IT Survivors – Staying Alive In A Software Job
Before I started working for myself, I spent some years in some of the top IT companies in India and still have many friends working in various software companies. I wrote a blog Recruiting like crazy, about the same time last year about how Indian companies are recruiting like there’s no tomorrow and the possible consequences. However I was avoiding writing this particular piece as it seems like an unpatriotic thing to do, to tell the world how bad the working conditions in software companies in India have become. And there’s always the risk of excerpts being used out of context to bash up IT in India.
I am now writing this because I just keep hearing horror tales from the industry and it doesn’t seem like anything is being done in the matter, so I thought I will do my bit and write.
First and foremost, before stereotypes about India kick in, I would like to clarify that I am not saying that Indian software companies are sweat shops where employees aren’t being paid and made to
work in cramped uncomfortable places. The pay in software companies is very good as compared to other industries in India and the work places are generally well furnished and plush offices. India being a strong democracy, freedom of expression is alive and well and Indians are free to express their opinions and voice their concerns. Yet, I say that the software industry is exploiting its employees.
IT work culture in India is totally messed up and has now started harming the work culture of the nation as a whole. Working 12+ hours a day and 6 or even 7 days a week is more the rule than the exception.
Consequences:
- A majority of IT people suffer from health problems.As most of the IT workforce is still very young, the problem isn’t very obvious today but it will hit with unbearable ferocity when these youngsters get to their 40s.
- Stress levels are unbelievable high. Stress management is a cover topic in magazines and newspapers and workshops on the subject are regularly overbooked.
- Most IT people have hardly any social / family life to talk of.
- As IT folk are rich by Indian standards, they try to buy their way out of their troubles and have incurred huge debts by buying expensive houses, gizmos and fancy cars.
Plush offices, fat salaries and latest gizmos can give you happiness only if you have a life in the first place.
The reason I feel this culture has emerged, is the servile attitude of the companies. Here’s a tip for any company in the west planning to outsource to India. If you feel that a project can be completed in 6 weeks by 4 people, always demand that it be completed in 2 weeks by 3 people.
Guess what, most Indian companies will agree. The project will then be hyped up as an “extremely critical” one and the 3 unfortunate souls allocated to it will get very close to meeting the almighty by the time they deliver the project in 2 weeks. Surprisingly, they will deliver in 2-3 weeks, get bashed up for any delays and the company will soon boast about how they deliver good quality in reasonable time and cost. Has anyone in India ever worked on a project that wasn’t “extremely critical”?
I was once at a session where a top boss of one of India’s biggest IT firms was asked a question about what was so special about their company and his answer was that we are the “Yes” people with the “We Can Do It ” attitude.
It is all very well for the top boss to say “We Can Do It “.. what about the project teams who wish to say “Please….We Can’t Do It ” to the unreasonable timelines…I was tempted to ask “What death benefits does your company offer to the teams that get killed in the process?”. I sure was ashamed to see that a fellow Indian was openly boasting about the fact that he and his company had no backbone. The art of saying No or negotiating reasonable time frames for the team is very conspicuous by its absence. Outsourcing customers more often than not simply walk all over Indian software companies. The outsourcer surely cannot be blamed as it is right for him to demand good quality in the least cost and time.
Exhaustion = Zero Innovation
- How many Indians in India are thought leaders in their software segment? – Very few
- How much software innovation happens in India? – Minimal
- Considering that thousands of Indians in India use Open Source software, how many actually contribute? – Very few
Surprisingly, put the same Indian in a company “in” the US and he suddenly becomes innovative and a thought leader in his field.
The reason is simple, the only thing an exhausted body and mind can do well, is sleep. zzzzzz
I can pretty much bet on it that we will never see innovation from any of 10000+ person code factories in India.
If you are someone sitting in the US, UK… and wondering why the employees can’t stand up, that’s the most interesting part of the story. Read on…
The Problem
The software professional Indian is today making more money in a month than what his parents might have made in an year. Very often a 21 year old newbie software developer makes more money than his/her 55 year old father working in an old world business. Most of these youngsters are well aware of this gap and so work under an impression that they are being paid an unreasonable amount of money. They naturally equate unreasonable money with unreasonable amount of work.
Another important factor is this whole bubble that an IT person lives in.. An IT professional walks with a halo around his or her head. They are the Cool, Rich Gen Next .. the Intelligentsia of the New World… they travel all over the world, vacation at exotic locations abroad, talk “american”, are more familiar of the geography of the USA than that of India and yes of course, they are the hottest things in the Wedding Market!!!
