pink slip

While you were reading the news that Mahindra Satyam has secured contracts worth $79 million only for the second quarter in North Africa and Middle East regions, employees at Satyam were reading quite a different news in their mailboxes. Read the full story

The already tainted Satyam has now placed another 500 employees in a so called “corporate reserve” which is nothing else but bench. This move has further sparked various rumors like possibility of senior-level employees leaving Satyam.

All associates in the sales, operations management, delivery integration, relationships, program management, presales and solutions framework will be now placed in the corporate reserve. These verticals belong to the Enterprise Business Competency (EBS) at Satyam. The company has also mentioned that these resources will remain in reserve till further allocations are informed.

The Chief Marketing Officer, T Hari who is also the Chief People’s Officer mentioned, “With a transition to the new organizational design, some of the erstwhile units like vertical business units and horizontal competency units will cease to exist.”. He further added, “Employees who have not been allocated any portfolio yet in the new organization design will be placed in the unit called corporate reserve.”

It should be noted that Mahindra Satyam had already placed 8,000 employees in a similar situation terming it as “Virtual Pool” yet another name coined for the more simple word BENCH.

Dear colleagues,

I write this mail to update you on some critical Board and Leadership level changes in our company, effective immediately. A series of extremely unfortunate events led to this, which I am sure you have seen covered in the media over the past few hours.

A SWAT team consisting of senior leaders has been formed. Many of them are Satyam veterans with a minimum of ten years experience in our company and more than twenty years in the industry. I have been requested to play the role of an Interim CEO and this team will support me, as we steer Satyam through this challenging phase. These are the leaders on the ground and have always had the final call on most customer and associate related matters in the company, so far. This team has committed to work together, to make it happen. The SWAT team represents all customer facing units, key horizontal competency units and critical support units. Read the full story

Dear Board Members,

It is with deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience, that I would like to bring the following facts to your notice:

1. The Balance Sheet carries as of September 30, 2008:

a. Inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances of Rs. 5,040 crore (as against Rs. 5361 crore reflected in the books)

b. An accrued interest of Rs. 376 crore which is non-existent

c. An understated liability of Rs. 1,230 crore on account of funds arranged by me

d. An over stated debtors position of Rs. 490 crore (as against Rs. 2651 reflected in the books)
Read the full story

A “True Lie” infact. Ironically, Satyam means truth. Chairman and promoter Ramalinga Raju confessed that the Hyderabad based Satyam Computers has been lying to its shareholders, employees and the entire world for many years. Regarded as India’s largest ever corporate fraud, it is estimated that the scam is more than 7,000 crore.

Considered to be the fourth largest [or was the fourth largest] IT company after TCS, Infosys and Wipro, Satyam has been cheating its shareholders, employees and clients by manipulating the revenue and profit sheets and thus boosting cash inflows. Satyam has also reportedly shown interest income when actually nothing existed. Read the full story

Things are moving from bad to worse! It’s time parents lose their pride that they made their kids an engineer. After all these engineers who paid heavy college donations and spent their teen life as a book worm end up in a BPO. And all that you need to join a BPO is good communication and basic computer skills; well not a degree!!

It was bound to happen but not so soon!! Hundreds of fresher’s who got their offer letter from Wipro were asked to join BPO with half the salary!! Sudip Shah who was designated as a project engineer was given a revised salary which was half the amount and asked to join its BPO division. “I was offered Rs 2.85 lakh/year as CTC. Now I have been asked to join as a BPO staff with 1.3 lakh/year. Why is this so? This is unfair!” said Sudip of an Engineering college in Kalyani.

Campus recruitments and great on spot offers have become a distant dream. These fresher’s were offered a job last year and were assured by Wipro of job placement by February 2009 once they pass out of college.

In the letter to the candidates on November 25th, Wipro had stated, “You would be aware of the current economic environment across all industries including the IT sector. IT analysts and experts claim this scenario is likely to prevail for a while. We have looked at various options to absorb you without much delay. The nature of job is that of a “technical helpdesk engineer” instead of “project engineer” as promised earlier.”

Students later protested in front of Wipro office in vain. With Wipro and other top software companies sacking Managing Directors to top Project managers without any reason, handling these freshers would have been easy job. But looks like these fresher’s haven’t understood what’s happening in the market now!! They protested, “We have told the HR that we will accept a reduced pay structure! But will not change our designation that was offered to us last year!”. Hey fresher’s, come to terms!! There are engineers out there with years of experience who struggle to get a software job! The industry is not so simple as you think!! Getting a job itself is a miracle!

The dissenters later mentioned to Wipro that they are ready to wait even for six months but not to withdraw the appointments if they did not join BPO. It should be noted that Wipro had clearly mentioned that it would place them in BPO only. If the engineers were not to accept the BPO position, they would not be considered for any other position.

BPO is not an industry where everyone can get a job. Today’s BPO requires excellent communication and technology skills to excel. BPO skill sets has become tough nowadays and even an engineering degree would not be considered if you do not have good communication skills

Massive job cuts in the name of reorganizing and handful of recruitments to coverup the decrease in revenue has now become a everyday story. L&T Infotech, the country’s largest engineering company has started requesting employees to resign across its Pune, Chennai and Mumbai centers. It is surprising to know that L&T Infotech even with most of its clients in manufacturing industry is facing the market slow down. Read the full story

HP has announced that it would be eliminating 24,600 of its employees. HP, in one of its Security Analyst Meetings stated that is a part of its global restructuring plans.

Many companies in the software, ITES or the EDS industry have been in a ramp down spree recently owing to inadequate projects, global slowdown and high competition. Companies have been showing the pink slip to employees in the name of performance issues. The economic slowdown has affected large companies.

HP’s plan to eliminate 24,600 employees is a huge and sensitive move for the organization. Mark, in one of his updates stated, “By far the hardest part of this effort is restructuring our global workforce and today we are announcing the elimination of 24,600 positions. There is no way to downplay the magnitude of this. The restructuring impacts people, families and communities, and we undertake it with gravity and deliberation.” He also added, “We have the well-being and futures of more than 300,000 employees to consider, and we owe it to all of them to create a business that is healthy, strategically sound and growing.’

The huge amount of eliminations shows the state of the company and the seriousness of employees without projects. Companies are no longer able to hold on to an employee if he/she is not billable even for a month.

The situation has been wide spread among all similar service companies. Industry experts feel that the same heat wave would prevail for further months. Hope we see the light soon in the end of the tunnel.