Why IT Professionals in India Work Overtime? - A Management Perspective (Part - 2)

The earlier part is available here - Why IT Professionals in India Work Overtime? - A Management Perspective (Part - 1)

6. Managers think NO is a bad word:

We Indians are basically decent. And can not say NO. However, in tech industry you have to say NO many times considering the failure of IT projects (over 50% fail). Also, technology changes very fast and you need to know what can be done with existing technical resources.

However, easier said than done! Now if you have a group of C++ programmers and you move them into AJAX/Web2.0 application, can they code and perform as good as they were doing earlier? Yes, they can code. But to work at the same performance level, they have to spend sleepless nights, burnouts, frustration and of course attrition.

What is wrong in saying NO or asking for more training before jumping in?

7. Overload the technical folks:

Any good technical resource will inform you that. In a typical services company, over 70% resources are fresh graduates and they do not know how to code, implement or design. It is the senior folks who actually bear the brunt in such cases.

Also, it is a kind of carrot and stick approach. When you need ask for their advice and when you do not throw them in the dustbin or in IT terms “recycle bins”.


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8. Technology is not respected:

There are a lot of services companies and they come various names such as “XYZ Technologies” or “XYZ Tech Services” or “XYZ R & D”. However, as a matter of fact there is no Technologies or R & D there.

One interesting thing happened during my stay at one company.

In one discussion (where (un)fortunately I was a part), a team member in fact challenged the manager of the team to write a simple program in Java (it was to write the "Hello World!" application) and if the manager could do it, then the team member will accept the estimation from the manager. (Managers normally play the game here as they themselves do not know how much time it is going to take!).

I am not saying that managers need to code. But then, what about the ecosystem they live in? In the previous scenario, the manager was angry (and we all knew he could not code) and started to take alternative routes to get the work done. Also, he was saying that he is not there to talk about coding and does not remember as the work profile is different.

But then Sir, “Will you say I have forgotten the number of alphabets in English as I am not using them for a long time?” The question being asked by team member was like the A, B, C in programming.

9. In the name of people management:

A lot of managerial folks you will find in services companies who love to say that how good they are in people management. In fact, once, a General Management commented that our strength (the company I was with) is People Management. (Read it is not technical or anything else).

I have just one question – “If you are so good in people management why the attrition rate is 20% during good times?”

As I have seen, it is another mask to hide their incompetencies and inefficiencies.

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