This I feel is the core problem because if employees felt they were being exploited, things would change.
I speak about this to some of my friends and the answer is generally “Hey Harshad, what you say is correct and we sure are suffering, but why do you think we are being paid this much money? It’s not for 40 hours but for 80 hours a week. And anyway what choice do we have? It’s the same everywhere.”
So can we make things change? Is there a way to try and stop an entire generation of educated Indians from ending up with “no life”.
Solutions
1) Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.
Recently, in an awards ceremony at a software company, the manager handing over the “employee of the month” award said something like “It’s unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working”.. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.
Companies need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the time difference between India and the west is the reason why people need to stay in office for 14 hours a day. Staying late should be a negative thing that should work against an employee in his appraisals. Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week .
2) Estimates:
If time estimates go wrong, the company should be willing to take a hit and not force the employee to work crazy hours to bail projects out of trouble. This will ensure that the estimates made for the next project are more real and not just what the customer has asked for.
3) Employee organizations / forums
NASSCOM (National Association for Software and Services Companies) and CSI (Computer Society Of India) are perhaps the only two well known software associations in India and both I feel have failed the software employee. I do not recall any action from these organizations to try and improve the working conditions of software employees. This has to change.
I am not in favor of forming trade unions for software people, as trade unions in India have traditionally been more effective at ruining businesses and making employees inefficient than getting employees their rights and helping business do well. So existing bodies like NASSCOM should create and popularize employee welfare cells at a state / regional level and these cells should work only for employee welfare and not be puppets in the hands of the companies.
If the industry does not itself create proper forums for employee welfare, it’s likely that the government / trade unions will interfere and mess up India’s sunshine industry.
4) Narayan Murthys please stand up
Top bosses of companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc. need to send the message loud and clear to their company and to other companies listening at national IT events that employee welfare is really their top concern and having good working culture and conditions is a priority. Employee welfare here does not mean giving the employee the salary he/she dreams of.
Last word
I am sure some of my thoughts come from the fact that I too worked in such an environment for a few years and perhaps I haven’t got over the frustrations I experienced back then.
So think about my views with a pinch of salt but do think about them. And if you have an opinion on this issue, don’t forget to add a comment to this article.
I am working with INFOTECH ENTERPRISES LTD. as software engg. Our company follow 9AM to 6Pm culture. Targets and work given to us demands this much time frame. Earlier I have been working in crazy time frame culture. Today I feel, yes I am enjoying my life. I have ample of time to think about myself, my goals and personal life. Thanks to managers at INFOTECH ENTERPRISES LTD. for giving us chance live our life with joy n pride.
Inpreet singh
Bang on Target, Harshad. Is Mr Mruty Listening ???
Bang on Target, Harshad. Is Mr Mruty Listening ???
Er.. the article applies well to Singapore context also 😀
Er.. the article applies well to Singapore context also 😀
What Harshad mentions is right about almost all companies in India…the degree to which this happens may differ but it exist… :cry
IT Prof in India get a little respite when they are not handled by Indian Managers…(probably when they are onsite).. may be for this reason, people perfer to work onsite for maintaining better WBL[well balanced life]…
What Harshad mentions is right about almost all companies in India…the degree to which this happens may differ but it exist… :cry
IT Prof in India get a little respite when they are not handled by Indian Managers…(probably when they are onsite).. may be for this reason, people perfer to work onsite for maintaining better WBL[well balanced life]…
There are diffrent types of employers with varying degree of work culture.Not every Indian IT company is sweatshop.Basically project management,planning,execution and time requires at every step depends on how project manager is wellversed with basic understanding of computer science and its implementation.
Software innovation: I won’t completely agree with author’s claim of relating working hours with innovation.Innovation mainly depends on culture in which person was brought up and his/her interest and perseverance to followup without expecting much monetory benifit.Currently majority of IT employees in India have dived into IT because it offers better salary,elevated social status.Ofcourse nothing wrong in that.Current IT culture ,or the term ‘outsourcing or offshoring’ implecitely means ‘YOU MUST DO THE WORK’ which has given to you.Discussion,criticizing,trying diffrent ways to solve the problems ,failing and LEARNING from it,these factors are secondary here.But these are the factors which ARE required in creating some ‘killer app’,not only in IT but in any industry.
