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.
Leave policy is a significant determinant when an employee signs up for a job. Leave policy in an organization can tell a lot about how well his/her work-life balance will be. Companies these days have gruelling schedules, more so since the pandemic. Working consecutively for more than 12 hours five to six days a week is hectic enough and employees seek reimbursement of their clocked time through weekends and offs.
Leaves are the means to retain the spent energy at work so as to be more productive and efficient at work. There are several types of leaves in a leave policy of a company that helps an employee take some time off. Notably, not all companies have the same leave policy.
Here’s a list of types of leaves a company should consider having in their leave policy.
1. Sick Leave
Sick Leave Entitlement: 9 to 14 days
Sick Leave
Sick leave is a leave policy of the company where the time off is given by a company to take care of themselves during an illness. Companies must have sick leave to make sure employees take the days off to recover without having to think about the loss of pay.
Companies are advised to provide at least 15 days of sick leaves in a year. Sick leaves can be carried forward to the following year and should be extended in case the employee has been sick for a longer period or has a severe illness.
2. Casual Leave
Casual Leave Entitlement: 9 to 14 days
Casual leaves are called upon when the employee needs some time off with themselves, during family events, vacations or simply just to relax. Time constraints and working in shifts make employees miss out on the life that is happening outside their cubicles. Rejuvenation is important for employees on all levels and allows them to bounce back with better productivity.
3. Religious Holidays
Leave Entitlement: –
In a country like India, festivities are always around the corner. Unlike other countries around the world, it is not confined just to Christmas. We have a hoopla of festivals during the second half of the year which has consecutive festivals like Eid, Navratri, Dussehra, Diwali and so on. Festivals in India count as the time when people away from home go back to visit their friends and families.
Currently, companies that are outsourcing employees do not allow religious leaves as the parent companies do not associate with Indian festivities. It is necessary, especially in a country like India to provide religious holidays so that the people can experience their cultural activities and reconnect with families.
4. Public Holidays
Leave Entitlement: –
Public holidays are days when the government decides to shut down services across the country. Schools, colleges, and banks remain closed during Independence day, Republic day, Labour Day and the death of a prominent leader. These are government-mandated leaves and every company is advised to inculcate them in their leave policies.
5. Maternity Leave
Leave Entitlement: 7 to 17 weeks
Maternity Leave
We have come a long way from avoiding hiring married women into companies since the HR department assumed women won’t be as efficient as men since they could possibly get pregnant sooner or later. Women too, were hesitant when they thought of applying for better jobs. A mother can take maternity leave before and after the birth of her child.
Companies these days are not only hiring women despite them being married but also, on a humanitarian front, giving paid maternity leaves.
Some companies go as far as providing crashes at the workplace so that the working mother doesn’t have to leave her little one alone. This leaves the women employees feeling appreciated and empathized with and also helps them get back to work post-pregnancy.
6. Paternity Leave
Leave Entitlement: 1 to 2 weeks
Postnatal care is of the utmost importance when there is a newborn in the house. So the presence of the father proves to be a huge help in the household. Paternity leave is for fathers of a newborn and to help their partners get enough rest and support.
In most companies, this type of leave is not recognized as it is not bound by law. It is the responsibility of HR to understand the stressful time and make provisions so that men take time off to take care of their newborns.
7. Bereavement Leave
Bereavement Leave Entitlement: 3 to 7 days
No time is said to be enough when you’re trying to get over the death of a loved one. Bereavement leaves are leaves taken when an employee is suffering from a loss of life.
Such times are unavoidable and it is only human to allow your employees to take time off to mourn and manage responsibilities.
8. Sabbatical Leave
Sabbatical Leave Entitlement: 6 months
Sabbatical Leave
A sabbatical leave is a leave when an employee is in need of a break from work, either for physical and mental illness or to pursue his interests other than office work. It usually extends beyond three months unlike normal leave and assures the employee of his/her employment is intact when they come back.
