Working for Bob

[donjuan75]

BOB?

someone PM me what this means. I can't figure it out! I'm sub-contracted by TCS at the moment, so it's all strikingly familiar. Contract renegotiation soon, which will be predictably painful

[Project Monkey]

someone PM me what this means. I can't figure it out! I'm sub-contracted by TCS at the moment, so it's all strikingly familiar. Contract renegotiation soon, which will be predictably painful

It's a derogatory, some would say prejudicial, term used frequently on here when referring to Indian IT consultancy company employees.

[donjuan75]

Moving on

So, get offered new, exciting role 2 weeks ago by client co. mention my contract with BobCo is up in 2 months. Client co tells Bob, get contract sorted ASAP.
BobCo decides not to extend my contract, despite performance, results, request from client.
So, no contract, no exciting new role and an angry client co.
First lesson of working for Bob - It's all about cost, and only cost. Soon to be replaced by offshore fella.
Ouchy

[mudskipper]

So, get offered new, exciting role 2 weeks ago by client co. mention my contract with BobCo is up in 2 months. Client co tells Bob, get contract sorted ASAP.
BobCo decides not to extend my contract, despite performance, results, request from client.
So, no contract, no exciting new role and an angry client co.
First lesson of working for Bob - It's all about cost, and only cost. Soon to be replaced by offshore fella.
Ouchy

No chance of going direct?

[donjuan75]

No chance of going direct?

There's a chance. But makes a mockery of the whole engagement with said company

[malvolio]

So, get offered new, exciting role 2 weeks ago by client co. mention my contract with BobCo is up in 2 months. Client co tells Bob, get contract sorted ASAP.
BobCo decides not to extend my contract, despite performance, results, request from client.
So, no contract, no exciting new role and an angry client co.
First lesson of working for Bob - It's all about cost, and only cost. Soon to be replaced by offshore fella.
Ouchy

If you've got documentary evidence of that - emails and the like - get in touch with PCG (I can get you the contact details). We will never stop offshoring until someone stands up and demonstrates with proof that genuine UK jobs are being given to offshore resources.It only needs one case to open the can of worms and get the press behind us.

[fullyautomatix]

So, get offered new, exciting role 2 weeks ago by client co. mention my contract with BobCo is up in 2 months. Client co tells Bob, get contract sorted ASAP.
BobCo decides not to extend my contract, despite performance, results, request from client.
So, no contract, no exciting new role and an angry client co.
First lesson of working for Bob - It's all about cost, and only cost. Soon to be replaced by offshore fella.
Ouchy

Sadly, its a win win for both the consultancy and the client co. Client co will get work done for just a fraction of the cost and hence will turn a blind eye. Consultancy will be able to use slave labour and make huge profits. For the bob, he probably works his ass off in Hyderabad for 16 hours a day.

The way the industry is going, it just might become too difficult to compete against the bob consultancies who are able to show that they can provide 10 bobs in place of one IT contractor. Its a disgrace.

[donjuan75]

hmmm

If you've got documentary evidence of that - emails and the like - get in touch with PCG (I can get you the contact details). We will never stop offshoring until someone stands up and demonstrates with proof that genuine UK jobs are being given to offshore resources.It only needs one case to open the can of worms and get the press behind us.

I don't think there are any laws being broken. We're just being fecked by globalisation.
What gets me is the preference for cost over quality. Surely that only works in the short term, if at all?

[rd409]

I don't think there are any laws being broken. We're just being fecked by globalisation.
What gets me is the preference for cost over quality. Surely that only works in the short term, if at all?

There used to be a time, when the life of an IT project was around 10 years. Client companies used the product for quite some time. Quality of the work was a major criteria then. Now-a-days by the time the project is delivered, the requirements have changed or the working pattern has changed, so there is continuous development phase after phase. In such circumstances, CXO will look at the cost first. If a UK professional does 1 project for x GBP, and if the offshore team can do the same project albeit lower quality, but at x/2 GBP, that would be sufficient to win the project, and also plan for the next phases.
There still are some places where the quality of the code is still values, but they are getting rarer year by year.

[malvolio]

I don't think there are any laws being broken. We're just being fecked by globalisation.
What gets me is the preference for cost over quality. Surely that only works in the short term, if at all?

Laws only reflect the public perception of what is right. If we can persuade Joe Public that HMG are not only sending existing jobs overseas but also stopping UK nationals having any chance of learning enough to take those jobs, the abuse of ICTs stops. That needs the national press. The national press, post Leveson, won't move until they have a demonstrable case for HMG to answer. We all know it's happpening but nobody has yet handed over a piece of paper with the proof. Do that, and Cable's whole house of cards will fall down.

All the ducks are lined up ready to go: all we need is proof.