There are diffrent types of employers with varying degree of work culture.Not every Indian IT company is sweatshop.Basically project management,planning,execution and time requires at every step depends on how project manager is wellversed with basic understanding of computer science and its implementation.
Software innovation: I won’t completely agree with author’s claim of relating working hours with innovation.Innovation mainly depends on culture in which person was brought up and his/her interest and perseverance to followup without expecting much monetory benifit.Currently majority of IT employees in India have dived into IT because it offers better salary,elevated social status.Ofcourse nothing wrong in that.Current IT culture ,or the term ‘outsourcing or offshoring’ implecitely means ‘YOU MUST DO THE WORK’ which has given to you.Discussion,criticizing,trying diffrent ways to solve the problems ,failing and LEARNING from it,these factors are secondary here.But these are the factors which ARE required in creating some ‘killer app’,not only in IT but in any industry.
Yes, maximum no. of times the team suffers because of the poor estimation by the managers. But I have also seen the situation where project is going smooth still the youngsters seat late in the office and start setting up ‘Bachelor’ culture. Even the manager is telling repeatedly to not to seat late.
Yes, maximum no. of times the team suffers because of the poor estimation by the managers. But I have also seen the situation where project is going smooth still the youngsters seat late in the office and start setting up ‘Bachelor’ culture. Even the manager is telling repeatedly to not to seat late.
The problem is not necessarily a manager saying that the developer needs to stick around but he just makes terrible estimates so that the developer has little choice!
The problem is not necessarily a manager saying that the developer needs to stick around but he just makes terrible estimates so that the developer has little choice!
Harshad,
What you have talked about here is a very valid and current point. I agree with you mostly on all the issues you have raised. However, I might add that it is not just the companies who impose harsh working conditions on the employees. It is the employees themselves, sometimes, who are responsible for the conditions like long work hours etc. I have seen many young employees staying back at work not necessarily because they have extra work thrust upon them, but just because they have nothing better to do. I think this culture of staying late has been the handiwork of (at least some if not most of) the employees as much as it has been a creation of business requirement for some organisations.
I do not want to side with the companies who exploit their workforce, however, it is upon the individuals, no matter whether they are managers or the ground-level software engineers, to improve the situation. If one promises one’s superior that work will be done inspite of sticking to 8 hour workdays & 5 day weeks, why would any manager insist on extra work-hours and long working weeks?
Harshad,
What you have talked about here is a very valid and current point. I agree with you mostly on all the issues you have raised. However, I might add that it is not just the companies who impose harsh working conditions on the employees. It is the employees themselves, sometimes, who are responsible for the conditions like long work hours etc. I have seen many young employees staying back at work not necessarily because they have extra work thrust upon them, but just because they have nothing better to do. I think this culture of staying late has been the handiwork of (at least some if not most of) the employees as much as it has been a creation of business requirement for some organisations.
I do not want to side with the companies who exploit their workforce, however, it is upon the individuals, no matter whether they are managers or the ground-level software engineers, to improve the situation. If one promises one’s superior that work will be done inspite of sticking to 8 hour workdays & 5 day weeks, why would any manager insist on extra work-hours and long working weeks?
Hi, a fairly well-written piece. Congrats for speaking up about something, the discussion on which is long overdue! It’s indeed true that we need to move from measuring time to measuring output.
However, to a large extent all that differentiates Indian companies from the Western ones is the extent of effort we are willing to put in.
Also, totally agree with your view that NASSCOM has failed the employees. One of the major reasons we’re seeing trade unions enter ITES is due to the fact that the companies have signed fairly anti-competitive agreements amongst themselves, all under the aegis of NASSCOM.
Hi, a fairly well-written piece. Congrats for speaking up about something, the discussion on which is long overdue! It’s indeed true that we need to move from measuring time to measuring output.
However, to a large extent all that differentiates Indian companies from the Western ones is the extent of effort we are willing to put in.
Also, totally agree with your view that NASSCOM has failed the employees. One of the major reasons we’re seeing trade unions enter ITES is due to the fact that the companies have signed fairly anti-competitive agreements amongst themselves, all under the aegis of NASSCOM.
I dont agree that the Old Economy worked the way the IT industry functions today. I have never seen anyone i know from the prev generation turn up at 4 AM at home from office – whether they were in the banking industry or marketing or anything else. Whereas I have innumerable instances in front of me when people have slogged out on weekends as well in software jobs!! (including me!)
