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.
Yes, I cleared agree with Mr. Harshad.
Software Professional are being exploited in India.
The same is true also in Indian Govt. Organizations likes IITs, BSNL, MTNL etc.
Employees (specially temporary employees) are exploited not in terms of salary, but also in terms of other facilities like Medical Facilities, Type of appointments, Loans etc….. and many more things.
dharmen
Yes, I cleared agree with Mr. Harshad.
Software Professional are being exploited in India.
The same is true also in Indian Govt. Organizations likes IITs, BSNL, MTNL etc.
Employees (specially temporary employees) are exploited not in terms of salary, but also in terms of other facilities like Medical Facilities, Type of appointments, Loans etc….. and many more things.
dharmen
I liked the article.. it talks about something that affects majority of us and does not mince words about it.
Yes, we Indian IT companies do treat ourselves like slaves, and that’s because of the rat race we have trapped ourselves into. We are competing with each other, increasing billable work hours, reducing hourly rate, incrasing communication (read conference calls). We do not have the vision necessary to understand that it is not taking us anywhere but to misery.
The solution is changing the dimensions of the competition. Innovation is the key. When employees come up with ideas to improvize on the work, we need to listen to them and see if there is any merit. We need to commit time and energy to this cause. That’s what Kaizen and CMM’s level 5 are all about, but do we really implement them seriously?
I have seen that as long as you are reasonable and delivering quality, most clients understand it and are not penny-suckers. They understand that if they pay you poorly, then it could affect your survival (or employee retention) and naturally affect the service levels and quality of your delivery. But then we need to be convinced of the value we deliver in the first place, and not be one among others in the rat race.
Same is true with the other side: the employee satisfaction. Just having a smooth talking HR team or stress management workshops are not the solutions. If you are honest and reasonable, respect employee’s work life balance, then they are with you. I have seen the success of this strategy and observed a very low to nil employee turnover, in the face of higher salaried jobs available elsewhere.
-Ashish
I liked the article.. it talks about something that affects majority of us and does not mince words about it.
Yes, we Indian IT companies do treat ourselves like slaves, and that’s because of the rat race we have trapped ourselves into. We are competing with each other, increasing billable work hours, reducing hourly rate, incrasing communication (read conference calls). We do not have the vision necessary to understand that it is not taking us anywhere but to misery.
The solution is changing the dimensions of the competition. Innovation is the key. When employees come up with ideas to improvize on the work, we need to listen to them and see if there is any merit. We need to commit time and energy to this cause. That’s what Kaizen and CMM’s level 5 are all about, but do we really implement them seriously?
I have seen that as long as you are reasonable and delivering quality, most clients understand it and are not penny-suckers. They understand that if they pay you poorly, then it could affect your survival (or employee retention) and naturally affect the service levels and quality of your delivery. But then we need to be convinced of the value we deliver in the first place, and not be one among others in the rat race.
Same is true with the other side: the employee satisfaction. Just having a smooth talking HR team or stress management workshops are not the solutions. If you are honest and reasonable, respect employee’s work life balance, then they are with you. I have seen the success of this strategy and observed a very low to nil employee turnover, in the face of higher salaried jobs available elsewhere.
-Ashish
What u r saying I think its wrong bcos if they need more manpower for IT then y don’t they recruit more so that we can arrange ourselves in shifts instead of working for 14-16 hrs.
We will maitain co-ordination with our partner.One more thing I’d like to say that in the whole game of working late night only female gets advantages to leave early as they have children or just bcos she is poor, innocent lady n bla bla bla.Only men has to do more work n both of them get same package. So that is also injustice to us.Nobody shuld follow others blindly or otherwise u will fall in trouble.Instead be innovative n speak ur mind.Thats it…..
What u r saying I think its wrong bcos if they need more manpower for IT then y don’t they recruit more so that we can arrange ourselves in shifts instead of working for 14-16 hrs.
We will maitain co-ordination with our partner.One more thing I’d like to say that in the whole game of working late night only female gets advantages to leave early as they have children or just bcos she is poor, innocent lady n bla bla bla.Only men has to do more work n both of them get same package. So that is also injustice to us.Nobody shuld follow others blindly or otherwise u will fall in trouble.Instead be innovative n speak ur mind.Thats it…..
