I've experienced it only second-hand, but I sure have been close to the problem. I don't blame you for sticking it out, you'd be crazy not to.
I recently left a company that moved the office about 50 miles south through heavy traffic. It also decided, amazingly enough, that telecommuting was "bad", so they banned it (not even one day a week). Yep, everyone who lived 50 miles away is not obligated to drive in to work every day. They severely diluted everyone's stock, and implemented a bonus plan that was so weak it was embarrassing.
Almost all of the UC citizens have left. But the H1B's are still there. I don't blame them, they'd be crazy to leave and jeopardize their visas and green card applications. But it really makes me sick that my government essentially allowed private corporations to essentially control a worker's right to reside in the United States, along with hopes for becoming a citizen.
The funny thing is, I'm pretty libertarian. In my opinion, businesses should be free do do all that crap that my last company did if that's what they want to do. Nobody owes me a job on my terms, just as nobody owes my former company a talented employee on their terms.
That's how free markets work, but the H1B has proved to me that businesses are not in favor of free markets, they're in favor of regulation that benefits them. When workers gain too much power - not through unions, not through government regulation, but through value - the corporate world will absolutely seek legal systems that give them control over things like visas and green card applications.
Makes me worried. I grew up in SF, so of course I've had plenty of socialists in my life saying things like "if democracy could change anything, it would be illegal..." but really, you have to say the same thing about free markets. It's pretty clear that when they threaten the establishment, the big corps will do everything they can to ensure that free markets are illegalized.
I recently left a company that moved the office about 50 miles south through heavy traffic. It also decided, amazingly enough, that telecommuting was "bad", so they banned it (not even one day a week). Yep, everyone who lived 50 miles away is not obligated to drive in to work every day. They severely diluted everyone's stock, and implemented a bonus plan that was so weak it was embarrassing.
Almost all of the UC citizens have left. But the H1B's are still there. I don't blame them, they'd be crazy to leave and jeopardize their visas and green card applications. But it really makes me sick that my government essentially allowed private corporations to essentially control a worker's right to reside in the United States, along with hopes for becoming a citizen.
The funny thing is, I'm pretty libertarian. In my opinion, businesses should be free do do all that crap that my last company did if that's what they want to do. Nobody owes me a job on my terms, just as nobody owes my former company a talented employee on their terms.
That's how free markets work, but the H1B has proved to me that businesses are not in favor of free markets, they're in favor of regulation that benefits them. When workers gain too much power - not through unions, not through government regulation, but through value - the corporate world will absolutely seek legal systems that give them control over things like visas and green card applications.
Makes me worried. I grew up in SF, so of course I've had plenty of socialists in my life saying things like "if democracy could change anything, it would be illegal..." but really, you have to say the same thing about free markets. It's pretty clear that when they threaten the establishment, the big corps will do everything they can to ensure that free markets are illegalized.