Getbig.com: American Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure

Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Bindare_Dundat on March 27, 2008, 06:39:23 PM

Title: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on March 27, 2008, 06:39:23 PM
AT&T 'bemoans lack of US skills' 
 
AT&T is a household name in the US but AT&T has said it is struggling to find enough skilled staff to fill the 5,000 customer service jobs it is returning to the US from India, a report claims.
The comments were made by its chief executive Randall Stephenson, according to the Reuters news agency.

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required," said Mr Stephenson.
So far only 1,400 of the 5,000 jobs have been moved back to the US.

'School concern'

AT&T, America's largest phone company, first said in 2006 that it aimed to bring the positions back to America.
Reuters said Mr Stephenson made the comments in a speech to a business group in San Antonio, Texas, where the company has its headquarters.
He is said to have added that he was concerned that in some US communities, the high school dropout rate was as high as 50%.

"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," Mr Stephenson is reported to have said.
 
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: G o a t b o y on March 27, 2008, 06:49:15 PM
Do we lack the skills?


Depends on which "we" you're talking about.  If you mean the "we" that went to college and beyond, not at all.  Our best match up very well with the rest of the world.  I would say the same of the middle 1/3 of the population who learned a technical skill or trade and are contributing to the economy productively. If you're referring to the bottom 1/3, I'd say that's an accurate assessment.  Large segments at the lower parts of our society are uneducated dumbfucks who are developing into a permanent underclass.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: w8tlftr on March 27, 2008, 06:59:12 PM
We wouldn't have a skill shortage if people got off their fat asses, ditched their sense of entitlement, and actually worked for something.

Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 240 is Back on March 27, 2008, 07:00:46 PM
Toyota almost put some assembly plant in Florida, but found the population lacked the gray matter to work their plants.  34% dropout rate statewide i believe.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: w8tlftr on March 27, 2008, 07:02:27 PM
Toyota almost put some assembly plant in Florida, but found the population lacked the gray matter to work their plants.  34% dropout rate statewide i believe.

Sweet baby Jesus.

Man we're fucked.

Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 240 is Back on March 27, 2008, 07:04:34 PM
Sweet baby Jesus.
Man we're fucked.

nah you gotta stay positive.  Remember, the internet means a lot of kids who used to vegg out and watch TV all day are actually reading.  How much faster do you think/type/read thanks to getbig?
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: War-Horse on March 27, 2008, 07:04:34 PM
When the jobs left the US it may have forced some into unemployment and they learned they could get free money by not working.

Therefore its both of their faults.   We are being "Dumbed down" day by day.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: w8tlftr on March 27, 2008, 07:09:48 PM
nah you gotta stay positive.  Remember, the internet means a lot of kids who used to vegg out and watch TV all day are actually reading.  How much faster do you think/type/read thanks to getbig?

I think/type/read fast because I've worked in signals analysis and the IT field all my adult life.

Of course it didn't hurt that I was a typical Asian nerd in high school with my face always buried in a book.

The real problem, Rob, and we see it all the time in our society is that people no longer want to work for anything. They expect everything like it's owed to them and no one takes responsibility for anything. We see this in our own damn government right down to the everyday Joe Sixpack.

There is a good reason why immigrants come to America, work their bony asses off, and in a few years live the American dream - they work for it and don't expect shit from anyone.

Good proof of this is Louisiana after Katrina. I was listening to a radio program talking about all the Vietnamese immigrants in that state that took up work in the fishing industry. They came here dirt poor and worked their way up, started their own businesses and were eventually able to put their kids through college. No hand outs, no "the man owes me" crap, just long days and hard fvcking work. Anyways, in all the coverage we saw I don't recall seeing ANY of them bitching about anything. They just put their lives back together, worked hard, and carried on.

Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 240 is Back on March 27, 2008, 07:14:50 PM
good call w8lifter.  I taught middle school for 3 years and elem school for almost 4.  I saw these kids come in every day... like the world owed them. Like they were entitled to free lunch, free pencils, etc.  They turn 18 and their parents support them.  Then they find an abusive prick or fat whore to take care of them.

People just don't hustle like they used to.  All the shiny distractions I suppose.  I like to play, goof off and watch MSNBC and FOXnews all day and post here, but I'm working nonstop as I do.  I can't even fathom the type of people who can lay on a couch for 6 hours straight watching sitcoms. 