India is a country with manpower . IT need more humans and it is a competitive sector given more pay in IT . folks compete to get ahead and therefore more working hours . This rat race has left no innovation just follow blindly !!!!
India is a country with manpower . IT need more humans and it is a competitive sector given more pay in IT . folks compete to get ahead and therefore more working hours . This rat race has left no innovation just follow blindly !!!!
Well said man. Can I co-relate this with an example that most of the person come across. Ragging. You can not rag your seniors. You need to wait whole year for a new batch and take revenge. 99% managers are like that. They are troubled by their seniors to sit back for long hours. Are we ready to fall into 1% ? There are people in service-companies like TCS, Infy, Wipro etc who sit long hours doing nothing and set a bad example. Often we find them saying that they are late-night workers. So, are you inefficient. Mind you, you will force your team-member to fill timesheet for 8 hrs only.
Well said man. Can I co-relate this with an example that most of the person come across. Ragging. You can not rag your seniors. You need to wait whole year for a new batch and take revenge. 99% managers are like that. They are troubled by their seniors to sit back for long hours. Are we ready to fall into 1% ? There are people in service-companies like TCS, Infy, Wipro etc who sit long hours doing nothing and set a bad example. Often we find them saying that they are late-night workers. So, are you inefficient. Mind you, you will force your team-member to fill timesheet for 8 hrs only.
What Harshad has said I agree to it completely.
But what u (two sides of a coin…) have said I disagree.If they are paying gr8 package so called then it’s individual’s own talent and qualification.and company itself getting more money for their project bcos of outsourcing but considering indian currency it’s still less for UK n USA firms so that doesn’t make difference and also everything is so costly today.When I bought bike 3 yrs ago petrol was just 28/lit but now it’s almost double 52/lit. So y r u just thinking abt our package it’s still less considering today’s situations.So company not doing any favour to us.It’s our talent n qualification that brigs us to this level.And abt late night working I’ll say it’s really very rude to us.I’m fresher in this Industry having only 1 yr exp.But i’m facing it right from starting.Today also I’m working on Java n maitaing website of our client. Whenever there is release on live I have to stay here till midnight or sometimes stay in office n even work for next day as wel though I get comp-off for this but that doesn’t worth bcos relaxation is something that is really necessary for u n u can get it at ur home.
While employees that r staying late or working late I’ll say most of the youngsters in Mumbai are frm outside n don’t have their parents here so they stay late night whther there is work or not.It’s attitude of employee as well that cos others to work late n for long week some of employee used to work late just for sake of promotion n comlements or appraisals which is problem to others as well.I’m working at client side n we’ve to stay here for late night whenever client demand.Even This Diwali as well for support purpose out team arranged ourselves on Holiday to provide support.Can’t even celebrate Diwali with full of zest. After all family comes first so plz clients n company bosses plz let us to spend some time with our family as well.
What Harshad has said I agree to it completely.
But what u (two sides of a coin…) have said I disagree.If they are paying gr8 package so called then it’s individual’s own talent and qualification.and company itself getting more money for their project bcos of outsourcing but considering indian currency it’s still less for UK n USA firms so that doesn’t make difference and also everything is so costly today.When I bought bike 3 yrs ago petrol was just 28/lit but now it’s almost double 52/lit. So y r u just thinking abt our package it’s still less considering today’s situations.So company not doing any favour to us.It’s our talent n qualification that brigs us to this level.And abt late night working I’ll say it’s really very rude to us.I’m fresher in this Industry having only 1 yr exp.But i’m facing it right from starting.Today also I’m working on Java n maitaing website of our client. Whenever there is release on live I have to stay here till midnight or sometimes stay in office n even work for next day as wel though I get comp-off for this but that doesn’t worth bcos relaxation is something that is really necessary for u n u can get it at ur home.
