Well thats what happens in the so called Indian IT Gaints. When my friend joined Infosys, for the first 8 months he had no work at all. Then the next year and a half he worked like 12~16 hours a day. Also recognizing and rewarding skills is very poor in these companies due to the massive number of employees working. My sister is working for Satyam and she as massive amount of work there without proper recognition.
As for me, I decided very early that I am not going to join any of the Indian IT Gaints. I didnt even bother to apply or attend interviews for the same in campus recruitments.
The company (MNC) I currently work for is a major product (software) developer (Windows and Mac) in the Publishing industry. The strength of the company is hardly 1500. Theres enough work for every one and as far as I am concerned, I work from 10 AM to 7 PM and very rarely I have had to work more than the required 10 hours per day. The work is still challenging and you get the satisfaction that millions of people are going to see the code you have written in action.
I have the satisfaction that my skills and good work were apppreciated and aslo been recognized as one of the top/important contributers. I have also earned more than 35k in the form of spot bounuses in less than 2.5 years.
As far as pay packets are concerned, I cannot say its the best in the industry like in Microsoft or Adobe, But still and I have the satisfaction that mine was almost Quadrapuled in just 2.5 years (which is a decent feat considering that I have been working at the same organization and not shifted.) and its among the top if not the best. Last year, I got a record increment of 90% because of recognition of my performance as being exceptional. This kind of recognition and rewarding just simply does not/cannot happen in the so called Indian IT Gaints.