I think/type/read fast because I've worked in signals analysis and the IT field all my adult life.

Of course it didn't hurt that I was a typical Asian nerd in high school with my face always buried in a book.

The real problem, Rob, and we see it all the time in our society is that people no longer want to work for anything. They expect everything like it's owed to them and no one takes responsibility for anything. We see this in our own damn government right down to the everyday Joe Sixpack.

There is a good reason why immigrants come to America, work their bony asses off, and in a few years live the American dream - they work for it and don't expect shit from anyone.

Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: G o a t b o y on March 27, 2008, 07:16:52 PM
When the jobs left the US it may have forced some into unemployment and they learned they could get free money by not working.

Therefore its both of their faults.   We are being "Dumbed down" day by day.


The problem is a different skill set is required than that which was required 30 years ago.  Back then, your average dumbshit could get by without significant "book learning" and land some brainless factory job involving repetitive motion for eight hours at a stretch.  These days, even manual jobs have some technical component that requires you engage your gray matter.  Those that don't at the very least require people skills.  These douchebags have neither.  The jobs fit for their skill level have all moved overseas at $1.50/hr, and the people doing them are doing them better because while they also aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, at least they're not lazy like their American counterparts.

I blame our broken educational system (courtesy of the teachers' unions and government monopoly with no competition), as well as the widespread failure of parenting.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on March 27, 2008, 07:20:26 PM
nah you gotta stay positive.  Remember, the internet means a lot of kids who used to vegg out and watch TV all day are actually reading.  How much faster do you think/type/read thanks to getbig?


WHAT is it that the youth are reading and typing if AT&T is having problems finding skilled labor?

Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: G o a t b o y on March 27, 2008, 07:22:20 PM

WHAT is it that the youth are reading and typing if AT&T is having problems finding skilled labor?


Exactly how skilled must one be to work in a call center for christ's sake?
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: w8tlftr on March 27, 2008, 07:23:37 PM

Exactly how skilled must one be to work in a call center for christ's sake?

I blame books on tape.

Worst idea ever.

Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on March 27, 2008, 07:24:52 PM
I blame books on tape.

Worst idea ever.



hahahaha
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 240 is Back on March 27, 2008, 07:25:12 PM

WHAT is it that the youth are reading and typing if AT&T is having problems finding skilled labor?

hahaha porn and online gaming, I guess.

I don't worry about the future of the place.  In the 60s, our future was in trouble because all the hippies were getting stoned.  In the 80s, the future was in trouble because all the kids were burnout headbangers with Crue shirts who got stoned in their vision street wear and listened to metallica all day.  Today, it's this generation of lazy fvckers who live on myspace doing squat.

In real life, these kids become the 80% of people who work too hard for too little, die too young because they buy DVDs and not health insurance, and who teach kids to believe what they do - that they were 'held down' by 'the man'.

The other 20% run the country, work easy jobs, take the dumb fvcks' $ in that legal casino we call the market, and make the decisions for the stupid 20%.  I don't worry about the future of the place because I know those 80% of dimwits will show up at their job, put in their 80% effort, and pay their 17% of taxes.

All I can do is try to work my ass off, try to stay healthy, and stay in that 20%.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on March 27, 2008, 07:25:58 PM

Exactly how skilled must one be to work in a call center for christ's sake?

Yo! How do I put on this headset, G?
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: G o a t b o y on March 27, 2008, 07:29:25 PM
The other 20% run the country, work east jobs, take the dumb fvcks' $ in that legal casino we call the market, and make the decisions for the stupid 20%.  I don't worry about the future of the place because I know those 80% of dimwits will show up at their job, put in their 80% effort, and pay their 17% of taxes.

All I can do is try to work my ass off, try to stay healthy, and stay in that 20%.


$300 websites suddenly get more lucrative?  Unless you're doing two of them a day, every day of course.  ;D
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on March 27, 2008, 07:31:38 PM
hahaha porn and online gaming, I guess.

I don't worry about the future of the place.  In the 60s, our future was in trouble because all the hippies were getting stoned.  In the 80s, the future was in trouble because all the kids were burnout headbangers with Crue shirts who got stoned in their vision street wear and listened to metallica all day.  Today, it's this generation of lazy fvckers who live on myspace doing squat.

In real life, these kids become the 80% of people who work too hard for too little, die too young because they buy DVDs and not health insurance, and who teach kids to believe what they do - that they were 'held down' by 'the man'.

