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.
You’ve been bang on the target, no doubt, and I believe the only solution lies in the hands of the employees themselves. No matter how much the project estimation has gone haywire, it will always remain a question of choice, not chance, for the employee to agree to hideous work schedules.
Very often the employees work late under the belief that they do not have anything better to do, failing to realize all along that the only way to find out if there’s something better to do is by actually moving away from their desks first!! :grin
And there’s another thing I’m quite sure about too – at least 84.96% of the people who’ve read this article have agreed whole-heartedly to your comments, but gone ahead and continued otherwise anyways! 🙂
Here’s a toast hoping that someday we will learn to respect ourselves more than this!!!
You’ve been bang on the target, no doubt, and I believe the only solution lies in the hands of the employees themselves. No matter how much the project estimation has gone haywire, it will always remain a question of choice, not chance, for the employee to agree to hideous work schedules.
Very often the employees work late under the belief that they do not have anything better to do, failing to realize all along that the only way to find out if there’s something better to do is by actually moving away from their desks first!! :grin
And there’s another thing I’m quite sure about too – at least 84.96% of the people who’ve read this article have agreed whole-heartedly to your comments, but gone ahead and continued otherwise anyways! 🙂
Here’s a toast hoping that someday we will learn to respect ourselves more than this!!!
I fully agree with Harshad & all others who have opined on this subject. But we also need to remember the fact that to compete against developed nations there is something extra that we Indians need to do. This extra can come in any form that we have or can put in.
Developed nations already have a big lead against countries like India. This lead gives them a big advantage. To make up for this we need to put in something extra. Right now this comes in the form of extra effort. Same is the case with Japan. After being ruined in the world war it had a big lag & to make up they worked hard.
I dont really say that this is the only way but for sure this is also one of the ways.
Offcourse some of us can choose can an easy way out to immigrate to a developed foreign nation, inturn adding to their lead & contributing to India’s lag. The choice is ours.
Once we become the leaders we can define the rules of the game, but until then we got to play by the some1 else’s rules.
I fully agree with Harshad & all others who have opined on this subject. But we also need to remember the fact that to compete against developed nations there is something extra that we Indians need to do. This extra can come in any form that we have or can put in.
Developed nations already have a big lead against countries like India. This lead gives them a big advantage. To make up for this we need to put in something extra. Right now this comes in the form of extra effort. Same is the case with Japan. After being ruined in the world war it had a big lag & to make up they worked hard.
I dont really say that this is the only way but for sure this is also one of the ways.
Offcourse some of us can choose can an easy way out to immigrate to a developed foreign nation, inturn adding to their lead & contributing to India’s lag. The choice is ours.
Once we become the leaders we can define the rules of the game, but until then we got to play by the some1 else’s rules.
Who says we are software professionals anyways ?? Simply put we are just well groomed and well educated (I really wouldn’ t agree on this one) slaves. I know couple of 25 yrs old who died of heart attack…all for the glorious cause. Long live such s/w companies and their glorious 2 penny projects. I guess a time will come when companies will maintain 2 lists of ex-employees 1, People who have left the company. 2. People who have left the world. Fortunately for me, I maintain a good WLB in my current organization. To be honest slavery is just in our blood. These days people just think about money and nothing else. They don’t give a damn about innovation, self-respect and exploitation. And this is where the companies start the exploitation. Agreed, that there a few hapless souls among us who have some personal commitments and are not in a position to fight back, but atleast some of us should take a firm stand against all this exploitation. I know quite a few people who would lick the soles of their clients shoes, if it meant getting a few more dollars. ****.
– Specter –
Who says we are software professionals anyways ?? Simply put we are just well groomed and well educated (I really wouldn’ t agree on this one) slaves. I know couple of 25 yrs old who died of heart attack…all for the glorious cause. Long live such s/w companies and their glorious 2 penny projects. I guess a time will come when companies will maintain 2 lists of ex-employees 1, People who have left the company. 2. People who have left the world. Fortunately for me, I maintain a good WLB in my current organization. To be honest slavery is just in our blood. These days people just think about money and nothing else. They don’t give a damn about innovation, self-respect and exploitation. And this is where the companies start the exploitation. Agreed, that there a few hapless souls among us who have some personal commitments and are not in a position to fight back, but atleast some of us should take a firm stand against all this exploitation. I know quite a few people who would lick the soles of their clients shoes, if it meant getting a few more dollars. ****.
– Specter –
The article is good, but targets a few companies alone like Infy Wipro and TCS. The point is that these are not the only culprits. Even US companies like IBM, Intel, differ in culture with their offshore operations. There are days when a Engineer in India sits in office the whole weekend just waiting for his US counterpart who is enjoying his weekend to connect to the internet when free and do a small work.