While employees that r staying late or working late I’ll say most of the youngsters in Mumbai are frm outside n don’t have their parents here so they stay late night whther there is work or not.It’s attitude of employee as well that cos others to work late n for long week some of employee used to work late just for sake of promotion n comlements or appraisals which is problem to others as well.I’m working at client side n we’ve to stay here for late night whenever client demand.Even This Diwali as well for support purpose out team arranged ourselves on Holiday to provide support.Can’t even celebrate Diwali with full of zest. After all family comes first so plz clients n company bosses plz let us to spend some time with our family as well.
Well Harshad, what ever you have written is a fact… Harsh truth of this hunky dory world christened IT … We work our asses out to earn a hefty pay package with the hope to settle down in a life where we have all amenities at our fingertips & still have extra cash to splurge…
You have highlighted this inch perfectly… But have you tried to reason Why this is happening? ? ? In any business, this is bound to happen. Competition is what any business thrives on. In the old economy, if you say it didn’t happen, that is incorrect. Generally speaking yes, banks, govt offices, accounting firms had the 9 – 5 culture … but the manufacturing white collar jobs were something that demanded more time from a person. Ask our parents generation if they were able to make time for themselves and their answer would be a no… So to say that it is happening only today with the IT industry is false… Yes the salaries have spiralled. we are made to slog but then it is upto us as a person irrespective of whether you are in the IT industry or toothpaste industry to think for ourselves and our health when we would turn 40.
I agree with the point put forth by you Harshad regarding NASSCOM & other such organizations that should take an initiative to do good for the IT employee.. But here again, will the head honchos of the IT bigwigs (& the small fries aspiring to get big) allow NASSCOM to initiate something like this ? That would hit their revenues directly or indirectly right…. !!!
Well Harshad, what ever you have written is a fact… Harsh truth of this hunky dory world christened IT … We work our asses out to earn a hefty pay package with the hope to settle down in a life where we have all amenities at our fingertips & still have extra cash to splurge…
You have highlighted this inch perfectly… But have you tried to reason Why this is happening? ? ? In any business, this is bound to happen. Competition is what any business thrives on. In the old economy, if you say it didn’t happen, that is incorrect. Generally speaking yes, banks, govt offices, accounting firms had the 9 – 5 culture … but the manufacturing white collar jobs were something that demanded more time from a person. Ask our parents generation if they were able to make time for themselves and their answer would be a no… So to say that it is happening only today with the IT industry is false… Yes the salaries have spiralled. we are made to slog but then it is upto us as a person irrespective of whether you are in the IT industry or toothpaste industry to think for ourselves and our health when we would turn 40.
I agree with the point put forth by you Harshad regarding NASSCOM & other such organizations that should take an initiative to do good for the IT employee.. But here again, will the head honchos of the IT bigwigs (& the small fries aspiring to get big) allow NASSCOM to initiate something like this ? That would hit their revenues directly or indirectly right…. !!!
As the young blood is climbing the ladders of success and managing the teams and projects. They have the correct mixture of work and life. If there is a time delay, the project has to be delivered because of many penalty cuases are attached to it.
But yes, if your employee has spent 14 hours a day, then give him a more relaxed time then he has anticipated when the deadline or the project has been delivered.
We, indians are hard workers not the people who sits at his desk in the morning and calculate that how much time is left in a day :grin
What is assume, that there is always a mixture of both and the generation / managers who have really come up to the management level from the trainee softwares, they will change the world.
Thanks,
M
As the young blood is climbing the ladders of success and managing the teams and projects. They have the correct mixture of work and life. If there is a time delay, the project has to be delivered because of many penalty cuases are attached to it.
But yes, if your employee has spent 14 hours a day, then give him a more relaxed time then he has anticipated when the deadline or the project has been delivered.
We, indians are hard workers not the people who sits at his desk in the morning and calculate that how much time is left in a day :grin
What is assume, that there is always a mixture of both and the generation / managers who have really come up to the management level from the trainee softwares, they will change the world.
Thanks,
M
There is no one who can take the initiative to make such forums/unions. If there is someone and in case the step to work for limited hours is taken then WHAT ABOUT THE OUTSOURCED CLIENTS? All the employment that is provided will be shattered. So its an International issue not a national issue. Time to wake up the whole world.
