“I am glad Infosys has set the stage for a
salary freeze. Employees are being over paid and are under performing. Skills
don’t match up.”
Tweet by Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. What
was your first reaction to it? Be honest. Before you start introspecting, analyzing,
let that element of ego and insult set in, just tell me the first reaction or
first thought that came to your mind when you came across this. Mine expression
was, a rite smile. Why ? coz I found some truth in that. There was a huge
furore in IT fraternity especially Infosys community as they found it highly
inappropriate and “Insulting”. Huge discussions started on bulletin board that
how Mrs. Shaw went out of the way or has crossed the line in not only calling
IT professionals over paid but labeling them as under performing. It was one of
the longest thread I have come across on Infosys BB as hard working IT janta
was deeply hurt. Few of the points were valid as they argued that until and
unless you haven’t gone through something you cant pass an honest opinion about
it and in that regard, yes Mrs. Shaw haven’t tasted the muddy swamp of IT
industry so she was a bit harsh on that
account. But was that comment IT employee’s specific?? I don’t think so.
Infosys the name was used to highlight the trend or the notion she support i.e.
not giving any hikes. But I won’t commit the same mistake as Mrs. Shaw so I
would restrict my post and this discussion upto IT sector only.
So how efficient this IT community really
is? Are they really over paid?? Well looking at my present bank balance I’ll
certainly say no for the second part :P … but on a serious note I don’t fully
agree or disagree to this point. Over paid or under paid is a tough thing to
gauge but under performing….hmmm… lets see. Under utilized could have been a
better word here. But again Infosys hire from campuses as if in a wholesale,
that there is bound to be majority of under performers. How can I say that?
Many would say, an engineering graduate is a worthy employee, who has slogged
for 4 years of B.Tech that he deserves every perk and benefits which comes his
way. But sorry I don’t agree. Why? Simple reason being, I have seen such
hooligans of my college proudly wearing that Infosys tag around their fatty
necks that every time I see them in the same premises as me, I feel ashamed. I
know I am not entitled to comment on anyone or any talent that comes out of so
many universities sprawled across India and many of you might be offended in me
calling these noble engineering souls as hooligans but who cares, its my post
.. :P… and I know deep down you also know that I am right. So whose fault is it..
that these good for nothing people ends up in Infosys or for the fact any other
IT firm. Obviously the blame lies with Infosys and IT industry in general. I
don’t know what the govt. policies are for these IT companies that whether they
get any rebate or anything for hiring more and more people or whether they get
any advantage from client side when they show their bench strength or man
power. It has to be something which forces these IT giants in hiring in such
huge numbers, because if I look from my perspective and if I am running any
organization then I would be hiring only the number I require and not for the
sake of giving employment and then put half of them on bench to do time pass.
It isn’t like there is no work but as in the case of wealth distribution in our
country, it is not uniformly distributed. In some projects it is like people
are working 12 hrs a day and there is resource crunch and many such issues and
at the same time you will find people who are even finding it hard to maintain
their office hours. So fault is with the management. Other thing which was
highly amusing and ironical was people getting angry and upset when somebody
call them under performing when the same people were having ample time to leave
their allotted work and write such huge comments expressing their anger that
how can somebody point finger at their work… :P…. if you are really hard
working and over exploited as many of us cry day in day out then you wont be
having any time for wasting on scrutinizing and reacting to such issues. I am
not saying that by freezing salaries Infosys have taken the right step. Don’t
know what was the thinking behind such hard stand but what I feel is, this step
is just another way of saying get out. They are not able to handle such vast
employee base that rather than handing over the pink slip they are telling you
to go out and look for other job, coz they know such decision will ultimately
lead to increase in attrition rate. Mr. Shibulal says he doesn’t regret the
decision and it wont be reverted back. Forget about reverting back they are
even slashing the variable amount from salaries :P …
Coming back to the main topic whether we
are over paid or not. Looking at my own situation and my present living style,
I think I can do even with a little less or I could have done with a little
less when I started working but now I have settled into a life style that it is
impossible for me to cut back. Another important thing here is, I am alone at
present and have no responsibilities what so ever. Looking after myself is the
only job I have in hand. Cant say much about those who have to look after other
stuffs be it family responsibilities, loan etc. Even inflation is continuously
on rise and to sustain a proper life in present scenario the salary we get
could be just enough. There are many conditions, scenarios, permutations
combinations that goes on when faced with such questions. You just can’t have
consensus over such topics and one party will always feel cheated. In the end
everything boils down to one and only one thing – Money – A sine qua non ???
Cheers
RJ
