Thousands of benched employees are facing uncertainty as the first 35-day cycle under Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) new bench policy comes to a conclusion on July 17. Many of them are expressing their anxiety on social media.
After the policy went into effect on June 12, employees run the possibility of having their careers hampered or even terminated if they spend more than 35 days a year in a bench period, or time without any project allocation.
Employees at TCS frequently post on online sites like Reddit to voice their concerns. Some workers claim they are being pushed into projects that don’t fit their skill sets, while others have been rushing for projects. According to several Reddit threads, some people are being turned down for client interviews, while others are having trouble finding work in their hometowns.
Job Uncertainty Looming on TCS’ Employees
There is also no indication of how many people will be affected. An average of 15–18% of workers in top Indian IT companies are often on the bench, according to industry estimates. The largest IT business in India, TCS, employs over 613,000 people.
On 16 July, an employee welfare organisation called on Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to act immediately against TCS for the implemented bench policy, which it described as “inhumane,” “exploitative,” and psychologically upsetting for IT workers.
The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) accused the IT behemoth of repeatedly threatening to fire bench staff and deny them experience letters if they don’t achieve irrational deployment deadlines in a letter to the minister.
In the letter, NITES President Harpreet Singh Saluja stated that these are skilled experts who are momentarily without allocation, not underperforming workers. They encounter mistrust, compulsion, and threats in place of assistance.
Some Employees Calling TCS’s Move a Positive Stroke
Some workers, however, are in favour of TCS’ decision, claiming that a number of workers have been on the bench for years, turning down projects that were presented to them. While some of them used the opportunity to pursue more education and overall performed poorly at work.
According to a Reddit user, this may help TCS trim some seriously underperforming resources, those stuck on TCS like a leech. It has always been expected that associates take responsibility for their careers, TCS CEO and managing director K. Krithivasan told a media outlet in support of the new bench policy.
The organisation expects employees to actively look for new tasks after finishing current ones, even if HR promotes project placement. This is just a better organised form of what has been done for a long time. The company wants to cut down on bench time. The business makes significant investments in upskilling, he said.
According to him, higher authorities make sure associates are deployed after the corporation makes that investment. Although preferences are taken into account, customer needs—not individual preferences—are what drive projects. Individuals are deployed by the organisation in accordance with training, demand, and skill alignment.
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