Is this the same IT work scenario in the US/UK ?

nRiTeCh

nRiTeCh

Northstar
Here in India, those working into IT sector esp. into support are literally slaves to all the US/UK MNCs and hence we provide them 24*7 support no matter what and how.:(

We compromise our personal life, our health, our national holidays, weekends and anything one can think about and still we get paid as per Indian std. rates.:rage:

So in short we are simply exploited Legally here.:mad:

I want to know if this is the same scenario there as well?
Do the guys in US/UK also work 24*7 for these very same MNCs or they simply work for general day shift like the usual 9a-6p job? and for rest time its Indians who are left suffering??:facepalm:
 
Have you already started working?

Answer to your Q: Same scenario there for Indians, as we always feel we are in the Rat race, want to get ahead etc etc. Locals however, take it easy. Work 36-44 hour weeks, take the weekend fully off of work, unless they get compensated specifically for weekend work (1.5x/ 2x times regular rates). This all depends on the employment contract you sign up with at the end of the day, and the culture at your employer.

What I said holds true if you have transferred in the same/ similar job project outside India especially on a temporary visa/ work permit. Things may change once you get citizenship, if your aim is that.
 
axeman said:
Locals however, take it easy. Work 36-44 hour weeks, take the weekend fully off of work, unless they get compensated specifically for weekend work (1.5x/ 2x times regular rates).
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I am in IT. in US for couple of years. Agree with this completely.
 
axeman said:
Answer to your Q: Same scenario there for Indians, as we always feel we are in the Rat race, want to get ahead etc etc. Locals however, take it easy. Work 36-44 hour weeks, take the weekend fully off of work, unless they get compensated specifically for weekend work (1.5x/ 2x times regular rates). This all depends on the employment contract you sign up with at the end of the day, and the culture at your employer.
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m-jeri said:
I am in IT. in US for couple of years. Agree with this completely.
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In the UK/Germany and many other EU countries, I agree. But not in the US. People in management positions maybe but for the rest doing work in the trenches in IT, I feel it is the same. Overworked with low resources. No unions. Very limited vacation times. No legal overtime because they are salaried tech workers. At will employment.

But like @axeman said, depends on the type of company you work at and the contract you are in a position to sign.
 
Asking as I'm an IT support person. And as said before, in support position they suck your juice wholeheartedly.
Random changing shift timings minus no real joy in life.
But our US counterparts in similar position are always at ease. They just work the usual 9-6 and rest is handed over to us to manage.

And similar is the situation in all cos. I worked till date and with inputs from fellow people working in other cos. as well.

So the people outside are pretty much happy and least bothered as all the burden is shared or borne by us from here.

And nope I'm not interested to apply overseas or anything but just wanted to know the actual or typical scenarios there as compared to India.
 
Isn't this obvious. Isn't this how and why Indians are taking away jobs that should have belonged to people from that country. If every thing is same, why would these companies offer jobs to Indians as compared to locals from their own respective places.

The reason India is a market for IT, ITES and BPO is simply because they can get a lot of average skilled labourers who come cheap and would be willing to work for long hours on what can be considered mundane work without complaining.
 
Ya I know and agree on some part. Its not that we are stealing their jobs but we can easily behave like slaves to all masters. And this concept is opposed by their people. Hence need to know about the work culture abroad.

We are exploited here as we can do the same 10k work in 1-2kmark. Thats where we actually suck. We don't mind getting pissed often and always as far as we are getting our salary on time.

And hence it is termed that India is a pretty cheap market.
 
^^ That's only part of the story. My general observations of IT services in India is that often people are inefficient and hence end up working for long hours. My company out sources some type of work to companies like Accenture, CTS and few others and they come to our campus to work and I have seen the pattern.

For example if a piece of work can be fairly done in 4 hours by a half decent programmer, the official estimate is given as may be 5~6 hours, but the programmer ends up taking 12 hours to do it. It may be because the programmer is not sufficiently skilled and efficient or it may be because he/she wasted a few hours on long tea breaks or chatting with colleagues and other such distractions. The end result is that to finish the project on time, the programmers have to work extra hours. Then its portrayed as if the programmers are working long hours to complete the project on time. Of course, they are working for long hours, but they are working inefficiently and taking 12 hours for a 4 hour job.

