Flashback: After Taking A $10 Billion Bailout, Goldman Sachs Announces It Will Outsource 1,000 Jobs

[think]

After Taking A $10 Billion Bailout, Goldman Sachs Announces It Will Outsource 1,000 Jobs To Singapore

BY SCOTT KEYES JUN 28, 2011 12:50 PM

Less than three years after receiving $10 billion in bailout money from American taxpayers, Goldman Sachs informed its employees recently that it will fire 1,000 workers in the United States and elsewhere, shifting their jobs to the cheaper Singaporean labor market.

According to Fox Business, Goldman Sachs has quietly informed workers and lawmakers of its plan to outsource 1,000 jobs in an attempt to inoculate itself from the impending blowback:

Goldman is so concerned about the potential for criticism that the firm’s representatives have been alerting staffers of lawmakers in Washington of the hiring spree in recent weeks as a way to mollify any concerns they may have about previously undisclosed plans to add 1,000 jobs to the firm’s Singapore office, according to people in Washington with direct knowledge if the matter. Goldman is concerned about criticism because it is adding those jobs while it is planning what could be a significant retrenchment in its U.S. workforce, these people say.

Goldman Sachs has also worked to protect itself by hiring former Republican Sen. Judd Gregg (NH) as an “international advisor.” It is not unreasonable to assume that Gregg’s 26 years in Washington will help the investment firm’s attempts to placate critics....


Read more:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/28/255724/goldman-sachs-outsource-1000-jobs-singapore/

[antigop]

1. and how many of those 1,000 workers supported Republicans or corporate Democrats? nt

[think]

2. Good question. /nt

[Eleanors38]

23. Among Democrats, I can think of a likely recipient.

[antigop]

3. HRC: "Outsourcing will continue"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090702780.html

When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to New Delhi to meet with Indian business leaders in 2005, she offered a blunt assessment of the loss of American jobs across the Pacific. "There is no way to legislate against reality," she declared. "Outsourcing will continue. . . . We are not against all outsourcing; we are not in favor of putting up fences."

How many of those 1,000 workers thought they were immune from outsourcing?

[think]

6. I have friends who thought they were immune. Their jobs haven't been outsourced yet but they

are now watching other jobs in their companies being moved overseas and now see the hand writing on the wall.

[antigop]

8. it really is unbelievable, isn't it? Why do so many people think that bad sh*t always happens to

someone else?

[think]

10. It's unfortunate that people think like that until it's too late and it happens to them. Hopefully

people will wake up to the reality of the situation and start working to find solutions before the situation becomes unattainable ..

[SusanCalvin]

17. That's what allows garbage to happen. No imagination, no empathy. nt

[antigop]

9. and I will add...it will only get worse if we don't stand up to the corporatists in both parties. nt

[think]

11. Completely agree. The TPP is corporate law created by corporations for the corporations.

http://www.peoplesworld.org/european-activists-move-in-for-deathblow-on-ttip-trade-deal-after-leak/


https://theintercept.com/2015/05/12/cant-read-tpp-heres-huge-corporations-can/


This needs to stop....

[antigop]

13. And I really fear they will slam the TPP through in the lame-duck session. nt

[think]

14. Just written today: "Trade Backers Pin Pacific-Pact Hopes on Lame-Duck U.S. Congress"

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-03-22/trade-backers-pin-pacific-pact-hopes-on-lame-duck-u-s-congress

You hit the nail on the head...

[antigop]

15. Should I sigh or bang my head against the wall? nt

[SusanCalvin]

18. Sighing hurts less. Physical pain, anyway. nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

29. The friends I have that make the most - $150k to $250k and up - are in the outsourcing business.

One is an independent contractor working with a chocolate/candy maker moving operations to Panama.

A couple others are in tech. traveling back and forth to Singapore, Thailand and India.

That's where the money is.

(I do their mortgages so I know what people make)

[Octafish]

4. Just ''doin' God's work.''

Riiiiiiiiiiight, Lloyd?

[think]

5. Thank you for the laugh :)

[ananda]

7. The Clintons got theirs though.

Bless their greenback-lovin hearts.

[think]

12. Indeed they did...

[pansypoo53219]

16. ayn radians never have shame.

[SusanCalvin]

20. I still find it impossible to get my head completely around the fact

That there are people in the world who didn't outgrow her after high school.

[lpbk2713]

19. G/S Directors to terminated employees ...

"Screw you people. We'll give the money you might have earned
to a former GOP Senator who can grease a few palms."

[valerief]

21. The most important thing in the world is for rich people to get richer. Nothing else--absolutely

nothing else--matters.

That's the only rational way to understand our world.

[Baobab]

22. Race to the bottom

nt

[Herman4747]

24. Tell them to "Cut that out!", Hillary!

Next time your being bribed, oops, I mean being paid $225,000 for an hour of your time.

[Liberal_in_LA]

25. k&r

[RedCappedBandit]

26. Of course, their 'donations' have no influence on politics - whatsoever!

[sendero]

27. Every big company will outsource every job..

... they possibly can and some they cannot.

I work as a software engineer for a company that mostly maintains and improves legacy code for a certain sector of the economy. Most of the code is quite complex, filled with technical debt and not easy to work on even if you are on shore.

Several years ago a new VP of development was hired and his first meeting was to explain how we were going to take on some "offshore partners". This guy was clearly brought on to outsource as much of the development organization as possible. He made several promises about the nature of what was to come (time zones, which products would never be outsourced, etc) that were found to be empty promises in short order. Folks in middle management were on board with the idea saying (later proven to be idiotic, I already knew) "sure these guys can't perform as well as our onshore developers, but they only make $10 an hour".

Several year story long shortened, 90% of these teams FAILED. They could not do the work even after a year of experience and "training". The VP who was brought in resigned or was asked to leave. At this point there are still a couple of small teams doing the easiest stuff, even so they don't do a very good job.

The ONLY ONLY ONLY reason my job isn't in Bangalore is that they could not find people who could actually do it. But they are not going to stop trying, you can count on that.

[lpbk2713]

28. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Goes to show, the bean counters don't always have the most reliable ideas.

[bhikkhu]

30. In fairness, they paid it back in 2009, with interest

and they are generally rated among the best employers in the country. They employ about 35,000 people, mostly in the US. I would question the "cheaper Singaporean labor market" as well. Singapore is number one on the list of world cities for cost of living, higher than New York, San Francisco or Seattle. How cheap can labor be there? In any case, two years after this particular outsourcing, they hired 2,800 people, mostly graduates from Ivy league colleges.

I have no fondness for the business sector they inhabit, but they do fill a role.