[Durango Dude]

Most offices of IT companies wear a 'ghost town' look. They're just shells bereft of any hardware from where software can be churned out. The hardware was dispatched to employees who were asked to come pick up desktops/laptops just before the lockdown was announced. WFH has become the norm now, sans fixed hours they are made to slave around for long hours, works well either ways. Some overheads may come down for the companies and no commute hassle for employees. I'm not in IT but my son and daughter in law are WFH and I've got 2 WiFi connections and they also have mobile internet and companies don't foot the bill and I/kids do.

[Mechanto]

It's been 20 months now, since the lockdown started. The initial euphoria of "Hey, my productivity has increased" or "Hey, I get to spend some quality time with my family" or "Hey, I don't have to spend time on commute" is gone.

What I get to hear from most IT Employees these days is "I don't know when I am logging in neither do I know when I log out" or "I need a place out of my home to go and work, there are a lot of family issues that are creeping up" or "It is just me and my laptop. I need to meet and talk to my team mates to relax a bit" or "I just hate this Microsoft Teams ringtone".

This has led to a situation where anything and everything new is getting people excited, irrespective of whether it makes sense to them or not, albeit for a shorter period of time. A new mobile phone, a new bicycle or a gym equipment, a new music system, fitness bands and what not.

Then somebody says "Hey, I offer you a new job, new laptop, new colleagues, new technology, higher pay, various other perks" - who would deny the offer? Nevertheless, this is not healthy for the industry, nor the economy. But who cares, make the most hay when the sun is shining bright.

[am1m]

Had a friend visit this week, she's at a senior position in a big financial firm and was telling us how a senior facilities manager was caught siphoning off crores on facilities contracts after an audit. This is not the first time I've heard of corruption in senior facilities positions in private IT companies, even 'brand-name' firms. From reliable sources, I've heard of a facilities person who used to make money on cafeteria contracts. Another who used to keep ex-employees still on the rolls for a couple of months after they had left to be able to bill the US head office for cab transport. At a place I used to work at, the choice of new office location was somehow so conveniently within the mixed commercial-residential complex where the India head lived- even though it was very inconvenient for most of the rest of the hundreds of employees! And it would be really naive to think that kickbacks to a few (I still believe that the majority of people in IT are honest) of these guys from cab, housekeeping, food, security vendors and our wonderful Bangalore real estate industry (on the contrary, there is enough evidence that most of those guys aren't!) don't happen. So, certainly not the main driver, but definitely a factor in the push to get people back to the office, IMHO.

[dragonfire]

Originally Posted by am1m

senior facilities manager was caught siphoning off crores on facilities contracts after an audit. This is not the first time I've heard of corruption in senior facilities positions in private IT companies, even 'brand-name' firms.

I used to work in a project team some time ago where we needed to procure Apple devices for testing. We raised a procurement request for several devices but with basic configurations. The procurement team gave us quotes for top variants (for example 256GB, WiFi+4G iPads, while we just needed basic 32GB WiFi iPads), saying that the variants we asked for are out-of-stock. Our business manager later told us that the vendor pushes the pricier devices and the people at the procurement team will get a cut from the profits. Now, this is just one project. Imagine what these guys would be making in a company with thousands of projects.

Sometimes I think that these large IT companies are no better than govt offices.

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

Sometimes I think that these large IT companies are no better than govt offices.

True. Few from my experience

Most of the top management have share (through benami) in some vendors
Expensive gifts to procurement team and top management
% cut of total orders from vendors
Use of companies resources for personal use
Price manipulation, quotation info leaks
Kids college education arranged/paid by vendors

[m8002?]

We can find these kind of people at all places. The key question is what did the company do when they found about these practices?
I know of a couple of instances where people (in Admin and IT) were immediately let go. I don't know if they were made to cough up the money or walked away free.

[poloman]

I think IT procurement teams are small fishes. The real kick backs may happen in project outsourcing contracts of these companies. I always used to wonder how top companies outsource work and how they select the vendors? It is always some acquaintance or some influential company cornering most of the contracts?

Are these transparent deals? I have heard that many top management guys have direct stake in some of the companies they outsource.

Does some one know how projects or outsourcing contracts are awarded?

[subraiyr]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

True. Few from my experience

Most of the top management have share (through benami) in some vendors
Expensive gifts to procurement team and top management
% cut of total orders from vendors
Use of companies resources for personal use
Price manipulation, quotation info leaks
Kids college education arranged/paid by vendors

It's not just in the procurement of equipment. If you dig a little bit into recruitment you will see huge kickbacks coming in. 20% of order values are standard kickbacks in this space. The other one I see is in loan processing for builders at banks. Kickbacks in the form of material than money.

