Comments about ‘200 to lose Novell jobs in Provo’

"It's more of a redistribution. ... That's the basis for this action."
Typical corporate bull speak. What they really are trying to say is "We can make a lot more money on the bottom line by employing cheap software engineers in India where they work for pennies on the dollar compared to the US."

The Indians.......... Again! First Custer now this!!

Why does this happen every year just before the holidays. Where are your hearts? Merry Christmas, you've just been fired!
Where also is the love of country and the American people? Loyalty isn't in Novells vocabulary it seems.

This is one more step in recognition of the high cost of the American lifestyle.

Support your President and have your job go to India if not somewhere else at the same time the big Corps have tax breaks on the back of the American citizen who we know means nothing in the eyes/hearts of the Bush economic world.

Worried Grandma.....exactly what time of year is a good time of year for this type of news?

Novell lost its focus when the leadership was outsourced to non-Provo natives. the proprietary software business does not allow the rifted employees to readily get a job because they don't know the up to date software/computer languages. i have heard that they are allowing folks to use the facilities to find a new job. i applaud Novell for that recent development. I suspect Novell will eventually be fully outsourced to India within 5 years and their building will be vacant in Provo. Novell and WordPerfect are just a few of the early triumphs and late crashes in Utah county industry. Perhaps if Novell was a multilevel marketed firm they would have done better. Folks like to know they are fully invested not to be thrown out with the trash and every false wind of doctrine.

Those laid off workers will just have to work in the service industry, competing for those jobs Americans won't do.
Has anybody noticed that we are losing out on both counts?
I'm sure when these programmers lose their jobs and go to work in fast food just to get by, Washington will see it as a strong economy with a falling unemployment rate. Here at home we'll announce that Utah has full employment and strong job growth.
Don't our elected officials see that the quality of the jobs has slipped? Or do they know the whole story but hope we don't get it?

Buy Apple. Their networking doesn't charge per seat and none of the coding is done in India!

Having worked for Novell for 17 years I can speak from experience when I say that the layoffs are not over. Expect more layoffs the first or second qtr of 2008 - it's the Novell way! Also, thank George W Bush for his infamous outsourcing agenda.

Our company set up a software development site in India two years ago and it's been nothing but problems. The culture in "high tech India" is such that nobody stays in one job more than a few months--there's always greener pastures at the "new company" moving into Chennai or Bangalore or wherever.
With software development, it can take between 6 and 12 months to come up to speed. Many Indian developers leave a company before that time. As a result, you have many unqualified, inexperienced Indian developers trying to maintain products "off-shore". Quality suffers in a big way, and customer satisfaction and loyalty wanes. Before you know it, the product is dying and you have to "cash cow" it until it's totally dead.
Does this make U.S. software companies "more efficient"? No. More competetive? Well, yes, but only because all the corporate bean counters here have the same flawed vision, are following like sheep to India, and can't see the ultimate effects that these moves are having on their companies and on our nation. We're destroying our economic strength, our technological edge, and our quality ethic. Why? So we can show a profit for the quarter.
It's called short-term vision.

Well, I'm not a 3rd World Native--YET! But if this keeps up, we all will be. We first lost our agriculture, then our heavy industry, then our light industry, now our technical companies are moving off shore, and our construction and mining is being done by non-US workers. "Service" work is a joke, too.
Doesn't anybody else see the handwriting on the wall? This is not a Republican or Democrat issue, people--this is the results of many, many years of policies of both political parties, big labor unions, the environmentalist movement, inflation caused by deficiet spending, and yes, our demands for an ever more affluent lifestyle--after all, the media tells us in every advertisement that we "deserve it."
While our attention is turned to our favorite sports teams, which media star is doing what, and what juicy scandals are going on, and while each political party is accusing the other of blame, our house is falling around us!
I don't know the solution, but I'm truly scared for the future of my grandchildren. They will be living in a 3rd world economy--and soon.

I would have to agree with nuclearpooptide, this article is nothing but ambiguous corporate manage-ese. Novell has been sending jobs to India for the last 10 years and the reality is that does not work even Novell will praise it's successes. Now Novell products are going to Mexico and Novell will think this will be another great success but in the end it is what the customers will think.

The second Noorda retired the company became destine to fail. The peckers in Waltham Mass. are fools.

to 3rd world native,

your grandchildren will not be living in a 3rd world economy because by then India will be the "developed" nation and the US will be the 3rd world economy. And they will have moved from here to there in order to survive, just as many Indians had moved from India to the US to take advantage of our university education and get jobs here. The tables are turning. Do you speak Hindi?

I cannot believe all the comments I am reading.. What is wrong with you people?? You want the government to 'fix' this???!! Why don't we all just work for the government...oh...never mind..that is called communism. People are free to choose who they will associate with, but companies cannot? Think about it... when you outsource (think Wal Mart here...), all products become cheaper. Thus we all can afford to buy more things. It is not moral, it is not political...it is simple economics. Economics is just like the law of gravity...you cannot fight it!

@nuclearpooptide:

I dont' really think they're running away from your statement. They say it like somebody with an MBA, but nobody is denying that this is an effort to increase profit.

@Worried Grandma

Novell does layoffs in Oct because that is the end of their fiscal year, thus it is the deadline.


While emotionally wrentching, those being laid off will flouish. They'll quickly find new jobs, take their checks of $20,000 - $40,000, and be that much closer to having their houses paid off. They'll look back and say "I never want to relive it, but it turned out OK."

I've never met a formal Novell employee who didn't do just fine afterward. Many (but not all) are kind of relieved.

Economics is not a natural law like gravity. It is the outcome of human behavior. So are public laws and policies. They interact with economics to produce an outcome. If you change a law, policy, or behavior, you will change the economic outcome. We made changes in recent decades and these are the results. We can make more changes and get different results. The problem is that the middle class has been sold a bill of goods by the upper class and if we don't act quickly by our actions at the ballot box we will soon find ourselves in the lower class with no middle class.

This globalization has been more opposed by labor and the environmental movement than by any other segment of society. Localization is a better solution. Trade should only meet needs that can't be met locally.

This cycle of business has been going for a long time. I am surprised how shocked people are that this is happening. Yes, some of the things are written are true. Indians do tend to move jobs a lot but so do Americans. Novell isn't the only company changing in the Tech industry. I work for intel and they have redeployed aka laid off a lot of people the past 18 months but it is just a business cycle and should be expected. The problem with some individuals is they use the GM or IBM model of working for 40 and getting a retirement. The tech industry is too dynamic to expect that and Utahns should know that is part of the game.

All this "Lou Dobbs" U.S. patriotism and protectionism is sickening. While we're saving Novell by electing protectionists, let's bring back Geneva Steel. We operate in a Capitalistic economy, learn to deal with it people.