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.
Hrashad
your article proves again that indians have that inherent slave mentality in them. American economy
Hrashad
your article proves again that indians have that inherent slave mentality in them. American economy
I think after reading all this i am glad i work for IBM. Push back is not uncommon here. And the work environment rocks 🙂 Shivani
I think after reading all this i am glad i work for IBM. Push back is not uncommon here. And the work environment rocks 🙂 Shivani
you have that job in the first place, maybe because your manager promised to get the work done in that short deadline….coz otherwise client had a cheaper russian coder who would do it for a loaf of bread.
do the job , take money go home and enjoy.. don’t CRIB. if you realy have the spark, go create something….just stop cribbing.
For harshad, its just a matter of getting hits on his site..its perfectly ok.
For heavens sake don’t cut paste these blogs and mail it around….people seem to get too carried away. They have to forward stuff every morning. i hate to get those FW: mails each day…and when i open it, its all some random rants of some frustrated soul..or a shrewd ass trying to maximze the web impressions of his advertisements on his blog site
-Hg
you have that job in the first place, maybe because your manager promised to get the work done in that short deadline….coz otherwise client had a cheaper russian coder who would do it for a loaf of bread.
do the job , take money go home and enjoy.. don’t CRIB. if you realy have the spark, go create something….just stop cribbing.
For harshad, its just a matter of getting hits on his site..its perfectly ok.
For heavens sake don’t cut paste these blogs and mail it around….people seem to get too carried away. They have to forward stuff every morning. i hate to get those FW: mails each day…and when i open it, its all some random rants of some frustrated soul..or a shrewd ass trying to maximze the web impressions of his advertisements on his blog site
-Hg
Well no advantage to post something like your frustration here.
Just give up your job and find better one. Read my Conclusion section of post ‘The problem lies in root of our culture.’
See, only we can make them changed, they will not on their own. Same problem was there in US and Europe as well when they were not developed like us.
The more you bear, the more you will be given 🙂 This is called rule of river that ‘When there is slope, flow will always be there’
Well no advantage to post something like your frustration here.
Just give up your job and find better one. Read my Conclusion section of post ‘The problem lies in root of our culture.’
See, only we can make them changed, they will not on their own. Same problem was there in US and Europe as well when they were not developed like us.
The more you bear, the more you will be given 🙂 This is called rule of river that ‘When there is slope, flow will always be there’
I have gone thru many of such harsh times. I used to go home by 6 am early morning, and be back by 12 noon. This has continued around for more than 6 months. Its like zero invention time. Most of the work that was done during night was scrapped and there was lot of rework. More over none of my managers agree on avoiding nightouts. I am surprised by the fact that they think its no wrong in nightout or working on weekends. I am literally fighting with my team to avoid nightouts or weekends. Its all about attitude, they think doing nightouts is great. They get pleasure doing nightouts, and the way they speak proudly on hardwork they do, I feel pity for them.
In Short people dont want to change, they enjoy working like slaves, I have been arguing about the problem with VP of company too, they dont seem to change.
I have gone thru many of such harsh times. I used to go home by 6 am early morning, and be back by 12 noon. This has continued around for more than 6 months. Its like zero invention time. Most of the work that was done during night was scrapped and there was lot of rework. More over none of my managers agree on avoiding nightouts. I am surprised by the fact that they think its no wrong in nightout or working on weekends. I am literally fighting with my team to avoid nightouts or weekends. Its all about attitude, they think doing nightouts is great. They get pleasure doing nightouts, and the way they speak proudly on hardwork they do, I feel pity for them.
In Short people dont want to change, they enjoy working like slaves, I have been arguing about the problem with VP of company too, they dont seem to change.
I would like to put some comments on this.
# First of all none whether at Manager, Team leader, Programmer or Designer works for WORK. He/She works for earning money only, and little bit for showing him/her self in our culture in terms of earning high scale, living prosperous life etc.
Which means none will think about this problem in any corner and which results into person like Harshad. He spoke very well. But his level will be at programmer ot Tl, so he can’t do much more to solve this problem in his/her company.
# Other things is that our Nation has NO goal, and none cares for anything whether it is NGO or Goverment or any Private company which can look after this and many other problems.
# We like to show off our self because our history and past culture didn’t let us do so and it has filled in us with Hate, Jealously and Pain which we release time by time by causing pain to others. I am saying this in broad sense and not just in term of IT industry.
# This is sleeping country, and don’t know where it is going towards. However I would like to call it as CROWD and not as country where everyone can do whatever he/she likes regardless of what should be done.
# Until 1990 most of us didn’t know or concerned about Money, Mobile phones, Cars, Hi-Fi life etc, but with the arrival of Globalisation, we suddenly realized how far we are from rest of world, which created sudden burst in us for living such life and as we know it can be satisfied only by high paying job which is, I think, possible only in IT industry. So we enjoyed it’s fruits at great extent. But we forgot the future of it and didn’t use our IT knowledge in educating our country nor we tried to lift up other industries using skills of IT, which resulted in isolation IT industry with others. Hence now even if India is most exporting country of IT products, It seldom uses it’s fruits at it’s home. And IT products remained just as item for Exports only.
