#1139 From: XXXXXXX (Cognizant) Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 12:09 PM To: DSouza, Francisco (Cognizant) Subject: A Depature in Goodwill Dear Frank, I’m one among the 188 thousand employees working in Cognizant and this letter will be my final word of communication to Cognizant about my resignation and I intend to directly address it to the CEO of this company. People kept in BCC are my friends and colleagues within Cognizant network. Misconstrued Customer Focus: March 28, 2013 This was the day when I was officially inducted into Cognizant. Like any other engineering bloke, I dreamed of joining IT right from college days and Cognizant was one of my most admired companies as it connected directly with my dreams and passion. It was the first day of induction at Chennai and during an interactive session with the top-level folks we were told about how infusion of young blood helped Cognizant during the troubled times of US recession and it was when someone from the crowd posed a question, “What Cognizant does to India”. The instant response from the host was met with huge sigh of disappointment in the aspiring-to-become-part-of-Cognizant crowd. His reply was, “We provide you jobs”. He later went into damage control mode saying that “90% of Cognizant projects are US-based and we’re currently taking up Indian projects from LIC etc” It’s true that Globalization has made business sans borders possible and we’re global netizens of IT. However, you should be aware that the youth in this country are increasingly becoming passionate about their country and they look into how their contribution to the employer adds value to the society they live in. I do not deny that Cognizant, like other IT service companies in India, is immensely contributing to the Corporate-Social-Responsibility drives but I believe the attitude and thinking inside the premises is still US-centric and the term “customer focus” is wrongly interpreted which was vividly reflected in the response during my induction program. Apathy at GWFM: It has been 18 months since my collaboration with Cognizant and I should say I’m abysmally dismayed by the way workflow management operates here. I could see jobs in remote places being shoved into people’s throats. It’s unfair when I see the folks (including me) from good computer science background placed in support-based projects and people from other streams given opportunities in development-based projects. Being flexible is one thing but shouldn’t the employees deserve to work in a project that will be doubly beneficial to both the employee and the employer. Even after working in remote places for years, programmer analysts have zero possibility of location transfer until they get promoted to an associate because of an apparent company policy: “PA’s are not entitled to transfer”. Is being a PA a curse in Cognizant? We literally seem to be unfortunate lot with almost no say in anything. If we’re not entitled to transfer for years, don’t we deserve to have a say in our project allocation after training. I do not understand how Cognizant expect passion and empowerment from its employees with this kind of systems and policies in place. I do not want to sound all worked up and blame a particular team for this dilemma. As GWFM is crucial in determining an employee’s future and since they’re unreachable most of the time, I wish there were sufficient redressal mechanisms in place to look into employees’ concerns. Moral Stigma: Steve Jobs once said- “Heres to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- theyre not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you cant do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” An organization can get employees who work for money but if a company is looking into ‘make a difference’ and ‘change the status quo’ as it advertises, I believe it could be only through dreamers and differential thinkers. Being one, I don’t think I can incite my passion working under this toxic environment of un-Indian-ness and forced employee migrations. To summarize, if a paradigm shift doesn’t happen in the attitude towards the employees’ needs and country they do business in, I am certain that, in the years to come, working in IT will soon become a moral stigma in India. Note of Thanks: I would like to clarify that this mail is not a last ditch attempt to get my job back. My resignation is final and it’s confirmed that I’m leaving the organization on September 30th. If there’s any silver lining, I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to Cognizant HR department who effectively stood by my side in solving petty disputes and concerns in my project. Nevertheless, it all went futile due to stringent company policies. As a once admirer of Cognizant, I hope the things change here and folks get to work under a committed and an employee-caring organization. Sincerely yours, XXXXXXXXXXX, A Thinking Indian.
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 09:08:49 +0000