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Work, visa, contracts, angst
Mar. 1st, 2006 10:36 amFor those of you who don't know, I work for the worlds third largest IT outsourcing company. I originally joined to company to work on a contract in the London office of big Investment Bank (IB); this was part of a 7 year deal. Two years later I wangled my way to being sent to New York to work (same contract, same department, different location) so I could be with Tori. Also at this time, the bank merged with big consumer bank (all the large consumer banks have some small IB area, but this was mostly a consumer bank). Mostly my area dealt with IB, so it didn't affect us much; IB was still outsourced to my employer, consumer banking was still inhouse.
A year or so passes, then the new bigger bank decide to outsource most of the rest (some small areas left insourced). We, naturally, applied to do the job, but eventually they gave it to IBM and transferred a lot of bank employees to IBM. Because IB loved us so much IBM were told that we had to be used as a subcontractor. This caused us some headaches, loss of revenue and having to do end-runs around IBM obstacles to keep the bank happy, but it worked. I got transferred to a security role in IB.
Then the bank merged with another big consumer bank (with some IB...), to create the 2nd (or 3rd; it's close) biggest bank in America. The new head guy is very very anti-outsourcing (he'd kicked IBM out of his bank in the past). So they insourced the IBM role (brought back all the employees). My company was still there providing basically a body-shop service now, not a proper outsourcing deal. A few months later the bank insources that company.
Except me.
Becuase I can only work in America with permission from Immigration. My work permission only allowed me to work for the one company... ie my original company and not big bank. So my company and the bank get together and as part of the early contract termination they agree to keep hiring me via my company until such a time as they can bring me in as an employee. At a massively exhorborant rate (about 225% of my salary).
The bank aims to get me a H1B visa; that will let me work directly for them. They had months to do it. They had all the paperwork. And... they file one day too late; all the quotas for the 2006 financial year (US government financial year starts October the year before; Oct 2005 in this case) had already been allocated. The bank can not hire me.
Dammit! Well, at least I stay on as a consultant. *sigh*
December comes along... my contract in the billing system used needs to be "renewed" so that my employer can keep invoicing the bank for my time. Nothing happens... by my January the two companies sort it out, but my bank manager tells me that IB management won't sign off at that level again, so Mar 3rd (when the renewal needs to happen again) will require my company to reduce their rates or else they won't renew.
So I talk to my employer HR department and contracts department; they assure me that the bank has no choice and they'll talk to the bank people. Ok...
Two weeks ago, my bank manager tells me "Well, you're up for renewal but not at that rate. We're reducing rates for everyone and you are too far above the rate card. Your employer need to drop their price". I tell my HR this and they say "haha no; bank signed a deal". I tell the bank that and they say "well, if prices don't drop we won't renew".
So here I am, a little gnat in between two giant companies both playing chicken with my job. Lack of sleep, stress about whether I'll have a job, and thus even be able to stay in the US (and I bought a house just under a year ago), and so on. This is also affecting![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
syringavulgaris and naudia and audiovile detrimentally as well.
Finally, employer contracts department contacts bank contracts people and asks WTF is going on. Bank contracts person asks me who is saying all these wrong things because there is this special contract in place (that he helped set up). He aims his big guns at my bank management. Yesterday I get a call from my bank manager who says "Oh, there's no problem, don't worry, we want you, of course we'll renew, sorry if there was any confusion."
GGAAAAHHHH!!!!
On the plus side, at least I get to stay in the US for a while longer. My next visa renewal will be in June, so hopefully my employer correctly did the paperwork to convert me from L1B to L1A. Otherwise I'm screwed again.
However, it's not as if I'm particularly enjoying this job any more. Since the last merger the whole attitude of the place has been "people in New York are too expensive. We can do the same job with cheaper people in OH or TX." People are scared for their jobs; management has been put into place who don't understand how things work; head count reductions happen regularly. And I'm not particularly enjoying this project.