There are times when business managers override estimates given by programmers or give aggressive estimates themselves to close the deal which results in pressure for the programmers, but more often than not, its the first scenario that is in action.
 
nRiTeCh said:
Its not that we are stealing their jobs but we can easily behave like slaves to all masters.
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You have to change your perspective. if you dont like your work, then you are in a wrong place. Extra time etc... is highly regulated by govt. For ex, people cannot be asked to work other than regular hours in AU. because if they are working beyond 9-5 they need to get extra time. You dont have such regulations in India.
Being all that said, the relationship is not slave/master type. especially with people/managers from US. They usually treat their peers with respect. For example, I attend meetings between 1-3AM in the mornings because I want to have those interactions and not because my US counterparts dictate. My manager in US attends meetings every day till 12AM and he is a role model for everyone in the team.

In fact I find it very difficult to work with Indian guys due to the inherent "sarkari" mentality.

Finally you wont have all these type of problems if you really love your work. dont tell me that its 12+ hours of work every day. Even in India people dont work for 8+ hours every day. I agree that on a bad day you may work for 16 hours but definitely not everyday.
 
No man. I'm not into negative perspective. But just wanted to understand why only we and why not them?
Yeah we too attend meetings late night coz it's day over there but when its day here and if anything goes wrong, those guys don't bother much and either reply or act pretty late or even give xyz lame family related reasons or postpone until the sun rises....And by then either the situation is taken care of or becomes worse.
And then we have to bear the grunt as then they blame us easily that we weren't able to handle this situation etc etc.

Our managers are able to understand our situations but they too cant do much coz oversees manager sits on their head. So again the manager tag is too ltd.

Equality treatment is in question.
We are easily taken for granted. Their excuses relating to wives, kids & families gets attention and what about ours?

Have been through this and have many such stories hence came up with this thread.
 
I disagree with above posts like in-efficient, sarkari mentality, slave etc. They are completely generalized opinion.

I dont believe the outsourced engineers are in-efficient. Its because there is no parity between engineers that are doing the jobs in India. Companies hire freshers and make em do jobs. They don't care about retaining experienced people or people with domain experience. I come for medical/healthcare domain. In my domain, as much as technology is important so is domain knowledge. But company doesn't care. They just shift people around for "business" reasons.
And in the end, the job comes to a newly hired fresher. Yes, the job only takes couple of hours for an engineer with common sense. But the new guy needs to understand what needs to be done. Yes, he will take more time than necessary. Its not his fault. Its the company.

Sarkari mentality. Again this is not the case always. 8 out of 10 people I have worked with are not like that. Yes, if that engineer is offshore who doesn't talk to client directly, he may have less of fire on his ass. But an engineer or team offshore with direct communication to the clients, like the agile teams are required to are not like that. They get things done. If you haven't seen that yet, again its your work or team culture the root cause. Don't generalize to others. The reason I say this is, in my current company there are all type of teams. So very well used to that.

Slave Mentality. Again this is just perception of you perhaps. :). I say no on a frequent basis till our Delivery Head. :). I am not a slave to anyone. Do the work properly, finish the tasks on time, fulfill my process requirements and achieve my goals(personal & career growth). Managers in IT services company have the tendency to ask us do many things out of my responsibilities(as in above my grade) and requirements, I say no vehemently. Well I don't say no exactly. I say, I dont feel I should be doing that as its not in my grade. But I am happy to, if you promote me. :) ;). Then they will also smile. :D. If you are good at something, why do it for free?. Ans again, I got this job due to my interview. Not any recommendations or anything. And I know company can reduce my salary or let me go anytime. Why should I care about it more than I should?

And yea, this un godly hours depend on your clients alone. Its nothing to do with anything else.

And coming to this discussion.

I do agree in-efficient & sarkari mentality cases are there. But its not always. It will depend on your company culture or team culture. Yes they can be like that. Team culture may be different depending on your clients. I have worked for Japanese, EU and US Clients. As you guys know Japanese clients have knack for finding issues. So yea, you never feel slacking or anything. Coz you can be sure to get a email from him with CC to all your managers till delivery head. But yea team culture sucked then. It was just work and work. But then again, no un godly hours. But yeas, if there is a critical release everyone pulls their weight. Time blurs. But your clients will be at their seats before you get to office and after you leave office. I guarantee that. Also Jap time and our IST are not that different. I worked offshore only for them.

For EU clients, they are relaxed. But they give you responsibility for your software. So you may feel its relaxed, but its your name on every piece of design docs and source code. So any fault is on you and your team. Feel like slacking off now? And did I mention they were agile team. So every day morning, their afternoon, video conference and they call you on phones after our meetings as well. Worked offshore and onsite.

US Clients, I always worked onsite. They are agile team. And work is done on site itself mostly. And we are running towards a gate (date of release). Everyone pulls their weight. We work late coz our machines takes hours to process and give results. And we get paid overtime.
 
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