Natasha

Natasha, 31, was earning $90,000 a year with handheld computer maker Palm. After being flown to India to train people whom she later realized were her replacements, and despite promises made by Palm, Natasha was subsequently laid off. Natasha has been unemployed for six months, splitting her time between raising her six-year-old son, who suffers from sickle-cell anemia, and tech labor activism.

My Story
I was earning a comfortable living at Palm. When the company began to reorganize—laying off American jobs and sending them offshore—I never thought my position was in danger. I was told repeatedly before training my Indian team in Bangalore that my job safe. Then I got laid off.

The thing that frightens me most is the talk of outsourcing ultimately benefiting the American worker. Though we’ve been sending low wage jobs off shore for years, we have no historical reference for the effects of upper-level positions being off-shored. The economy is not going to absorb people who used to make six figures as it did with low-paying jobs—so many people in California are working for fractions of their former wages.

Losing my job has put a real strain on my family as well. I raise my six-year-old child alone. He suffers from sickle-cell anemia, and seeing the stress unemployment has put on me only makes things harder for him. When I asked him what his New Year’s resolution was he said, “To get Mommy a job so she’ll be happy again.”

The nature of today’s economy makes me extremely fearful for his future. I was raised to think that getting an education and working hard assure you a good and steady job. Seeing off shoring run rampant in our country has helped me realize that I need to prepare my son to be a player in the global economy.

However, there is only so much one can do to adapt to globalization. We need the government to step in with policies that protect American workers. I’m extremely concerned that off shoring has reached epidemic proportions. President Bush’s priorities are disturbingly out of order, and unless we get someone in the White House who understands the needs and problems facing the American worker, I can only imagine the devastation we will face in the future.