There is no one who can take the initiative to make such forums/unions. If there is someone and in case the step to work for limited hours is taken then WHAT ABOUT THE OUTSOURCED CLIENTS? All the employment that is provided will be shattered. So its an International issue not a national issue. Time to wake up the whole world.
Harshad,
Great to hear the plight of the Indian Software Industry. When I joined as a fresher some 20 months back, it was the de riguer to clock 12+ hours…’Learning Phase’, ‘Enthu of Fresher’ call it whatever…But even after 20 months things haven’t changed…To be true if i leave office clocking 8 hours I feel i something missing…’Didn’t feel like a working day’. Most of the blame has to be taken by the employee himself/herself…No matter what the company bosses might expect…the individual has to set the working standards suiting his lifestyle.Having said that its also imperative on the employer to provide for such an environment. Its a handshake process which I believe the Indian Managers(a typical misnomer better to say TaskMasters) are gradually maturing up to learn. As you said the NASSCOM or CSI should be more proactive in the billing and living standards for software professionals else they will burn out more and more.
It will be a Freedom gained from Britishers, Lost to American Economy.
Sundaresan Balasubramanian,Chennai
Harshad,
Great to hear the plight of the Indian Software Industry. When I joined as a fresher some 20 months back, it was the de riguer to clock 12+ hours…’Learning Phase’, ‘Enthu of Fresher’ call it whatever…But even after 20 months things haven’t changed…To be true if i leave office clocking 8 hours I feel i something missing…’Didn’t feel like a working day’. Most of the blame has to be taken by the employee himself/herself…No matter what the company bosses might expect…the individual has to set the working standards suiting his lifestyle.Having said that its also imperative on the employer to provide for such an environment. Its a handshake process which I believe the Indian Managers(a typical misnomer better to say TaskMasters) are gradually maturing up to learn. As you said the NASSCOM or CSI should be more proactive in the billing and living standards for software professionals else they will burn out more and more.
It will be a Freedom gained from Britishers, Lost to American Economy.
Sundaresan Balasubramanian,Chennai
I think its more of a cultural problem, we don’t know how to say no when we don’t wan’t to say yes. And in most companies employee/project performance is directly linked to the customer feedback, so employees/managers go out of the way to make sure they deliver ‘quality’ work before time, thereby setting a wrong precedent , the problem then feeds upon itself !!
I think its more of a cultural problem, we don’t know how to say no when we don’t wan’t to say yes. And in most companies employee/project performance is directly linked to the customer feedback, so employees/managers go out of the way to make sure they deliver ‘quality’ work before time, thereby setting a wrong precedent , the problem then feeds upon itself !!
Hi,
This is something very good for IT people. I am working in an It company at pune. When we ware recruted lots of commitments ware given and then after joining things changed suddenly. Morever companies started signing bonds now a days (though it is i’lligle). Of course Manager are forcing to work in Weekends and in Midnights. But also many employees are working so later just to impress their boss. Most of them belongs to the fols who are not localite and have no famli at the place they live. This effects other who manger time for themsalves.
One more common dialoug get to hear from HR people. They says if you are done with the work you must leave the office by time. But smart managers gives 5 days work to finish in 2 days. what a funny things they do. Results employeed changes the job. I haven’t seen a non industry where people changes job so fast. And HR people cries when employees left companies and held interview to know the reason to leave.
If that is goona be like that days are so closer when people stop being and It professonal andbe happy in Other job.
Hi,
This is something very good for IT people. I am working in an It company at pune. When we ware recruted lots of commitments ware given and then after joining things changed suddenly. Morever companies started signing bonds now a days (though it is i’lligle). Of course Manager are forcing to work in Weekends and in Midnights. But also many employees are working so later just to impress their boss. Most of them belongs to the fols who are not localite and have no famli at the place they live. This effects other who manger time for themsalves.
One more common dialoug get to hear from HR people. They says if you are done with the work you must leave the office by time. But smart managers gives 5 days work to finish in 2 days. what a funny things they do. Results employeed changes the job. I haven’t seen a non industry where people changes job so fast. And HR people cries when employees left companies and held interview to know the reason to leave.
If that is goona be like that days are so closer when people stop being and It professonal andbe happy in Other job.
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