Sabbaticals are usually taken by employees of educational institutes who are pursuing higher education or are doing any kind of research work.
9. Menstrual Leave
Menstrual Leave Entitlement: Basis on Need
If you are a woman and have to call in sick on the first day of your period, I feel you. If you’re a man, you’d argue that it’s unfair. But trust me, as I write this, I know thousands of working women would second this thought.
Most young women call in sick on the first day of their period because of unbearable cramps, weakness, or simply because it is impossible for them to get out of bed. Companies like Culture Machine, Gozoop, Matrubhimi are among the pioneer companies to finally address this issue. These companies add up to 6 additional leaves for women employees who cannot get to work during their periods.
10. Compensatory Off Leave
Compensatory Leave Entitlement: Basis on Need
Compensatory off leave is a leave when an employee has worked additional hours in a workweek or when a holiday falls on an employee’s scheduled day off. It also provides flexibility at work for employees. These policies and rules generally depend upon the particular organisation.
In the wake of Covid-19, many employers are setting a reset button on their leave policies. While most employers decided to let go of employees to bear losses, many of them have been reducing earned or paid leaves from their leave structures.
Employees who are now confined to work from home are now susceptible to more stress and anxiety. Although many employees found working from home more comforting, others are missing their workplace and the environment it provides for productivity.
The “one size fits all” does not apply to all organizations when it comes to leaving structures. Every company has designed its leave structure to ensure smooth functioning. And it is essential that employees feel appreciated and rewarded so they continue being loyal and be better engaged in their jobs.
FAQs
What types of leave are Employees entitled to?
Sick Leave, Casual Leave, Religious holiday, Paternity Leave, Period Leave, Maternity Leave and Compensatory leave are the leaves employees entitled to.
What is the leave policy as per Labour law?
The Factories Act has provided annually/earned leave of 12 working days for all the workers who have worked at least 240 days in a year.
How many leaves are allowed in a year?
18 leaves are allowed in a year as per the Factories Act.
Is Sunday included in earned leave?
Saturdays and Sundays shall not be counted as days of annual leave.
What is the Sandwich leave rule?
Under the sandwich leave policy, the non-working weekend days get added to the total leaves if an employee takes leave in the midst of two general leaves.
Rules are a part of our life, we are expected to follow them everywhere. From schools to our office, every organisation have a set of rules that one associated with them has to follow.
Office rules are a set of written rules for employees to be professional and polite person. While office rules depend on the company, generally, some office rules are made to allow employees to correct their behaviour in the office. These office rules affect everyone.
In this article, we will talk about the rules that one needs to follow in office but doesn’t like. So, let’s get started.
Attendance is a significant part in any organization. It is basically the record of how many days you have been in the office at the proper time and how many days you were late for the office. It also determines the day that you have come to the office. All these records are saved in any kind of tool for attendance that particularly depends on the organization.
The company expects the employees to do the first thing after coming to the office is putting their attendance in the log of the office. However, those who want to cheat with the attendance log can, and the organization should use other tools for keeping a record of attendance.
Restricting the Internet Policy
There is no doubt that the internet has become a very necessary part in our life and on in any organization, it is much more important. Giving employees access to the web, however, is not a very trustable thing.
Instead of working at their office, employees will tend to pass their time by doing other activities and neglecting their office work. To make sure that the employees are working and not doing other things, companies restrict the use of internet for the employees in the office. However, just because one person at the office spent time watching other stuff rather than writing important mails does not mean that the other employees should get punished for this. The company should allow the responsible employees to use the internet in break time, as long as work does not suffer. Besides, these rules are preventing employees from doing research and using the internet as a useful tool.
Time Policy
It is being asked by the employees, “ what were you doing all day?” and it’s a very humiliating question for most and no one wants to answer this especially when they have to work all day in the office. Though the toughest challenge faced by a company’s management is to keep records of work and time spent by the employees.
