Woman techie sees gifts as sign of recovery

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 26 November 2009, 15:38 IST   |    19 Comments
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Woman techie sees gifts as sign of recovery
Bangalore: When all the analysts around the world started talking of green shots and a W-shaped recovery, a woman software engineer with a Bangalore based IT firm is looking at her new year gift by company, to find out if the gloom has evaporated. "We used to get an official e-mail every year on December 24 asking us to choose from various New Year gift options; from iPods to DVD players to microwave ovens. The practice stopped in 2008," she said. If she gets such a mail this year, she will know things are getting better. Young IT professionals and call-center employees, once pampered as they guided Indian companies to the pinnacle of global outsourcing, are keeping their fingers crossed for a better 2010. "When we see an increase in the number of projects, that means a positive outlook. Managers have been telling us that the scenario is improving," said an employee in the Bangalore office of software company Ariba. Until last year, Indian IT firms such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies and Wipro maintained a flamboyant work culture to lure new talent as well as retain old hands. International assignments, regular team outings, monthly incentives, free movie tickets and even dating allowances were commonly on offer. But global downturn, which shook the world economy, changed it all. Since then, companies have resorted to severe cost cuts to overcome the slowdown, removing much of the glamour from the workplace. "No, the management has become old, no allowance for dating. We cannot encourage these kinds of things," said V. Balakrishnan, Chief Financial Officer of Infosys at the Reuters India Investment Summit in Bangalore on Wednesday. But things might be looking up as economies limp toward a possible recovery. "After the quarterly results, managers have slowly started taking people out for lunches. Even There is a slight change in outlook, said an employee with Cognizant Technology Solutions. "We may announce a wage increase in the course of the quarter, but it won't be in line with the heady days of the past," said Suresh Vaswani, Joint Chief Executive of Wipro's IT Business. But most importantly for the workers, the job situation at Indian IT firms seems to have improved, and many feel the downturn has taught them one of life's lessons. "People who were ready to settle for low salaries have started bargaining now. Also, those who clung on to their jobs in the recession have now started looking out. But there is a change in perceptions. People are more optimistic about their future right now, but they no more take things for granted. They have become very cautious, spending-wise or otherwise," said Swagata Ghosh, a Consultant with a Bangalore-based human resources firm.

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