Beyond Layoff

You are probably referring to “ layoff of IT professionals in India” that is generating a lot of news. Let us start by looking at the basics. Indian software service companies generally do NOT resort to “layoffs” or shutdown entire business units and retrench people enmasse. By doing so, they will become subject to labor laws and other government regulations. What they do instead is the following: Wait for natural attrition and slow-down hiring - The attrition in Indian IT has been in the 10–15 percent range Instruct individual managers to seek the help of HR to initiate “Performance Improvement plan” for the bottom percentile of people. For a large company like Cognizant, TCS or Wipro, the ‘bottom 5–10 percent” of people will account for 10–20,000 people. Such a large number of people being “nudged out” becomes news; which the Indian media calls it ‘layoff’ A while ago, I blogged about Cloud Computing Architects (link) . Architects working for consulting firms have to sta

Forum For IT Employees ( FITE ) continues to get a lot of media attention An IT Workers’ Union: Outlandish Or A Sign Of The Times? Bloomberg wonders, adding "India’s software services industry faces a twin challenge: U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies and automation. And as companies lay off staff, a group of employees is now trying to form an IT workers’ union. There’s been a growing sense of insecurity among the IT professionals over the last few years, said Elavarasan Raja, a 27-year-old IT worker from Pune. That’s led the group to try and form a union to better protect employees’ welfare, said Raja who is part of the group. Called the Forum For IT Employees, the group now has around 3,000 members and chapters in nine cities, including its headquarters in Chennai, and in prominent IT hubs like Bengaluru and Pune, according to Raja. The group, in a recent press release, alleged that Cognizant Technology Solutions was illegally terminating thousands of emp

As we know that there are few IT giants, who are asking their employees to leave organization in good terms. So, my query is, will it affect SAP SD Consultants (SAP Core Module Consultants)? My Experience in SAP SD is 2 to 3 Years. Please Explain!!! Let us start by understanding the context of ‘layoffs’ Check out My2cents on that topic “ What is the reason behind the layoffs in IT firms in India? Is it related to the H-1B visa, or some other reason?”)  Let us look at the question from a couple of angles Are SAP SD skills marketable? The skills certainly seem marketable. There are a few hundred jobs posted on LinkedIn (India), many posted by Infosys, Wipro, HCL etc. Will a company retain SAP SD consultant on long-term bench ? Let us assume you work for a services firm (“IT Giant”) that just lost a large account where dozens of SAP SD Consultants worked in a support role. After waiting for a while, they may decide to layoff *all* the folks on bench for more than 2-months.