Greensboring.com | Greensboro, NC

Saw this today on CNN's web site: Boss says he'd rather hire foreigners. The boss in question is a self-made man (GAWD how I hate those! Whenever I see one, I want to take a copy of Dickens' "Hard Times" and shove it down his smug little throat...) who runs a little internet start-up called Eateria. According to the story, he thinks Americans are useless, compared to foreign workers. Why?

He values his six American employees as much as he does his two European workers. But the three employees he's fired so far -- all American -- have shown a lack of ambition.

One former employee was an account manager who had the nasty habit of going absent without explanation. On four separate occasions, she sent Ayeni text messages saying, "On my way," but she never showed up.

Another was a sales agent who refused to attend meetings. The third was a sales agent who claimed to be working from a nearby Starbucks but didn't produce a single account in 90 days.

Yeah, that's right: this guy has hired all of ELEVEN PEOPLE, and that makes him an expert on the state of the American work ethic! Meanwhile, I've been out of the career I was working hard to be successful at, meeting all my deadlines, getting good reviews from my managers... and I've had to handle debt, sicknesses (including CANCER fer cryin' out loud!) and endless classes to try and develop new skills -- then THIS Bozo comes along to tell the world that Americans are lazy, worthless and over-priced compared to all the hard-working immigrants around town. He thinks Americans don't feel driven. That we don't have as much at stake as foreigners.

My life has been slowly falling into tattered shreds for nearly three years now. I'm trying desperately to start some new career ANYWHERE, and planning to work most likely until I'm 70 or older, just to have a CHANCE at having a few years to finally relax in a pathetic retirement in the only house I have ever had a chance to buy. Don't bloody tell ME I don't have enough at stake to make me a worthwhile employee.

Bastards.

Honestly, (I know this is not a surprise) I completely agree with him.

Though there are exceptions, and there was a time when Americans were the hardest workers of all- most likely your generation and before. This American ethic, in my opinion has expired. There are always exceptions of course, but having seen both sides of the Atlantic, I'd agree with this:

"Here in the United States, we do a lot of talking," he said. "Foreign people talk less. They just do. Results is what pays the bills."

He also mentions a sense of American entitlement, which we all know is true.

American laziness is a disease. I see it at my University where kids are ride a bus the half mile from the parking lot to school rather than walk.

Tell me this, if you can't walk a couple blocks every day, how are you going to handle the hard decisions of a real world job with consequences that affect other people.

Give me a European graduate any day.

My objection is the broad brushstrokes used. It hits me, you, my son... everyone. I know many Indian contractors that I worked with who were at least as lazy and incompetent as any sitcom buffoon you could find... yet THEY felt entitled to their job because they had been hired by an Indian boss.

I got let go from my job because I could be "replaced" by two Indian guys living in some place in India, in spite of what I could offer intangibly, such as my communication skills and decades of knowledge of the business I had worked for.

Now I face not only prejudice on account of my being unemployed and old, but I have to face the prejudice that I'm a lazy, self-centered lump simply because I was born here? That's purest BS of the stinkiest kind.

I know it sucks, and I'm sorry, but for the most part- we're just cattle.

To be honest, I didn't equate this with outsourcing originally, but I understand how you feel about the situation. Except we live in a capitalist society where McDonald's will buy the beef from the cheapest supplier.

The answer is of course, is to stop being the sheep, and become the shepherd.

This goes back to the whole "all you need to make it in the U.S. is an English accent" meme.

Oh wait, do you have a North Face jacket? That could be your problem?

Liv wrote:The answer is of course, is to stop being the sheep, and become the shepherd.

No. The answer is NOT to play the sure-lose game of "I wanna be a rich bastard, too!" Working class people need to unite and demand an end to greed-fueled exploitation and the drive toward Third World status for the entire country.

Liv wrote:Oh wait, do you have a North Face jacket? That could be your problem?

I only wear stuff that advertises my attitude and my favorite school.

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:

Liv wrote:The answer is of course, is to stop being the sheep, and become the shepherd.

No. The answer is NOT to play the sure-lose game of "I wanna be a rich bastard, too!" Working class people need to unite and demand an end to greed-fueled exploitation and the drive toward Third World status for the entire country.

That's not happening in America.

Americans will willingly remain the slaves of the world, the cattle of capitalism as long as their corn-fed beef diet keeps their bellies full and fat, and they have enough surplus money to buy the latest gadget from China, to waste away their free time watching Honey Boo boo (or whatever that darn show is).

You want to see a revolution in America, find a airborne pathogen that kills all the corn crops in the U.S.

Starve America and you'll get your revolution.

The only way out is to become a slave owner yourself or get the Hell out of Dodge.