cubicle. Then he turned in his laptop computer
and employee badge and said goodbye to 25 years of his
life.
There were no parting ceremonies, no official
farewells. His department had held a big lunch in
August, when he and others were scheduled for
termination. Cotterill was given a brief extension.
But this weekend, when he was only 11 weeks away from
being eligible for early retirement, the ax finally
fell. Cotterill, 54, joined the growing ranks of
computer professionals who so recently occupied a
prized position in the U.S. economy but are now seeing
their jobs disappear - many outsourced to foreigners.
In the months leading up to his layoff, Cotterill was
assigned to work alongside programmers from India who
are taking over tasks formerly done by Americans, a
process his company calls Knowledge Transfer, or KT.
Just a few years ago, his profession was at its peak in
this country. An increasing reliance on computers, the
takeoff of the Internet and the Y2K reprogramming boom
put U.S. software specialists such as Cotterill in high
demand. Their pay and prestige rose commensurately.
His fate is emblematic of what has happened to many in
his profession. With the crash of the technology sector
and overseas outsourcing, thousands of U.S. jobs are
disappearing and salaries are under pressure. The
late-’90s sense of well-being is diminished.
Experts disagree over how much of the job loss and
salary slippage can be attributed to outsourcing, but
most say it has clearly been a factor.
"It is unprecedented, the turn of fortune that has
occurred in the high-tech industry," said Marcus
Courtney, president of the Washington Alliance of
Technology Workers in Seattle. "Less than five years
ago, we were talking of adding hundreds of thousands of
new employees every year in this industry…. We’ve gone
from that to widespread job losses and stagnant wages
and benefits.
"The reason it’s happening is companes are exporting
jobs overseas to increase their profits and not
creating jobs here in the U.S."
This growing class of dispossessed and demoralized tech
workers is creating new economic and political fault
lines. For the first time, large numbers of technical
professionals are losing their jobs to lower-paid
counterparts in other countries, a phenomenon once
associated mainly with blue-collar factory work. Some
remain unemployed or underemployed for long periods,
and some are beginning to challenge policies that give
rein to globalization.
The practice of requiring U.S. workers to train their
replacements has become a flashpoint in the
intensifying debate over "offshoring" jobs to other
countries and the use of temporary visas by foreign
nationals who come here to learn their employers’
systems.
Critics have denounced the process as inhumane, and
some members of Congress are trying to curtail it.
Agilent executives declined to discuss the specifics of
Cotterill’s termination. They sympathize with employees
who lose their jobs, they said, and do their best to
ease the transition by providing competitive severance
packages.
"It’s been very, very difficult for everyone at Agilent
to see friends and colleagues leave the company," said
Jan Copes, spokeswoman for the company’s information
technology, or IT, department, where Cotterill worked
on in-house projects to support Agilent’s
infrastructure.
Outsourcing is one element of a broad transformation
undertaken to return the company to profitability and
position it for growth, Copes said, and the training of
replacements is a necessary part of the process.
For Cotterill, who worked as an art critic and aerial
photographer before getting in on the ground floor of
the technology boom, the politics of globalization have
become personal.
"I guess I wasn’t paying attention when it was
affecting other trades or professions," he said. "It’s
probably been going on for manufacturing and
electronics and cars and steel all along. But it’s not
until it hits home that you really pay attention."
Growing up in the East Bay suburb of Castro Valley,
Cotterill felt torn between art and science. In high
school, he considered becoming an astronomer. At UC
Davis, he majored in fine arts.
His early jobs were editing at Artweek magazine,
production hand for Rolling Stone, disc jockey for a
San Mateo soul station and sole proprietor of Cliff
Cotterill Photography, for which he used his pilot’s
license to produce aerial landscapes to sell at art
galleries and craft shows.
That was a tough way to make a living, so he entered an
electronics training program that got him a job testing
"Tank," "Breakout" and other pioneering arcade video
games made by Atari. In 1979, he got a better offer
from Hewlett-Packard Corp.: testing circuit boards for
an early generation of HP computer terminals.
Over two decades, he bootstrapped his way into HP’s
information technology operations, signing up for a
series of classes and certifications that taught him
how to develop software and do a variety of IT jobs.
Several past and present associates said they regard
Cotterill as an exemplary IT professional who devotes
time and energy to making sure his "skill set" stays
current.
"Cliff does that religiously," said Jay Spencer, an
independent software consultant who occasionally turns
to Cotterill for help. "He is really at the top of his
field. For Web-type applications, he’s top-notch."
A lifelong bachelor, Cotterill "is married to his job,"
said Pat Moberly, a former HP co-worker who remains a
close friend. "He uses a lot of his spare time taking
courses, usually on his own. He attends every class and
does the homework and really learns the stuff."
In 1999, HP spun off part of its business into a new
company called Agilent Technologies, which makes
scientific instruments and analytical equipment such as
spectrometers and oscilloscopes. Cotterill was offered
the chance to work at either company. He chose Agilent,
where he specialized in designing and implementing
Internet-based applications.
