Bangalore: Techlogik Computer Systems (TCS) IT project manager Rajeev Kumar received an unexpected shock when he reported to work on Monday. The front desk receptionist handed him a pink slip as soon as he entered the company building. Rajeev had been leading a team of 55 software and QA engineers on a large project for a US based client. On Friday, Rajeev and his team successfully completed the delivered a bug-free project to the client two days ahead of schedule. The team celebrated the occasion on the weekend was caught completely unawares on the recent development.
TCS refused to issue an official response citing this as an internal matter. However unofficial sources confirmed that the company management was appalled and shocked that their team delivered a bug-free working project. The unofficial spokesman (who we suspect is the official spokesman) said that the company is always focused on the long term and has to ensure that every project results in an on-going stream of work and maintenance projects. Delivering a project that works is simply unacceptable and we strive hard to drive this mindset in our management and engineering philosophy. Every project that we deliver has to undergo a special review before delivery to ensure that the clients cannot run or maintain the systems by themselves. Apparently Rajeev’s team did not follow this process and failed to introduce any bugs into the system. The client was however extremely satisfied with the results and immediately issued the payments and sent special kudos to Rajeev and his team over the weekend.
Other project team members were equally shocked by this action. “How can someone deliver a working project? We have families and kids to look after. Now there is a strong possibility that I could be benched (benched = employed without work with no bonuses and pay-hikes)” said Muralinarayan Muthusamy a software engineer. “In my previous project I was responsible for adding numbers in an excel sheet for a very high profile UK based client and I continued to work on the same excel sheet for 5 years. It was a challenge every time Microsoft rolled out a new office version and we had to start adding numbers all over again. I even managed to pay my sister’s wedding dowry through this project”, he added.
“Rajeev is now responsible for the hardships that all his team members will have to face” said Ramalingham Sreenivasan another software engineer. “I have been working on launching a website project for a US based client for the past 7 years” Ramalingham added proudly. “Our client sold their business 3 times and filed for bankruptcy protection twice while we continued to build their website”, he added.
Calls to Rajeev’s home phone were unattended. His neighbors said that Rajeev is devastated and is finding it very difficult to get job interviews with other companies. He might have to settle in for a call center job to handle customer complaints.
