Ok, so this is definitely off topic, but we've had good conversations on off topic things in the past here, so here goes... I was curious if anyone works with any outsourced or offshored workers? In my case, I work with developers in Ukraine. Their arrogance is astounding. They are clueless on a lot of things, which is fine. I've never had a problem with inexperienced workers. However, they just defend and defend, even though it's obvious that they have no knowledge of the topic. A lot of the time, they don't work on what is assigned or are late to get started. Furthermore, the lying just kills me. They make up stuff all the time, and provide misinformation to various people in the company, especially when they CC the CEO with this misinformation or spam half the company. For example, things like "we contacted so-and-so once every two weeks on this issue" when nobody was ever notified, and there's email records to prove so. I am pretty confident, that were it not for the fact that their salaries are considerably less, that they would've been terminated long ago.

So, I have a few questions.

A) Has anyone encountered this?
B) Do you think these are just cultural issues or issues with these individual workers?
C) Any tips for handling?

They are just really over protective about their culture. A way to handle it,is to become friends with them, find a way to relate to them and then they will do everything as asked. At the same time, it may n ot have anything to do with the culture and they can just be lazy people who will say anything to have you say ok and leave.(I was born here but my family is from Ukraine).

Posted by anklebraker:

They are just really over protective about their culture. A way to handle it,is to become friends with them, find a way to relate to them and then they will do everything as asked. At the same time, it may n ot have anything to do with the culture and they can just be lazy people who will say anything to have you say ok and leave.(I was born here but my family is from Ukraine).

Thanks for the response. I'm not sure how to relate to them. At every juncture they think of others and myself as the enemy and new accusations come flying out, which are almost always unfounded. If I were to let them implement their ideas, the product would fail.

I guess it would be different, but their inexperience combined with the arrogance is their biggest crutch. There are a lot of areas where they just don't have the experience to know that choice A may be an A approach, choice B may be a B+ approach, choice C may be a C- approach and their idea may be a D- or F approach. So, instead of cooperating they just argue and argue and don't get things done.

Do you think it's possible to get them to work in a team environment or is trying this just a waste of time? So far it has been, but I'm not sure if there's an alternate approach that could be applied. There's been a lot of insubordination from their side. To some extent, the problem is the company, because the foreign workers are allowed a pass due to their cheap salaries.

You guys should be happy you have jobs. I got laid off for the second time in 8 months last Wednesday (both IT jobs.)

Posted by nyk4ever:

You guys should be happy you have jobs. I got laid off for the second time in 8 months last Wednesday (both IT jobs.)

Nyk, we may have an open position at my company. It's a gaming company. Are you open to working in Manhattan? If so, I can pass a resume along if you're interested. Our IT/Systems guy is a buddy of mine. I'll put in a good word.

Posted by nyk4ever:

Posted by Solace:

Posted by nyk4ever:

You guys should be happy you have jobs. I got laid off for the second time in 8 months last Wednesday (both IT jobs.)

Nyk, we may have an open position at my company. It's a gaming company. Are you open to working in Manhattan? If so, I can pass a resume along if you're interested. Our IT/Systems guy is a buddy of mine. I'll put in a good word.

Possibly. What kind of position is it? I don't have any coding experience and I'm pretty sure that's what you do.

I'm weighing my options at the current time; thinking about getting into teaching.

I think we're looking for someone to be an assistant to the system admin and do help desk sorts of tasks for clients. No programming required. A job description was sent out to the company a while ago. I'll see if I can dig it out.

I don't work in IT/programming, but we sometimes send out some graphic design/publishing stuff to the Phillipines. They aren't arrogant or mean, they just aren't very good....

Where do you go on 6th. I really like Banjara.....

My apologies, nyk, I found out today that the position was just filled.

If another one comes along that's in your area or the new guy doesn't work out for some reason, I'll let you know.

Posted by Solace:

My apologies, nyk, I found out today that the position was just filled.

If another one comes along that's in your area or the new guy doesn't work out for some reason, I'll let you know.

Thanks Solace.