But the company started posting big losses when the
tech bubble burst. It began aggressively reducing its
workforce and outsourcing many functions, some to U.S.-
based contractors, some to foreign providers whose
employees could do the same work for much less pay.
Since 2001, it has shrunk its worldwide workforce by
more than a third, from 44,000 to 28,000.
Cotterill dodged several initial rounds of outsourcing,
but his luck began to run out last year. He was called
into his manager’s office, handed a folder full of
termination documents and told that his employment
would end on Aug. 15.
"They tell you you’re a participant in the Workforce
Management Program," he said. "That means you’re laid
off."
The material included suggestions for dealing with the
trauma of termination. Among them: "Don’t say or do
things you might regret later" and "Maintain emotional
control through exercise - walking, jogging, bicycling,
swimming or striking a pillow with a tennis racket."
The going-away party was arranged. "Four or five other
people were being laid off then," he recalled. "The
manager posed for the picture with all of us. Everybody
came. They said, ’Thank you for your hard work,
goodbye, it was nice knowing you.’ "
Only two days before his scheduled departure,
Cotterill’s sentence was commuted by a sympathetic
executive who arranged to have him assigned to a new
project. Cotterill thought he would be able to keep
working at Agilent until his 55th birthday in August of
this year, when he would qualify for early retirement.
His elation didn’t last. Earlier this year, Cotterill
was called back to the manager’s office and told his
last day would be May 28. "They didn’t have to explain
it again," he said. "They just gave me the papers and
said, ’Thanks for understanding.’ "
He received the standard package for long-term
HP/Agilent employees: six months’ severance pay plus
another two months’ wages if he signed an agreement to
not sue the company. He would not participate in the
early-retirement program, which would have provided
slightly better benefits.
For months, Cotterill had watched as foreign IT
personnel began occupying cubicles in his work area.
They were employees of Satyam Computer Services Ltd.,
the Indian firm hired to take over most of Agilent’s IT
operations. Some stayed in Santa Clara, and some went
back to India to oversee the work of other programmers.
A Satyam executive declined to discuss the firm’s work
at Agilent.
Last month, Cotterill received a memo informing him he
would be taking part in the Knowledge Transfer process.
"Hello All," it began. "Attached is the first draft of
the training calendar for the KT. If you are being sent
this message, you are one of the trainers."
His role involved preparing material for presentation
to the replacements. For the most part, he avoided
contact with them.
"They’re all glad to be here making money," he said. "I
don’t know if they’re aware they’re taking our jobs or
they don’t care."
Cotterill said he blames Agilent’s U.S. managers, not
the Indian programmers, for what he regards as the
betrayal of American workers.
"Twenty years ago, they said there were all these
white-collar jobs and that if you got your training,
you’d be OK. Then they outsourced that," he said. "It’s
not good for the country. I’ve occasionally thought
they should reopen the House Un-American Activities
Committee and bring all the CEOs up to Congress."
Cotterill tried to find another position inside
Agilent, without success. He applied for a tech job in
the marketing department. As part of the process, he
was asked to write a 500-word article presenting
Agilent’s perspective on outsourcing.
The story he turned in probably took his interviewers
aback. "Agilent CEO Ned Barnholt attacked over eight
quarters of consecutive losses with all the tools at
his disposal," he wrote. "Across-the-board layoffs,
downsizing and outsourcing were the implements of
choice in his management arsenal for guiding the
company back to profitability, if only for the short
term."
He decided not to pursue the job, which would have
involved a pay cut.
Only days before his scheduled departure last week,
another Agilent executive helped him lodge a last-ditch
appeal to extend his employment for at least 12 weeks
so he could qualify for early retirement. It was not
until late Thursday that he learned the request had
been rejected.
"The difficult reality is that your situation is one of
many where someone has a very real reason for
requesting a WFM [Workforce Management] termination
delay," the memo stated.
"However, it is imperative that we consistently set
termination dates based on business need. So while we
certainly understand your reasons for wanting a delay,
we must maintain adherence to the WFM policy and with
the business decision that has been made by IT
management."
Although Cotterill has lost faith in Agilent, he hasn’t
given up on the computer industry. He has lined up a
two-week contract with a small consulting company, and
a manager at Agilent wants him to do several months of
consulting on an unfinished project. The catch: He
would receive less pay and no benefits.
Meanwhile, he has been applying for jobs online and
received callbacks from four IT recruiters. Three of
them had Indian accents, he said. Among the first
questions they asked: "Can you work in the U.S.?"
Friday afternoon, Cotterill cleared his desk and turned
in his computer gear. His manager approached him and
apologized for not arranging a department luncheon.
They talked for a few minutes, then the manager began
preparing a Functional Exit Interview Memo he wanted
Cotterill to sign.
"When he started filling it out, he asked me how to
spell my name," Cotterill said. "I’ve been working for
him three years, and he still didn’t know how to spell
my name."