Michael Emmons🇺🇸

A Manhattan federal jury on Monday awarded $8.4 million to a New York University professor and former Cognizant Technology Solutions employee who claimed he was fired in retaliation for alleging the information technology company engaged in systematic hiring bias. . . . Jean-Claude Franchitti said he was fired in 2016 from a $350,000-a-year job after a decade at New Jersey-based Cognizant. He claimed it was retaliation for asking questions about the company's alleged bias toward hiring workers from India as part of a "cheap labor" profit model. The award for Franchitti consisted of $4.2 million in back pay, or lost wages, and $4.2 million in punitive damages. The jury declined to award compensation for front pay, or future earnings, or for an emotional distress claim. The trial revealed a dearth of written communications from Franchitti complaining about Cognizant's alleged strategy to keep a cheap labor pipeline open. His lawyers said Franchitti kept concerns verbal because he knew he was walking a "fine line" and wanted to find fixes diplomatically. Franchitti is pleased with the verdict, his lawyer, Daniel Kotchen, told Law360 via email. "The jury sent a strong message that violating employees' rights will not be tolerated," he said. (Link to full article in the replies.)

Americans are the most highly skilled unemployed workforce the world has ever known. And still our politicians say if we would just educate ourselves, we would find a job. --- Jessica finished her CS degree at a top-tier public university in December with $174k in federal loans and a 3.91 GPA She's submitted 1,203 applications since graduation Got callbacks from exactly 7 companies. Made it to final rounds at 2. Both went with "no junior hires this cycle" The feedback is always the same: "We're looking for someone who can hit the ground running with AI tooling" Last week she interviewed at a Series B fintech that posted an "Associate Software Engineer" role The engineering manager was honest: "This role used to be for bootcamp grads and new CS majors. Now we need someone who can manage 3 AI agents and review their output at senior level" The salary range dropped from $95k to $68k because "the AI does most of the actual coding" Her algorithms professor still brags about 98% job placement rates from 2019-2022 Jessica's working retail at Target while her loan payments kick in next month $1,847 monthly minimum on a $16/hour Target salary She keeps getting LinkedIn ads for "AI Bootcamps" promising to make her "recession-proof" The same bootcamps now cost $24k because they know desperate CS grads will pay anything Her former classmates who got hired? They're all at consulting firms or doing product management The ones still coding are mostly maintaining legacy systems at banks, waiting for those to get automated too Yesterday she got an email from her university asking for a donation to the new "AI Ethics Research Center" But sure, keep telling kids that computer science is a stable career path

EXCLUSIVE: an insider at USAA provides footage of the company's recent Diwali event. It looks like a Tim and Eric skit. Remember, while USAA throws parties for Indians, it ignores American holidays and its veteran employees are committing suicide from stress and layoffs.