[IndieGooner]

Originally Posted by poloman

I think IT procurement teams are small fishes. The real kick backs may happen in project outsourcing contracts of these companies. I always used to wonder how top companies outsource work and how they select the vendors? It is always some acquaintance or some influential company cornering most of the contracts?

Are these transparent deals? I have heard that many top management guys have direct stake in some of the companies they outsource.

Does some one know how projects or outsourcing contracts are awarded?

This is from my experience working as Managed service provider (MSP). All major clients have several MSPs in their system doing some bit or the other. When the client wants something done, they float an RFP and all these MSPs come bidding for the piece of pie. This route is fairly transparent and generally Business relationship managers at these MSPs get to know why their bid was accepted or rejected.

Another avenue is staff augmentation i.e. hiring contractors from some staffing agency. I have heard of people getting kickbacks for hiring from specific agencies. In fact I know of a manager at a US client who got fired for exactly this malpractice.

Now, I'm completely unaware of how the process works when it comes to buying software of the shelf (like say SAP vs Salesforce). Certainly, the money involved is huge and hence their might be more checks and balances in place.

[Samurai]

Hello folks, the last few posts have nothing to do with the thread topic.

Yes, corruption is a huge problem even in corporate procurement, but this is not the right thread for it.

[Turbohead]

Guys, I work in one of the 'WITCH' companies and we're providing services for an MNC.

Turns out our client decided to cut down on it's tech budget which is going to result in layoffs in our project. All this after nearly 30% of our colleagues resigned in the past 6 months.

Is this the beginning of the end of the dream run in service based companies? Or am I stuck in some useless project? Wish I had jumped earlier but didn't have enough YOE to do the same.

[poloman]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

Guys, I work in one of the 'WITCH' companies and we're providing services for an MNC.

Turns out our client decided to cut down on it's tech budget which is going to result in layoffs in our project. All this after nearly 30% of our colleagues resigned in the past 6 months.

Is this the beginning of the end of the dream run in service based companies? Or am I stuck in some useless project? Wish I had jumped earlier but didn't have enough YOE to do the same.

This is contrary to rosy picture painted by IT companies. May be there is a big bubble building up post COVID in IT.

Has the great resignation phenomenon reached India? In my team hardly 1% has resigned in last 1-2 years.
I am highly reluctant to believe any of the IT related stories appearing in media.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

Turns out our client decided to cut down on it's tech budget which is going to result in layoffs in our project. All this after nearly 30% of our colleagues resigned in the past 6 months.

Is this the beginning of the end of the dream run in service based companies? Or am I stuck in some useless project? Wish I had jumped earlier but didn't have enough YOE to do the same.

Highly doubtful - most MNCs switch their vendors basis contract negotiations or another vendor pitching in a much better proposal. IF they are actually cutting down tech budget, then it's a decision pertaining to other factors (market/internal/etc) - maybe the firm is not doing well or it could be handing over the tech support to an internal setup or an external managed services setup or so on.

I'd dig deeper to really understand the underlying reasons - while there are lull and changes happening in the services market, it isn't the end of the services based run by any aspect.

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by poloman

Has the great resignation phenomenon reached India? In my team hardly 1% has resigned in last 1-2 years.
I am highly reluctant to believe any of the IT related stories appearing in media.

It is very much alive and kicking here as well. Atleast in Product companies, the salaries for lateral hire are going sky high. The difference is that in NA, many people are taking a break but here its just changing jobs. I get resumes from people who have changed 2 jobs in the Pandemic and now applying for 3rd.

My company just did a market correction across the board. India salaries are almost the same as some Eastern European countries now. Forget core dev, people in supporting departments like Finance and HR are demanding 100% hikes for switching jobs.

Only thing that is going for India now that NA and Western Europe are also see huge churns and high salaries. One person in Canada quit with a 40% hike!!

Once that stops, we need to prepared for a fall.

[V.Narayan]

While I recognize that this thread is largely for employees and their experiences but speaking for a moment for the employer - these sky rocketing salaries are not sustainable because we don't have sky rocketing prices that the customers are willing to pay. To an extent this is a unusual churn caused by economic and emotional outburst from the covid19 phenomena. No industry in any country can sustain 30% to 100% increase in wages or any other input factor cost without a corresponding raise in selling price. In my 4 decades of work & business experience no employee has ever become 40% more productive in the value of his output overnight. This look like trouble waiting to happen. While some members on this thread view their employers as the enemy fact is the employer also finds this turn of events impractical and it is being discussed, watched and acted upon by the other side too. To some extent, in India, it is a function of the employee thinking in his mind that it is time to get back on the employer. If the customer refuses to pay, which he doesn't wish to, this cycle will collapse. You may not like what I write but for your own sake please make sure you are not standing when the music stops.