CSX laying off 137 IT department jobs

CSX is laying off its entire IT workforce and replacing it with an outsourcing company Tata Consultancy Services. Some of the in house workforce is expected to be offered employment with TCS.

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... s-it-jobs/

I'd be shocked if CSX had only 137 people in IT.

By comparison, my airline has over 2,000 not including the contractors.

We also use TCS to handle what's referred to as core support. That's the developers who monitor systems to make sure they're running, review logs for errors, and test/deploy new changes. They handle tasks that require the least amount of intuition or knowledge to perform. They follow instructions from a runbook.

What TCS doesn't do for us is anything requiring decisions or judgment calls. Tasks such as designing code or our architecture, security design or maintaining our networks are still inhouse and likely will remain that way. That's not something you want to lose visibility or accountability over.

The first line in the JAX SUN article:

CSX Corp. is partnering with an India-based company to outsource some of its information technology services, affecting 137 jobs.

Eolesen, I suggest you edit your post subject header

Not my post header....

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Typically, if American jobs are going to Tata, they're going to India, and Americans will be out of work. That's Tata's specialty - exporting US jobs to India, typically in IT.

Cowford wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 8:20 am The first line in the JAX SUN article:

CSX Corp. is partnering with an India-based company to outsource some of its information technology services, affecting 137 jobs.

Eolesen, I suggest you edit your post subject header

It was actually mine. How does one edit that - does a reply changing the subject do the trick?

photobug56 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 8:46 pm Typically, if American jobs are going to Tata, they're going to India, and Americans will be out of work. That's Tata's specialty - exporting US jobs to India, typically in IT.

It did say some of the displaced employees will be offered employment at Tata. But what the difference in pay/benefits are may be the key thing. Some of Tata's services are yes located overseas and they and some other outsourcing firms have gotten criticism for their use of H1B visas and many feel these outsourcing firms use of H1B is not the original intent of the program (the idea of H1B was to assist American tech firms in acquiring enough technologically skilled knowledge workers as in some fields there simply aren't enough domestic candidates with the education and skills in the numbers required at these tech firms), but we do not know the details of what specific IT jobs are being outsourced and where they will be located and whether any employees are being replaced by overseas based employees or visa employees. As someone who works in IT these sorts of cuts strike close to home and getting your job outsourced is always a fear and there have been some stories of some companies who have been rather ruthless when outsourcing IT to contracted firms - including forcing outgoing employees to train their contractor replacement under the threat of termination for cause and the resulting loss of severance - whether any of that is happening here is unclear as again apparently they hope to transition some employees over to the contractor.

I think one has to be careful saying things like "outsourcing jobs to India" which is why I edited my original post on this matter - its important when discussing this that we not be appearing to be having animosity or resentment towards the workers of such companies and that this be discussed in a respectful manner - workers in and from countries like India and others who work for companies like Tata are simply trying to make a living as much as anyone. Also importantly just because one comes across someone with Indian heritage in the tech field does not mean they are a H1B Visa holder or an Indian citizen or that it is an outsourced job - there are many Americans with Indian heritage. I think one critical and negatively affected by these sorts of cuts should direct the criticism and animosity towards corporate management and the Wall Street culture of ROI without any sort of moral consideration - ultimately companies have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders and investors - not their workforce. However where we are at this point in time there is also the question of staffing - as we have all seen there is shortage of workers in many fields in recent years - and if companies cannot find employees on their own for these types of jobs we may see more of these types of moves - though again we do not know the specifics of CSX's reasons for doing this. I do hope Tata is compensating their employees appropriately - both domestically and overseas.

TCS will usually try to have a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio of US based workers and offshore workers in India. Someone needs to be available during the daylight hours and onsite for coordination, but with travel restrictions and visa availability, some of that is also being covered from offshore on US hours.

I get the fear of outsourcing. It's been around for at least 20+ years and I've seen it go from 10% to 100% to 40%... 40% seems to be a reasonable compromise even with the move to cloud.

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I guess the best thing you can try to do which is what I do is make yourself as difficult to lay off and replace as possible through work ethic.

Yeah, I know a few people who tried to make themselves irreplaceable...

They didn't do anything unethical - they willingly shared their thought processes on why certain questionably necessary functions worked the way they did, and provided justifications to keep outdated complex methods and processes....

They were some of the first people cut when Covid layoffs happened because they let on how open they were to change (they weren't).

Real survivors know when to look for a new house than to try cleaning up or rebuilding an entire neighborhood...