# Until we use our It skills at our home, this problem will remain there because to live better life, anything must be attached directly to day to day life.
# Most of employees at the time of recruitment don’t have clear idea about what is exact requirement and what he/she is going to do. Instead they are just concerned about what is going to be Paid. Even when 2 employees in IT talk about their jobs, they will most of time talk about paying scale and facilities only and will never discuss about environment & work culture of their companies or what technologies their companies use for production.
# Please note that when you don’t know about your skills and strengths, you will take more time to finish your task than expected. And since you don’t want to loose your job, you will for more hours and more days. It is not that always only Higher management forces you to work longer than it is required.
# Final point is about Education. I think most of problems lies in bad education given to us by our past Indians. Since they didn’t learn or might be they were not taught, we are result of it. Logic is simple. If your parents are not that much educated then you will not likely to learn. Here education is not just teachings of School or College but the Knowledge that is needed in living better life.
# Conclusion: I see this problem as more of employees than employers, because unless and until you oppose what is not worth for you and other programmers in any case, higher management will never consider what is worth for you. So stand up and speak for your self.
I would like to put some comments on this.
# First of all none whether at Manager, Team leader, Programmer or Designer works for WORK. He/She works for earning money only, and little bit for showing him/her self in our culture in terms of earning high scale, living prosperous life etc.
Which means none will think about this problem in any corner and which results into person like Harshad. He spoke very well. But his level will be at programmer ot Tl, so he can’t do much more to solve this problem in his/her company.
# Other things is that our Nation has NO goal, and none cares for anything whether it is NGO or Goverment or any Private company which can look after this and many other problems.
# We like to show off our self because our history and past culture didn’t let us do so and it has filled in us with Hate, Jealously and Pain which we release time by time by causing pain to others. I am saying this in broad sense and not just in term of IT industry.
# This is sleeping country, and don’t know where it is going towards. However I would like to call it as CROWD and not as country where everyone can do whatever he/she likes regardless of what should be done.
# Until 1990 most of us didn’t know or concerned about Money, Mobile phones, Cars, Hi-Fi life etc, but with the arrival of Globalisation, we suddenly realized how far we are from rest of world, which created sudden burst in us for living such life and as we know it can be satisfied only by high paying job which is, I think, possible only in IT industry. So we enjoyed it’s fruits at great extent. But we forgot the future of it and didn’t use our IT knowledge in educating our country nor we tried to lift up other industries using skills of IT, which resulted in isolation IT industry with others. Hence now even if India is most exporting country of IT products, It seldom uses it’s fruits at it’s home. And IT products remained just as item for Exports only.
# Until we use our It skills at our home, this problem will remain there because to live better life, anything must be attached directly to day to day life.
# Most of employees at the time of recruitment don’t have clear idea about what is exact requirement and what he/she is going to do. Instead they are just concerned about what is going to be Paid. Even when 2 employees in IT talk about their jobs, they will most of time talk about paying scale and facilities only and will never discuss about environment & work culture of their companies or what technologies their companies use for production.
# Please note that when you don’t know about your skills and strengths, you will take more time to finish your task than expected. And since you don’t want to loose your job, you will for more hours and more days. It is not that always only Higher management forces you to work longer than it is required.
# Final point is about Education. I think most of problems lies in bad education given to us by our past Indians. Since they didn’t learn or might be they were not taught, we are result of it. Logic is simple. If your parents are not that much educated then you will not likely to learn. Here education is not just teachings of School or College but the Knowledge that is needed in living better life.
# Conclusion: I see this problem as more of employees than employers, because unless and until you oppose what is not worth for you and other programmers in any case, higher management will never consider what is worth for you. So stand up and speak for your self.
Hi,
This is very good article, but I would say is common to all Indian Compnaies. This is how we Indian has cultivated our working stile. This is what is our Work Cluture is….. We seriously need to change this and that has to be a collective efforts of Management and employees. We have set our standard working hours like that only. Managers should undrstand that its quality of work important rather than hours or work.
No body should be appraised based on hours of work put in. HR should be also active. I have seenn this common to Indian Work culture … present in all industries… be it a Banking or IT or an audit Firm…..
People in developed country work less and still their countries is developed like All European Countries , US and others.
So we need to change as Indian and take some good US and European culture …..
Hi,
This is very good article, but I would say is common to all Indian Compnaies. This is how we Indian has cultivated our working stile. This is what is our Work Cluture is….. We seriously need to change this and that has to be a collective efforts of Management and employees. We have set our standard working hours like that only. Managers should undrstand that its quality of work important rather than hours or work.
No body should be appraised based on hours of work put in. HR should be also active. I have seenn this common to Indian Work culture … present in all industries… be it a Banking or IT or an audit Firm…..
