Looking back a few years from now, I remember vividly how I just wanted to complete my engineering, get into Infosys, work for a few years and then pursue an MBA in the USA. By God's grace, my plan has been on track till date. But I'd never thought that I'd grow to dislike Infy and its policies so much. But again... I knew little about IT, IT companies, their policies and work back then... (much like i know little about finance now)...
What has tempted me to write now is my conversation with the DC head... All the employees in the company were taken by shock with a new policy that was rolled out along with our annual salary 'Hike'... The policy is well justified from the management point of view. Nothing new in the IT market. But what makes it hard to digest is the way it has been rolled out. It is mentioned in the annexure sheet of our CR roll out letter. The letter has been sent with 2 voting buttons, one which says - I read and accept; while the other says- I read and don't accept. Since the policy has come as a shocker... it has been misinterpreted by most of my colleagues but us poor souls have no option, cause if we choose the second option (Read and not accept) our salary will not be credited!!! Now... isn't that unjust!!! When infy has a policy of 3 months notice for quitting the job... would it not be ethical for the company to have intimated of the employees of such a policy roll out 3 months in advance???
It is really bad that the once benevolent company is resorting to such tactics to control attrition and hold back employees...
While i was on my way back home, on the day i received the most awaited letter of the year, i happened to be seated right in front of our DC head... Facing her. As mentioned, the letter had sent shock waves through the company and she was at the receiving end; with quite a few employees considering legal action... I could not help but listen into her conversation as she tried to get some 'damage control' in place before she flew to a foreign land for an important meeting... Me being the person i am, just looked for that minute while she would get off the phone so I could tell her my personal opinion about the policy while inquiring why it came to effect in such a haste... But the most interesting part of our conversation was when she said "We train people and they quit before they become productive" !!! It was obvious she was speaking about the range of 2-4 yrs experience where the attrition is maximum... before we become "productive"!!! That was a bad statement from a DC head of such a dying-for-media-hype company...
We do understand that Infy is investing loads of money into training... but its high time the company realized that their training is of little use... since they usually do not post people into IBUs where they require the skills one is trained on... Its no doubt that the training time is all fun and extension of college time for many... but looking from management perspective... its no use... Infy trains people just for 'Client Appreciation' and to maintain a 'Good Face' in public. It would be beneficial for both; the company and the employee, to have on-the-project training...
And it is absolutely ridiculous to say that freshers are not productive!!! Freshers are very often over worked... there will definitely be at least 15 days in a year where average SEs work for 12 hours continuously... There will be about 30 days of bench time for an SE spread over a full year... And all of us know how we are billed to our clients... Infy should stop guilt-tripping us...
Instead of forcing employees into accepting a policy... Infy should look into its existing crappy policies... like compensation, ELs and other employee benefits... to control attrition... Infy... is truly becoming a 'Once benevolent' company...