As un-tracked work hours could be costing massive losses that business incurs daily across the world. However, keeping a record of every employee can be difficult for any organization. A company manager is always concerned about the lost time and that’s natural because that directly impacts the company’s growth. Although the employees working daily don’t like to be questioned in turn. Trust is essential for successful cooperation in the organization. A company manager should trust their employees.
Bathroom Policy
Some organizations have a policy of how many times a person can use the bathroom in the office. Managers should not add these kinds of policies to the office. When an employee has to go, an employee has to go. Unless that employee is not abusing bathroom rights and spending unnecessary time without completing their work.
A Chicago-based firm, a call centre in Scotland, Amazon have this policy which is criticised by employees as well as people around them.
While there is a clear public policy of allowing employees access to bathrooms, it does not support that employees may leave their tasks at any time without responsibly completing them. Seriously, limiting people’s trips to the bathroom is only going to give them serioushealth problems.
Counting With Miles Policy
Some companies have the policy that any employee going on a work trip from the company side, they have to give a record of how many miles they have travelled. This policy is a bit unnecessary if the employee is going on their own expenses. There’s no need for keeping a record of how many miles the employee travelled.
Employees generally hate to do this because there should be trust between the company and the employee and the employee feels like the company does not trust them. Plus if the company should not send an employee if they feel thr employee is not that trustworthy.
Overtime Policy
Overtime is the period in which an employee has to work more than their working hours. Under the overtime rules and policies defining work hours, an employee should work 8-9 hours per day in India which equals a total of 48-50 hours a week. The company sometimes offers employees more work to do as overtime and also the company pays for it. Employees do not like to do overtime but they have to fulfil the company’s requirements.
Rigid Ranking Policy
We live in a world where benchmarks and rankings are set to judge the performance of a person. When rankings are used at the office for praising employees’ performance, many managers think that doing this can inspire them to become more competitive. This will help them in working hard to catch up more.
Although in reality, the opposite happens, employees become demotivated. People who ranked highly will always think that they are already in the highest position, and are the best. While people who are ranked too low can become depressed about their work and might give up.
Companies like IBM, Amazon, and Facebook use this policy to rank their employees.
Giving feedback is another thing but comparing employees to other employees is not good for the company’s growth. Companies can compare the individual performance of an employee and that will help them in growing their confidence.
Banning Cell Phones Policy
The use of cell phones at the office can cause extended personal interaction during working hours. The banning of cell phones is used to protect company secrets. Cell phones cause various kinds of distractions in offices while people are working.
Employees talking on their cell phones, sharing pictures and videos, and loud ringtones are annoying factors that result in banning cell phones at the office. So companies follow this policy. However. banning cell phones will always result in employees finding other ways to use them. Some may have legitimate reasons to use their cell phones which may affect the employee’s ability to work. Anyone who uses their cell phones just to avoid doing work will find another way of using a cell phone or wasting time.
Companies like Concentrix, Genpact, American Express, Accenture and Fidelity have the No Cellphone Policy in their offices.
Companies just need rules to protect their privacy. So they shouldallow cell phones during break time. So that in an emergency, employees would be able to use them.
Dress Code Policy
The debate over whether or not companies should have a dress code policy or not is going on for a long time. Some organizations believe it’s essential that their employees should have certain standards regarding the way they dress up at the office. This is mandatory when employees have to attend face-to-face interactions with the clients on a daily basis.
While many employees don’t mind following the dress code, others feel that as adults, they are more than capable of deciding how to be at the office without having a formal dress code.
Companies like Wipro, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase have a strict dress code. Wipro and JPMorgan Chase allow their employees to wear casual clothes on Friday.
If the company is deciding to implement a formal dress code in the office, the company should try to get a balance between guidelines that give the employees the need for comfort and style and also a policy that requires them to dress in a way that reflects the values of the company. If the dress code is implemented in the right way, employees will have no reason to oppose it.
Conclusion
Employees should be trusted at the office by the manager. Employees are all adults who should not be treated like under-performed employees by the company. Just because of the mistake of a few employees, not everyone should be punished.