People in developed country work less and still their countries is developed like All European Countries , US and others.
So we need to change as Indian and take some good US and European culture …..
You are right on spot. I have been working in a tier 1 indian software company. I have been through this grind. I have slogged.. :-(. Currently I am in US and I see ppl work for 8 hours a day and they are respected for that. A Desi Manager treats his team members like his servants and does not respect them. This is not true here in US.
You are right on spot. I have been working in a tier 1 indian software company. I have been through this grind. I have slogged.. :-(. Currently I am in US and I see ppl work for 8 hours a day and they are respected for that. A Desi Manager treats his team members like his servants and does not respect them. This is not true here in US.
A very well written piece. I guess we all at some point of time go through this. Even for me, past 3-4 months had invovled working more than 13 hours of day. Being a girl I can’t sit late so I have to come in office by 8 and sit till 10 in office.
If we try to say something about this to our seniors we are immediately labled as the ones ‘Having attitude problem!’. That affects my apperisals and hence my salary. Those who play TT in afternoon but sit till 1 in the night are given promotion because seniors see him sit till 1 in night. How many hours one sit in company has suddenly become a scale for how much hard working one is rather than seeing his productivity.
We can’t change Narayan Muthry or any chairmen of other companines. We have to take initiative that we don’t follow their footpath if we reach there place.
Only then we can think of changing this world. Only then we can create something which Gandhi created some 70 years back.
A very well written piece. I guess we all at some point of time go through this. Even for me, past 3-4 months had invovled working more than 13 hours of day. Being a girl I can’t sit late so I have to come in office by 8 and sit till 10 in office.
If we try to say something about this to our seniors we are immediately labled as the ones ‘Having attitude problem!’. That affects my apperisals and hence my salary. Those who play TT in afternoon but sit till 1 in the night are given promotion because seniors see him sit till 1 in night. How many hours one sit in company has suddenly become a scale for how much hard working one is rather than seeing his productivity.
We can’t change Narayan Muthry or any chairmen of other companines. We have to take initiative that we don’t follow their footpath if we reach there place.
Only then we can think of changing this world. Only then we can create something which Gandhi created some 70 years back.
Very good article Harshad and good to see quite a few comments on this…
I seriously feel that there is no point in blaming the company for this…It is in the hands of the employee to take care and plan accordingly, if he/she is staying late then it means to say that his/her planning is not proper and they are not abel to manage their time properly.
There are also quite a number of people who wish to come to office as they dont have anything else to do..and they are so used to working that if they stay at home for one weekend without going to office they feel they are bored. So, people should change themselves than blaming the company or the managers.
-Priya.
Very good article Harshad and good to see quite a few comments on this…
I seriously feel that there is no point in blaming the company for this…It is in the hands of the employee to take care and plan accordingly, if he/she is staying late then it means to say that his/her planning is not proper and they are not abel to manage their time properly.
There are also quite a number of people who wish to come to office as they dont have anything else to do..and they are so used to working that if they stay at home for one weekend without going to office they feel they are bored. So, people should change themselves than blaming the company or the managers.
-Priya.
The things mentioned are relevant, but today perception of most managers are changing. They are too learning to respect the personal life of ppl working for them. It will take time to change the attitude everywhere.
The things mentioned are relevant, but today perception of most managers are changing. They are too learning to respect the personal life of ppl working for them. It will take time to change the attitude everywhere.
This is a very timely and relevant post.
At the peak of IT all, my mom, 54 years old, looked much healthier than me, since she sleeps daily at 10:30 p.m. and wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and goes for a walk in the park. While I returned home at approximately the same time, having left a good amount of my hair in between the keys on my keyboard at work.
Sheesh….Wish I had some sense!
You’ve got to learn to draw the line. You’ve got to respect yourself and say, ‘No’.
vijucat
This is a very timely and relevant post.
At the peak of IT all, my mom, 54 years old, looked much healthier than me, since she sleeps daily at 10:30 p.m. and wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and goes for a walk in the park. While I returned home at approximately the same time, having left a good amount of my hair in between the keys on my keyboard at work.
Sheesh….Wish I had some sense!
You’ve got to learn to draw the line. You’ve got to respect yourself and say, ‘No’.
vijucat
I take serious exception to Amarinder’s comments – ‘if you can manage a motor car production does not mean that you can manage a software project’. Well can he tell me how many Project Managers with Technology background (aka Glorified Developers) have been successful as PMs? The problem is that the industry neither grooms its developers to become PMs nor facilitates successful PMs from non-Technical background to fit into their new role. The type of PM he has referred to fail mostly because of the Technical leads who see him as a challenger to their career(!) and ensure that he fails. The organizations also do not recognize this as a cultural issue and try to resolve it. Rather they either brand the PM as incapable or eliminate the Technical Lead. I am telling this from my personal experience and from the experiences of some of my friends – all of us moved from the ‘Old World’ to this so called ‘New World’.