The other 20% run the country, work easy jobs, take the dumb fvcks' $ in that legal casino we call the market, and make the decisions for the stupid 20%.  I don't worry about the future of the place because I know those 80% of dimwits will show up at their job, put in their 80% effort, and pay their 17% of taxes.

All I can do is try to work my ass off, try to stay healthy, and stay in that 20%.

That didn't sound very encouraging.  :-\
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 240 is Back on March 27, 2008, 07:33:09 PM

$300 websites suddenly get more lucrative?  Unless you're doing two of them a day, every day of course.  ;D

lol... well i doubt I'm in the top 20% of earners... I don't know where that cutoff is...

Perhaps I meant I'm in the 20% that works an easy, enjoyable job... makes his own schedule... naps and eats and does what he pleases most of the day, offering a professional service.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: G o a t b o y on March 27, 2008, 07:36:18 PM
Yo! How do I put on this headset, G?

True story:  last week one of my analysts advertised online for a new administrative assistant, as his was moving to another city.  Most of the replies and resumes came via email, and he forwarded one of them to me (probably thinking I needed a good laugh).  It was from "hotsexy6721@--------.com".  The subject line was "ur ad in da puter".  Dumbfuck must have thought she was sending a text or something?  Needless to say, the resume was never even opened. 
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: w8tlftr on March 27, 2008, 07:41:12 PM
True story:  last week one of my analysts advertised online for a new administrative assistant, as his was moving to another city.  Most of the replies and resumes came via email, and he forwarded one of them to me (probably thinking I needed a good laugh).  It was from "hotsexy6721@--------.com".  The subject line was "ur ad in da puter".  Dumbfuck must have thought she was sending a text or something?  Needless to say, the resume was never even opened. 

BWAAHAHAHAHA
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: G o a t b o y on March 27, 2008, 07:48:19 PM
lol... well i doubt I'm in the top 20% of earners... I don't know where that cutoff is...

Perhaps I meant I'm in the 20% that works an easy, enjoyable job... makes his own schedule... naps and eats and does what he pleases changes diapers most of the day, offering a professional service.


fixed.  ;D
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 240 is Back on March 27, 2008, 07:49:15 PM
hahaha i almost got him potty trained.  17 months old, and he takes his diaper off and squats on the potty chair.  granted, there's still some spraying, but hey, it's a start.
Title: Jobs ain't comin back, b/c all we've got here are dropout personal trainers & ps
Post by: calmus on March 27, 2008, 10:33:11 PM
ych majors. 

The head of the top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Wednesday it was having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India.

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs," AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told a business group in San Antonio, where the company's headquarters is located.

So far, only around 1,400 jobs have been returned to the United States of 5,000, a target it set in 2006, the company said, adding that it maintains the target.

Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.

"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," he said.

Gone are the days when AT&T and other U.S. companies had to hire locally, he said.

"We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas," he said, referring to the Indian city where many international companies have "outsourced" technical and customer support workers.

"I know you don't like hearing that, but that's the way it is," he said.

Stephenson said neither he nor most Americans liked the situation, and the solution was a stronger U.S. focus on education and keeping jobs. Business needed to help, such as AT&T's repatriation of service positions and education grants, he added.

Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: Bindare_Dundat on March 27, 2008, 11:35:10 PM
True story:  last week one of my analysts advertised online for a new administrative assistant, as his was moving to another city.  Most of the replies and resumes came via email, and he forwarded one of them to me (probably thinking I needed a good laugh).  It was from "hotsexy6721@--------.com".  The subject line was "ur ad in da puter".  Dumbfuck must have thought she was sending a text or something?  Needless to say, the resume was never even opened. 

lol

Du we lak da skillz#?
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: w8tlftr on March 28, 2008, 04:36:13 AM
lol

Du we lak da skillz#?

whut? i can has yobz? wewt!
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: headhuntersix on March 28, 2008, 07:15:14 AM
Half the problem is that we allow or provide everybody the opportunity to go to college. Alot of folks coming out of school aren't even at the level of a High school graduate in 1965. Besides computer training, these people barely speak english and know where half the countries on the map are. has anybody looked at school curriculums. 240 can speak on this but...what ever happened to reading/history/English/math/science. They do all kinds of other bullshit that leaves us behind. I don't think people realize how well mechanics and plumbers can make. We've pushed college so hard and made that piece of paper mean so much that some people look down on tech skills.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 240 is Back on March 28, 2008, 07:26:43 AM
Half the problem is that we allow or provide everybody the opportunity to go to college. Alot of folks coming out of school aren't even at the level of a High school graduate in 1965. Besides computer training, these people barely speak english and know where half the countries on the map are. has anybody looked at school curriculums. 240 can speak on this but...what ever happened to reading/history/English/math/science. They do all kinds of other bullshit that leaves us behind. I don't think people realize how well mechanics and plumbers can make. We've pushed college so hard and made that piece of paper mean so much that some people look down on tech skills.

social studies and science have been optional subjects for 8 years in FL.

