Thread regarding Verizon Communications Inc. layoffs

CMB,

Welcome to the USA as a citizen.

You did it right.

MAGA!!!

@pgl what??? man...

Not sure if this helps anyone but as an immigrant, here is kind of my story and what I am thinking for the future:

• Came to the US in 98 on a work visa H1-B. Company that hired me applied for my LPR/GC after a couple of years working for them. Those days Green Card timelines were much shorter, especially for people from India and China. I think at that point my application was in the EB-3 (Employment based 3rd preference category. EB-2 is for those with an advanced degree etc and EB-1 for folks with demonstrated outstanding potential..think well known business executive or very talented & recognized professional). If I had stuck around with that firm, I probably would have gotten my permanent residency by 2003.

• However the bug of getting an MBA got into my brain, so after taking the GMATs and all that I got admitted to the MBA program at Dartmouth as a full time student...and therein was the first dilemma. As a full time student I would have to move to an F-1 visa which does not allow for being a legal permanent resident. In fact to get an F-1 visa you have to demonstrate an intent to return back to your home country after your education and off-campus training are over. How f---ed up is is that now I had to go from a green card application pending in the works to cancelling that and now demonstrating that I would have intent to return to home country. The owner of the company I was working for was open to continuing my green card application if I promised to come work for them after my MBA..but I had bigger dreams and could not in good conscience do that. So my Green Card counter now gets set back to zero. I was married at that time and my wife was on a H-4 visa (dependent of an H1B visa holder) and by law not allowed to work. My getting a green card would have allowed her to work legally. She was an advertising executive with Ogilvy & Mather in Mumbai and doing quite well but accompanying me to the US meant she had to sit home and be a housewife by law.

I think it is much harder on the spouses of those who come to the US for work, especially in the earlier years. After a couple of years my wife did find a company that would give her a job and sponsor her H1B visa but that certainly came with a loss of career progression and even having to completely change her industry. But hey, not everything in life is guaranteed to be a bed of roses and after all we did make it to the US...so fair price to pay I suppose (yeah, I am saying and she is paying the price).

• After my MBA and $100K in student loans, I got a job with a Multinational company in California and again I find myself on an H1B visa working for my new corporate masters. Survived many layoffs and reorganizations as I was keenly aware that if you get laid off /rightsized (what a sanitized b---s--- word at that) on an H1B, you have about 10 days to leave the country. Couldn't let that happen to self and wife. During this time I also discovered how I was underpaid compared to my peers even though I was a ‘rockstar’ (management’s words not mine). But see the thing is when you are on a work visa, they have you by the curlies since you don’t have too many options (other than to find another employer who would also agree to sponsor your visa and then the curlies would change hands if you will, that’s all, and not all employers sponsor visas, in fact most don’t. Many of the American companies that come to campus for recruitment won’t consider international candidates who need a work visa. Consulting companies, Wall Street and Tech companies - generally not a problem. So Ford or General Electric wouldn’t want me but I could work for McKinsey or Goldman Sachs – nice!

Need for a visa also ensures that unlike my US born colleagues I could not consider jobs with cool startups, many major American firms and other niche companies. And at work you get to learn to hold your tongue more than your colleagues have to since they can’t be screwed over by the boss to the same extent you can…though being an ENTP Sagittarian, I was not necessarily successful at it (hence eventually EGTOW – sort of like MGTOW but for Employees ha ha.). That was a stressful decade of work and managing psychological equanimity for self and family. Interspersed were events such as them making errors in my Green Card application that cost a year to redo the process and the ever retrograde movement in Green Card Priority dates by the USCIS (priority dates are the cutoff dates that indicate which applications the USCIS are currently working on. One fine evening I discovered that I was 2 years further from my Green Card than I was that morning, thanks to an Update om Priority dates from the fine folk at USCIS. Needless to say much secretion of adrenaline and cortisol followed such news and around that time I think I had my first heartburn and esophageal spasm I think. But life goes on. At least I am not stuck in Bangladesh like those other unfortunate people. Somehow I recall that at that time I also got my MENSA membership and went to a couple of events – many socially odd people there I tell you.

• Finally in 2011 I got my Green Card and later that year asked my boss to organize my layoff – should have seen his face! He did come through for me after over a year and in that time I had to balance between showing low enthusiasm and morale for work while not slacking of so much so that anything bad happened to my department (had team of 8 reporting to me) or that I got fired immediately…that added its own stress but it was balanced by the enthusiasm with which I was making plans for my soon to be newfound freedom (5 month motorcycle trip, location independent living etc). During this period I also was the best boss my team ever had as no vacation request was denied and eventually I even stopped keeping track of their off days – I think everyone wanted to be on my team.. ha ha.

The benefit of being laid-off versus straight up leaving was that I got a 10 month severance package with full medical while also being eligible for unemployment (thank you California labor laws) – that was my Shawshank redemption (what a movie by the way!)

• Since then (6 years now) I have been my own investment advisor and have lived overseas for many months, walked across Spain – Camino Frances, rode my motorcycle all over the west, lived in different parts of the country and am free of the burdens and pretensions of paid employment.

• I applied for my US citizenship around 6 yrs after I had my Green Card (earliest possible is after 5 years of Green Card) and after clearing a background check and an interview I found myself along with over a 1000 people at the Jack London Theater in Oakland being sworn in as a United States Citizen. – almost 20 years after I came to the country as a hopeful but slightly unsure 25 year old. I’m glad the lights were dimmed in the auditorium for the onscreen presentation and welcome message from the President because suddenly everything I was seeing became blurry and distorted and yet I could see everything clearly as all the memories of the stuff above and a whole lot of other stuff that I have not mentioned came at me like a rubber mallet – you feel the impact but can’t quite put your finger on the exact spot. “Welcome to the United States” – it said on the screen. I started at that for a long time (also I was hoping my eyes would dry before the lights came on and people started congratulating their fellow citizens on either side of them).

Well, if you don't want the jobs to go away, work for less money and benefits. That way you can feel that someone cares.

Well you better call Trump...he ain't doing nothing about keeping jobs. Gave corporations tax breaks and they still laying off and offshoring. Guess America won't be great!

Are you surprised the company that forces it's employees to scab for its union employees has 0 respect for workers rights?

There is nothing we can do...

It's all about profits.