But I'm stuck here. I can't change jobs. Without a green card I can only work for one company. If I don't have this job then I have to leave the US, and so leave Tori.
You could say that I'm not in my happy place at the moment!
Since December I've put on almost 20lbs. I'm meant to be starting a new diet and to get back into my exercise regime... but I can't raise the enthusiasm. Why be arsed?
A year or so passes, then the new bigger bank decide to outsource most of the rest (some small areas left insourced). We, naturally, applied to do the job, but eventually they gave it to IBM and transferred a lot of bank employees to IBM. Because IB loved us so much IBM were told that we had to be used as a subcontractor. This caused us some headaches, loss of revenue and having to do end-runs around IBM obstacles to keep the bank happy, but it worked. I got transferred to a security role in IB.
Then the bank merged with another big consumer bank (with some IB...), to create the 2nd (or 3rd; it's close) biggest bank in America. The new head guy is very very anti-outsourcing (he'd kicked IBM out of his bank in the past). So they insourced the IBM role (brought back all the employees). My company was still there providing basically a body-shop service now, not a proper outsourcing deal. A few months later the bank insources that company.
Except me.
Becuase I can only work in America with permission from Immigration. My work permission only allowed me to work for the one company... ie my original company and not big bank. So my company and the bank get together and as part of the early contract termination they agree to keep hiring me via my company until such a time as they can bring me in as an employee. At a massively exhorborant rate (about 225% of my salary).
The bank aims to get me a H1B visa; that will let me work directly for them. They had months to do it. They had all the paperwork. And... they file one day too late; all the quotas for the 2006 financial year (US government financial year starts October the year before; Oct 2005 in this case) had already been allocated. The bank can not hire me.
Dammit! Well, at least I stay on as a consultant. *sigh*
December comes along... my contract in the billing system used needs to be "renewed" so that my employer can keep invoicing the bank for my time. Nothing happens... by my January the two companies sort it out, but my bank manager tells me that IB management won't sign off at that level again, so Mar 3rd (when the renewal needs to happen again) will require my company to reduce their rates or else they won't renew.
So I talk to my employer HR department and contracts department; they assure me that the bank has no choice and they'll talk to the bank people. Ok...
Two weeks ago, my bank manager tells me "Well, you're up for renewal but not at that rate. We're reducing rates for everyone and you are too far above the rate card. Your employer need to drop their price". I tell my HR this and they say "haha no; bank signed a deal". I tell the bank that and they say "well, if prices don't drop we won't renew".
So here I am, a little gnat in between two giant companies both playing chicken with my job. Lack of sleep, stress about whether I'll have a job, and thus even be able to stay in the US (and I bought a house just under a year ago), and so on. This is also affecting
syringavulgaris and naudia and audiovile detrimentally as well.Finally, employer contracts department contacts bank contracts people and asks WTF is going on. Bank contracts person asks me who is saying all these wrong things because there is this special contract in place (that he helped set up). He aims his big guns at my bank management. Yesterday I get a call from my bank manager who says "Oh, there's no problem, don't worry, we want you, of course we'll renew, sorry if there was any confusion."
GGAAAAHHHH!!!!
On the plus side, at least I get to stay in the US for a while longer. My next visa renewal will be in June, so hopefully my employer correctly did the paperwork to convert me from L1B to L1A. Otherwise I'm screwed again.
However, it's not as if I'm particularly enjoying this job any more. Since the last merger the whole attitude of the place has been "people in New York are too expensive. We can do the same job with cheaper people in OH or TX." People are scared for their jobs; management has been put into place who don't understand how things work; head count reductions happen regularly. And I'm not particularly enjoying this project.
But I'm stuck here. I can't change jobs. Without a green card I can only work for one company. If I don't have this job then I have to leave the US, and so leave Tori.
You could say that I'm not in my happy place at the moment!
Since December I've put on almost 20lbs. I'm meant to be starting a new diet and to get back into my exercise regime... but I can't raise the enthusiasm. Why be arsed?
