Here, in this 3 part article, I am attempting to analyze the Indian IT scenario today, from a people management perspective. Contrary to what most articles will do, let me tell you straight away my conclusion - it doesn’t look all that rosy. In fact, it is quite grave and scary and my feeling is that we will shortly face another breakdown like during the dotcom bust. It will be too devastating and the entire world will get affected by this. However, good news is that the key to this lies with us – the people of this country. We are the ones, the only ones, who can stop this break-up. Consider this. The team that I am working on right now consists of around 65 people. During the beginning of the year, we started with around 70. We hired at least 10 people this year. A little arithmetic will tell you that we've lost over 15 people this year. This is 25% attrition within our team alone. Similar attrition is there in most other teams in our company. Dear HR guys, I'm sorry to say, how much ever you try to hide or makeup, I bet the overall attrition is around this number. In fact, you don't need to try to hide this at all. This is an open secret that is known to the entire population in our industry*. If you analyze the reasons for people leaving their companies, it boils down to the following two - 1) his/her manager 2) Compensation
There can be a third (or even fourth) occasional addition to this, but majority people consider these two as their major sufferings. I want to be clear on this, people 'consider' these as their sufferings, though in many (or most cases) the actuality may be different. I can see your lips moving to ask me, how can you say that, you Brutus? If any of my IT friends who've moved at least one company in their lives (I bet they've) are reading this, you can consider yourself as one of the data points in my analysis.
Many have told their stories to me, about how his/her manager is indifferent to them, treating them like dirt. But, know that, I've added a few data points to this, from my own career too. Though either of these are not the exact reasons for my leaving any of my previous companies (as my previous posts will tell you), the sum of parts is greater than the parts themselves - I believe, most of you can understand what I meant here...
Why are we like this? I'm sure that all those of you who've grown up in Indian environment, were taught during our childhood to be more tenable, more adjustable to situations and not to be too demanding? Why do we have such an impatient, short temperament, when we deal with work more than those related to home, your wife, your kids, your parents? Just think. If your parents behaved rashly to you, would you choose to leave them and get another set of parents? Sounds funny? Some of you are already asking me, how can I compare my parents with my manager at work? It sounds like the most ridiculous comparison, right? Maybe I'm taking it a bit too far, but if the two are not worthy of comparison, at least the situations are similar or metaphorically related. However, it may not be too right to say that the new-age people will patiently suffer with their spouses, even for a few days! That is the reason we're seeing too many divorces today. Society promptly blames it on the influence from the west for the ever- increasing divorce cases. So, reading two and two together, don't you think the reason for all this is that we are increasingly getting westernized, materialistic and completely transactional? Let us go a little more in the same direction…
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