My experiences

We face unexpected incidents…Bad things happen during some phase of our life. But in my case it happened at the perfect time!

I was fed up, infect depressed with the way things worked in my firm. For example, if I write a mail to someone in other department, he will never respond until I call him or write a mail to his manager.

Try talking to the HR and she will treat you like you are the most useless person on earth. Ask your manager what task you are supposed to finish and he will ask you to wait. After a week, suddenly, he will start shouting at you. Why? Because, I am not proactive and don’t take initiative.

And if that’s not enough of insult, one fine day I would be told that I am transferred to another location for no justifiable reason.  Once I join the company at that location but before I settle down, I am asked to move to another…Why? Business Requirement…..Anything that can’t be explained will be summarized in two simple words –‘Business Requirement’

And unfortunately, I have to listen to everything and do what I was told to do. You know why? Because out in the market there are million of people looking for a job and anyone among them can replace me. I know very well that there’s ample of talent out in the market to replace me. The company can slap two months of notice period anytime on my face. And mind you, only ethical companies give you 2 months notice period, others just a single day.

One Question before going further….Can anyone explain me the meaning of loyalty to a company? Shouldn’t there be a level playing field. Shouldn’t a company be loyal to its employees before asking loyalty from them?

Well…enough I think. Things are not so bad always. I mean, when business is good, things will look cool. The HR guys will be so polite; they will talk about employee benefits and employee morals. And any fault of yours will be overlooked because you are making money for the company……in corporate terms it means you are productive. As long as you are productive, no questions will be raised …whatsoever.

But when recession is prevalent, you will find your manager saying you are very slow… that you don’t know how to handle tasks given to you and the same HR who was talking about employee benefits and morals will be handing you your termination letter.

Well, it’s the glimpse of corporate world…It’s a machine and some one runs it from the top. You keep dancing for your manager. But it’s not something that should let you down….you know why….because your manager also dances from the whims and fancies of his manager and this cycle continues.

Anyways, coming to the point, I wanted to move to organization (I guess, I was searching for the ideal one) where people are honest, treat their colleagues fairly, where transparency prevails and where you are given work appropriate to your skill set. After trying a lot, I landed in a firm that was giving me the kind of work I wanted to do and a stable location. I was quite happy and thought that this might be the last days of torture. I resigned from TCS.

I took a month off before joining new firm to enjoy at home. It was a nice time, bad days were over, I thought. Home was cool, I had lot of fun and I was excited about joining new firm.

The month passed by quite fast and I landed Bangalore a day before joining. I reached my friends home and got a call from my new firm. You know what was it about? It was about their inability to honor their offer letter. I was shocked and the guy other side continued – you know we are sorry about it but due to recessionary trends and financial problems in our firm we can’t honor the offer letter.

Now, if you ask me about the reputation of the firm, it was $6 Billion strong company, supposed to be very ethical and with high moral standards. And so was my last firm. But when these MNC’s can’t make money they kick your butts.

By the way, people don’t believe my case. Some say, why did you left your last firm, it was such a good firm? Some say it was recessionary period; it was a wrong time to switch. Some say why you don’t try back in your last firm. And I feel myself like a biggest idiot on the earth.

One, people don’t want to take risks, two they don’t like anybody taking risk and three they try to make themselves happy with what they have and don’t try for something better.

By the way, while I started job hunt again, I found that the job market is quite inefficient, at least in India. There are employers looking for skilled people but always find it difficult to find the right resource. Similarly, there are people looking for specific job opportunities but rarely find the right employer. On an average, it takes around 6 months to find a right job.

Lastly, I want to appraise you about the company that rolled back the offer letter one day before joining. I hope it will help you and your close one’s to maintain distance from this firm. This was Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a US based MNC with $6 billion revenues. 

Hope you never have advised anyone to work in this firm

By the way, I started getting mails about job opportuities from my friends after posting this Article.  I would like readers to know that I have found one…Of cpurse with the help of close friends.