Apologies for being away the last few days. I’ve been having back problems that made it difficult to work at a computer for very long. Anyway, time to get back to business. Tough economic times brings with it the ire of nationalism and whether companies should make decisions that are not only in their own best interest, but also in the country’s and local communities best interest. We can debate the merits of nationalism but this situation is different because of the US taxpayer dollars being spent on the TARP bank bailouts and the economic stimulus package. There’s not a clear indication Microsoft will directly benefit from the stimulus package but you’ve gotta believe Microsoft will be head long into getting their share of project monies for things like automating patients’ medical record data.
According to this Computer World article, Microsoft was the top U.S.-based recipient of H-1B visas in 2008, receiving approval for 1,037 visas. I can’t say I’ve hired any large number of H-1B visa employees but I have been all the way through the process with a few employees who went from H-1B to U.S. citizen and it was no cakewalk. Here the question for Microsoft is whether they would hire H-1Bs in place of candidates who are U.S. citizens qualified for the same job. Arguably H-1Bs are generally assumed to be less expensive.
But doesn’t Microsoft have an obligation to hire U.S. citizens or avoid layoffs rather than hire H-1B temporary workers? The answer is technically no, though I have a different perspective about that. The same question could be asked about offshoring jobs vs. hiring U.S. workers.
The greed of Wall Street we’ve all come to loath extends far beyond just Wall Street. In my opinion, companies have forgotten, if not abandoned, any sense of putting first anything other than revenues, profits and stock prices. We no longer have any sense corporate citizenship. Call it a casualty of moving to a global economy. Call it old fashion and outdated thinking. Call it impractical or socialistic. You can call it whatever you want but I still believe companies have an obligation to act in ways that are more than just in their own interest. Isn’t this short minded thinking part how we got into this economic mess in the first place?
If anything you could say the Democrat’s take over of the White House and much of the Senate as a strong message that we want more than the profit “at any cost”, business as usual kind of thinking businesses exhibit today. I think most of use would really rather not legislate “nationalism” but rather we’d like companies and their executives to do the right things to help our economy and the American worker. But we’ve also learned that left unfettered, greed frequently takes control and results in decisions we may later regret. We used to claim our business valued three key constituents: stockholders, customers and employees, but it’s arguable that employees (and often times customers) hold anything close to the same priority as stockholders.
Microsoft’s H-1B visa hiring in 2009 – Should it be business as usual, hiring some 1000+ H-1B visa applicants over U.S. citizens? Or should Microsoft redirect some of those jobs to laid off employees and out of work U.S. citizens? In the end Microsoft will do what’s in it’s best interest, and each of us must answer these questions for ourselves. From my perspective, I want a healthy U.S. economy leading the way in the global economy, thanks to a healthy employed U.S. workforce, versus seeing more jobs move offshore. Call me old fashioned but I believe you’ve got to take care of home first. Microsoft should hire the H-1Bs that really can only be filled that way, and look to the highly skilled and available talent of the U.S. workforce for the bulk of hiring needed here. From a practical standpoint, Microsoft should also do this to avoid any future negative press for not creating enough new jobs in the U.S. Wouldn’t it be great if Microsoft set the example for creating new jobs?
Like this? Here are some of Mitchell’s recent posts.
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