The situation is 99.99% because of Indian middle level managers. God alone knows where the HR manages to find such brainless people. They do not know the gravity of any issue, or project. Whenever a customer calls the manager is out shouting at all his subordinates (many managers cannot even distinguish the fact that this is a new requirement). And forget these managers knowing any technical stuff, they even do not know managerial stuff like time and cost estimation.
The rapid growth in software industry has created a huge vacuum, which has pulled in people from all walks of life, some banker, civil engineer, have all hoped into the wagon. I do not say software development is a great science that these people cannot learn, but many people do not make any efforts to learn, and if they get promoted to a higher post, their subordinates will be crushed to death. A rightly paced increase in demand for labor will create good society and good distribution of wealth, and overall development of society. Else just like the california gold rush, where a person was rich one day and poor the next, so do inidan software engineers. I heard that after the 2000 IT crash it was very difficult for software engineers to find brides as their job was considered unstable.
The article is good, but targets a few companies alone like Infy Wipro and TCS. The point is that these are not the only culprits. Even US companies like IBM, Intel, differ in culture with their offshore operations. There are days when a Engineer in India sits in office the whole weekend just waiting for his US counterpart who is enjoying his weekend to connect to the internet when free and do a small work.
The situation is 99.99% because of Indian middle level managers. God alone knows where the HR manages to find such brainless people. They do not know the gravity of any issue, or project. Whenever a customer calls the manager is out shouting at all his subordinates (many managers cannot even distinguish the fact that this is a new requirement). And forget these managers knowing any technical stuff, they even do not know managerial stuff like time and cost estimation.
The rapid growth in software industry has created a huge vacuum, which has pulled in people from all walks of life, some banker, civil engineer, have all hoped into the wagon. I do not say software development is a great science that these people cannot learn, but many people do not make any efforts to learn, and if they get promoted to a higher post, their subordinates will be crushed to death. A rightly paced increase in demand for labor will create good society and good distribution of wealth, and overall development of society. Else just like the california gold rush, where a person was rich one day and poor the next, so do inidan software engineers. I heard that after the 2000 IT crash it was very difficult for software engineers to find brides as their job was considered unstable.
:sigh
:sigh
Is there a IT Union, if not, we should have one. A unoin of IT professionals to safeguard our interests , register disputes & live a healthy lifestyle contributing to innovative ideas. And when we will start thinking innovatively, our children will, making India a ‘real’ super power.
Is there a IT Union, if not, we should have one. A unoin of IT professionals to safeguard our interests , register disputes & live a healthy lifestyle contributing to innovative ideas. And when we will start thinking innovatively, our children will, making India a ‘real’ super power.
I agree with your views in the article & commend your intiative towards trying to better the work culture of our country and thus help towards the betterment of our future generations and the progress of our nation …
I especially like the ‘EXHAUSTION=NO INNOVATION’ fact .. this is an extremely important factor that hampers innovations & inventions. I will share this article with my colleagues too, so that our country people think about this aloud ..
Btw, just a small observation (beyond the context of the current topic): Instead of naming your book as ‘Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 (J2EE 1.4) Bible’, you could’ve named it as ‘Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 (J2EE 1.4) – The GEETA’
We hv been so used to all innovations & inventions being done by Westerners, that we do NOT even think twice when we blindly adopt their word ‘Bible’ .. just like we adopt their inventions. The Westerners are bound to use their religious terms in their work .. but why do we need to adopt the same blindly .. Why cant we use our own terms of Indian origin for anythings we create …
(just a mild thought)
– Best Regards,
Shilpa
I agree with your views in the article & commend your intiative towards trying to better the work culture of our country and thus help towards the betterment of our future generations and the progress of our nation …
I especially like the ‘EXHAUSTION=NO INNOVATION’ fact .. this is an extremely important factor that hampers innovations & inventions. I will share this article with my colleagues too, so that our country people think about this aloud ..
Btw, just a small observation (beyond the context of the current topic): Instead of naming your book as ‘Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 (J2EE 1.4) Bible’, you could’ve named it as ‘Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 (J2EE 1.4) – The GEETA’
We hv been so used to all innovations & inventions being done by Westerners, that we do NOT even think twice when we blindly adopt their word ‘Bible’ .. just like we adopt their inventions. The Westerners are bound to use their religious terms in their work .. but why do we need to adopt the same blindly .. Why cant we use our own terms of Indian origin for anythings we create …
(just a mild thought)
– Best Regards,
Shilpa
I agree with your views in the article & commend your intiative towards trying to better the work culture of our country and thus help towards the betterment of our future generations and the progress of our nation …
I especially like the ‘EXHAUSTION=NO INNOVATION’ fact .. this is an extremely important factor that hampers innovations & inventions. I will share this article with my colleagues too, so that our country people think about this aloud ..