I have even been told by one manager of mine that to succeed in this industry I need to put in at least 60 hrs every week! and yes.. a person is often mocked at for taking half the day off when he or she leaves at 6!! I’ve been around in this industry for almost 5 yrs and havent seen things improve at all.. no matter how concerned the HR person mite seem about employee health while recruiting!
Though i have to say this abt these companies.. there is always the stress mgmt workshop that they arrange for you!!
– Sangeeta
I dont agree that the Old Economy worked the way the IT industry functions today. I have never seen anyone i know from the prev generation turn up at 4 AM at home from office – whether they were in the banking industry or marketing or anything else. Whereas I have innumerable instances in front of me when people have slogged out on weekends as well in software jobs!! (including me!)
I have even been told by one manager of mine that to succeed in this industry I need to put in at least 60 hrs every week! and yes.. a person is often mocked at for taking half the day off when he or she leaves at 6!! I’ve been around in this industry for almost 5 yrs and havent seen things improve at all.. no matter how concerned the HR person mite seem about employee health while recruiting!
Though i have to say this abt these companies.. there is always the stress mgmt workshop that they arrange for you!!
– Sangeeta
You don’t seem to differentiate between service companies like TCS, Wipro etc. and the US companies in India like Google, Yahoo, Sun. It is common knowledge that the former are glorified sweatshops and the software engineers are glorified clerks. In a way it is history repeating itself. The British administration was run by Indian clerks and the same thing is happening now. Thankfully I haven’t had to spent an iota of my professional life in those sweatshops.
As for the new generation earning more money – it is just an illusion. When I started working at the age of 23, my dad and I had the same paycheck. However he lived in a huge house given by his employer, all utilities were payed by the employer, and his pension was the last paycheck that he drew, which needless to say is substantial. If I factor all that in, I made considerably less than he did.
You don’t seem to differentiate between service companies like TCS, Wipro etc. and the US companies in India like Google, Yahoo, Sun. It is common knowledge that the former are glorified sweatshops and the software engineers are glorified clerks. In a way it is history repeating itself. The British administration was run by Indian clerks and the same thing is happening now. Thankfully I haven’t had to spent an iota of my professional life in those sweatshops.
As for the new generation earning more money – it is just an illusion. When I started working at the age of 23, my dad and I had the same paycheck. However he lived in a huge house given by his employer, all utilities were payed by the employer, and his pension was the last paycheck that he drew, which needless to say is substantial. If I factor all that in, I made considerably less than he did.
hi,
The observations that you made about Indian IT industry are right on the button. Though this may not be case with ALL the companies, MOST companies that I know are like that. I have worked in a top IT company in India for 4 years, before moving to the US. I can definitely see a change in the working style.
In my company, if someones leaves office at 5PM, everyone use to make comments on him/her. I think this problem is not just with the IT industry. I think the problem is with the typical Indian Manager. He has the typical babu attitude and wants his team to be servile to him. Its the case with some of the US companies with Desi Managers and significant desi employees. Good Managers who think that the employee also has a personal life and opinion are rare.
So, working late hours in something that IT industry has inherited from the Old Economy. But things are changing though not fast enough. In the company that I worked for, some Senior Managers had this attitude problem. But the younger managers are kewl and understanding.
/
Ravi
http://globalindians.blogspot.com
hi,
The observations that you made about Indian IT industry are right on the button. Though this may not be case with ALL the companies, MOST companies that I know are like that. I have worked in a top IT company in India for 4 years, before moving to the US. I can definitely see a change in the working style.
In my company, if someones leaves office at 5PM, everyone use to make comments on him/her. I think this problem is not just with the IT industry. I think the problem is with the typical Indian Manager. He has the typical babu attitude and wants his team to be servile to him. Its the case with some of the US companies with Desi Managers and significant desi employees. Good Managers who think that the employee also has a personal life and opinion are rare.
So, working late hours in something that IT industry has inherited from the Old Economy. But things are changing though not fast enough. In the company that I worked for, some Senior Managers had this attitude problem. But the younger managers are kewl and understanding.
/
Ravi
http://globalindians.blogspot.com
Forget country-based stereotypes…. American software companies are sweatshops. Employees are not paid enough relative to what they create. And they are made to work in cramped unfcomfortable places.
Forget country-based stereotypes…. American software companies are sweatshops. Employees are not paid enough relative to what they create. And they are made to work in cramped unfcomfortable places.