They're taken that time and devoted it to reading, writin' and math.

As a result, you have a bunch of kids who have no idea how govt, history, or science relate to their lives.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: shootfighter1 on March 28, 2008, 07:44:01 AM
Some very good points here.  Definitely seems like work ethic has plummeted. 
Hats off to the legal immigrants that come in and take advantage of the situation, as w8tlftr pointed out.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: headhuntersix on March 28, 2008, 08:00:40 AM
social studies and science have been optional subjects for 8 years in FL.

They're taken that time and devoted it to reading, writin' and math.

As a result, you have a bunch of kids who have no idea how govt, history, or science relate to their lives.


These kids don't know anything about the revolution, no civil war battles...they don't identify with this stuff as part of their heritage.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 240 is Back on March 28, 2008, 10:14:10 AM
These kids don't know anything about the revolution, no civil war battles...they don't identify with this stuff as part of their heritage.

Correct.  They don't have national pride because they don't know much about their nation's history.  I can still remember things I learned in 5th and 6th grade social studies class... I still remember staying up all night in th grade memorizing the chambers of hte heart for a "health class" test.

They don't have these things in many schools anymore as mandatory - kids have to choose electives ("Do I pick Science or do I pick Basketball Class?")

The cause?  IMO, kids are staying online and watching TV all night instead of reading books.  As a result, they have to dedicate MORE class time to reading.  Which means other essential things get timecrunched or abandoned. 
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: JBGRAY on March 28, 2008, 03:01:06 PM
Don't forget about all the junk degrees out there such as liberal arts and political science.  Despite being a nation of 300+ million people, we still have to go overseas to find engineers and mathematicians.   We have too many consultants, analysts, advisers, brokers, and customer service workers and not enough engineers, technicians, and other skilled labor.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 24KT on March 28, 2008, 05:30:14 PM
How much faster do you think/type/read thanks to getbig?

{LOL} So true. Since I got on the internet in 98, my typing speed has gone through the roof!

They've actually done studies and found that thanks to the internet, kids are doing much more reading than they used to. They also found benefits for senior citizens too,...all the increased brain activity wards off alzheimers and other degenerative brain diseases by creating new synaptic pathways in the brain.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 24KT on March 28, 2008, 05:33:19 PM
I think/type/read fast because I've worked in signals analysis and the IT field all my adult life.

Of course it didn't hurt that I was a typical Asian nerd in high school with my face always buried in a book.

The real problem, Rob, and we see it all the time in our society is that people no longer want to work for anything. They expect everything like it's owed to them and no one takes responsibility for anything. We see this in our own damn government right down to the everyday Joe Sixpack.

There is a good reason why immigrants come to America, work their bony asses off, and in a few years live the American dream - they work for it and don't expect shit from anyone.

Good proof of this is Louisiana after Katrina. I was listening to a radio program talking about all the Vietnamese immigrants in that state that took up work in the fishing industry. They came here dirt poor and worked their way up, started their own businesses and were eventually able to put their kids through college. No hand outs, no "the man owes me" crap, just long days and hard fvcking work. Anyways, in all the coverage we saw I don't recall seeing ANY of them bitching about anything. They just put their lives back together, worked hard, and carried on.


Yep. I see that in my own business as well. We share this opportunity with people elsewhere in the world, and they grab onto it, and run with it, ...whereas the North Americans sit on their collectives tushes complaining.
Title: Re: Do we lack the skills?
Post by: 24KT on March 28, 2008, 10:40:12 PM
hahaha i almost got him potty trained.  17 months old, and he takes his diaper off and squats on the potty chair.  granted, there's still some spraying, but hey, it's a start.

{LOL}  Holy Cow, ...is he that old already?  :o  More pics please.  :)