Btw, just a small observation (beyond the context of the current topic): Instead of naming your book as ‘Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 (J2EE 1.4) Bible’, you could’ve named it as ‘Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 (J2EE 1.4) – The GEETA’
We hv been so used to all innovations & inventions being done by Westerners, that we do NOT even think twice when we blindly adopt their word ‘Bible’ .. just like we adopt their inventions. The Westerners are bound to use their religious terms in their work .. but why do we need to adopt the same blindly .. Why cant we use our own terms of Indian origin for anythings we create …
(just a mild thought)
– Best Regards,
Shilpa
I agree with your views in the article & commend your intiative towards trying to better the work culture of our country and thus help towards the betterment of our future generations and the progress of our nation …
I especially like the ‘EXHAUSTION=NO INNOVATION’ fact .. this is an extremely important factor that hampers innovations & inventions. I will share this article with my colleagues too, so that our country people think about this aloud ..
Btw, just a small observation (beyond the context of the current topic): Instead of naming your book as ‘Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 (J2EE 1.4) Bible’, you could’ve named it as ‘Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4 (J2EE 1.4) – The GEETA’
We hv been so used to all innovations & inventions being done by Westerners, that we do NOT even think twice when we blindly adopt their word ‘Bible’ .. just like we adopt their inventions. The Westerners are bound to use their religious terms in their work .. but why do we need to adopt the same blindly .. Why cant we use our own terms of Indian origin for anythings we create …
(just a mild thought)
– Best Regards,
Shilpa
A topic well addressed and good to see quite a few comments. So, we can see that there are plenty of people out there who are affected in some way by the topic of discussion. As far as i think and have witnessed in last 3 yrs in this industry, we cannot hold only one factor risponsible for the current state of our work culture.
Afterall, IT industry is nothing but us, the workforce. We should learn to say NO. In our company, if someone leaves at 6-7 PM everyone is looking at him as if he is doing something entirely odd. We at the grassroot level should be able to convince our seniors that there is something definatley wrong the way we all are working. We need to stick together and raise the issue to the top management. Nothing will happen if we only talk about it or post blogs n stuff.
We can start off by raising the issues in our own companies. Lets just try and better the work culture in our companies and we will see how things get better suddenly all around. I think Mr. Harshad as raised a valid point and lets not let go this ‘opportunity’ begging. Start thinnking how we can do it, how can ‘I’ make the difference. Lets work on it in our own small circle till it takes a bigger shape. I am sure its nothing against what sort of business solutions we have been providing to the west. Lets do it for our country, lets do it for us.
Lets work towards making the IT industry a dream industry to work in.
Thanks,
Nitin
A topic well addressed and good to see quite a few comments. So, we can see that there are plenty of people out there who are affected in some way by the topic of discussion. As far as i think and have witnessed in last 3 yrs in this industry, we cannot hold only one factor risponsible for the current state of our work culture.
Afterall, IT industry is nothing but us, the workforce. We should learn to say NO. In our company, if someone leaves at 6-7 PM everyone is looking at him as if he is doing something entirely odd. We at the grassroot level should be able to convince our seniors that there is something definatley wrong the way we all are working. We need to stick together and raise the issue to the top management. Nothing will happen if we only talk about it or post blogs n stuff.
We can start off by raising the issues in our own companies. Lets just try and better the work culture in our companies and we will see how things get better suddenly all around. I think Mr. Harshad as raised a valid point and lets not let go this ‘opportunity’ begging. Start thinnking how we can do it, how can ‘I’ make the difference. Lets work on it in our own small circle till it takes a bigger shape. I am sure its nothing against what sort of business solutions we have been providing to the west. Lets do it for our country, lets do it for us.
Lets work towards making the IT industry a dream industry to work in.
Thanks,
Nitin
A topic well addressed and good to see quite a few comments. So, we can see that there are plenty of people out there who are affected in some way by the topic of discussion. As far as i think and have witnessed in last 3 yrs in this industry, we cannot hold only one factor risponsible for the current state of our work culture.
Afterall, IT industry is nothing but us, the workforce. We should learn to say NO. In our company, if someone leaves at 6-7 PM everyone is looking at him as if he is doing something entirely odd. We at the grassroot level should be able to convince our seniors that there is something definatley wrong the way we all are working. We need to stick together and raise the issue to the top management. Nothing will happen if we only talk about it or post blogs n stuff.
We can start off by raising the issues in our own companies. Lets just try and better the work culture in our companies and we will see how things get better suddenly all around. I think Mr. Harshad as raised a valid point and lets not let go this ‘opportunity’ begging. Start thinnking how we can do it, how can ‘I’ make the difference. Lets work on it in our own small circle till it takes a bigger shape. I am sure its nothing against what sort of business solutions we have been providing to the west. Lets do it for our country, lets do it for us.
Lets work towards making the IT industry a dream industry to work in.
Thanks,
Nitin
A topic well addressed and good to see quite a few comments. So, we can see that there are plenty of people out there who are affected in some way by the topic of discussion. As far as i think and have witnessed in last 3 yrs in this industry, we cannot hold only one factor risponsible for the current state of our work culture.
Afterall, IT industry is nothing but us, the workforce. We should learn to say NO. In our company, if someone leaves at 6-7 PM everyone is looking at him as if he is doing something entirely odd. We at the grassroot level should be able to convince our seniors that there is something definatley wrong the way we all are working. We need to stick together and raise the issue to the top management. Nothing will happen if we only talk about it or post blogs n stuff.
We can start off by raising the issues in our own companies. Lets just try and better the work culture in our companies and we will see how things get better suddenly all around. I think Mr. Harshad as raised a valid point and lets not let go this ‘opportunity’ begging. Start thinnking how we can do it, how can ‘I’ make the difference. Lets work on it in our own small circle till it takes a bigger shape. I am sure its nothing against what sort of business solutions we have been providing to the west. Lets do it for our country, lets do it for us.
Lets work towards making the IT industry a dream industry to work in.
Thanks,
Nitin
Although my opinions have already been echoed by few people here … i am curious to know how any Manager / Leader would react to this…
Anyone reading this … ???
Although my opinions have already been echoed by few people here … i am curious to know how any Manager / Leader would react to this…
Anyone reading this … ???
Hi, I think the arguments contained in your article are quite topical and relevant. Well, I don’t work for a software company, but my spouse does. His work culture offers some amount of work-life balance, but on an average he spends good 11 hours in office on all 4 days of the 5 day week. And the oft quoted reason of client timings , 24/7 support, etc works to his disadvantage. The truth is I donot know what the limit is. Fair enough that he is paid well (again, I donot have any benchmarks- I donot know whether there is an optimum pay packet for someone who puts in so many hours of work with so much sincerity) Now, if you are wondering what ‘ work-life’ balance I had in mind when i commented on it, this is what i mean to say- two- three 2 week holidays in a year or so! I certainly take this as a blessing. Well, thats the only time my one year old son I get to see him! I have often heard him talk ill about the marketing teams who go ahead and commit for the project to be compelted in much lesser time schedules and what amount of pressure it puts on the technical team.
Everyone knows about the kind of problems faced by employees of the IT industry and many are talking about it too! BUT WHO WILL BELL THE CAT?
Minu
Hi, I think the arguments contained in your article are quite topical and relevant. Well, I don’t work for a software company, but my spouse does. His work culture offers some amount of work-life balance, but on an average he spends good 11 hours in office on all 4 days of the 5 day week. And the oft quoted reason of client timings , 24/7 support, etc works to his disadvantage. The truth is I donot know what the limit is. Fair enough that he is paid well (again, I donot have any benchmarks- I donot know whether there is an optimum pay packet for someone who puts in so many hours of work with so much sincerity) Now, if you are wondering what ‘ work-life’ balance I had in mind when i commented on it, this is what i mean to say- two- three 2 week holidays in a year or so! I certainly take this as a blessing. Well, thats the only time my one year old son I get to see him! I have often heard him talk ill about the marketing teams who go ahead and commit for the project to be compelted in much lesser time schedules and what amount of pressure it puts on the technical team.
Everyone knows about the kind of problems faced by employees of the IT industry and many are talking about it too! BUT WHO WILL BELL THE CAT?
Minu
The fumbling harmer is actually right this time – all that the desi big guys are interested in is the cheap real estate they can talk the Kar and AP govts out of.
There can be no innovation in any company that is ISO9000 or CMM certified. By definition. Think about it – the whole system is designed to kowtow to the yankee’s ‘requirements documents’ – if you innovate, you become a product guy and have to leave.
Meanwhile, the yanks curse you for ‘stealing’ their jobs – which their CxOs handed over to the desi sweatshops to churn out code.