Beyond Layoff

White House correspondent at HuffPost, S.V. Dáte had his 15-minutes of fame when he managed to ask President Trump during a meet-the press session  "Do you regret all the lying you've done to the American people?" He tweeted    For five years I've been wanting to ask him that. — S.V. Dáte (@svdate) August 13, 2020   Dáte had waited five long years to ask Donald Trump this one question: “Mr President, after three and a half years [of Trump’s presidency], do you regret at all, all the lying you’ve done to the American people?” Dáte, was quoted by  the Guardian :  I don't know why he called on me, because I've tried to ask him before [in March] and he's cut me off mid-question. Maybe he didn't recognise me this time. You know, he has this group of folks that he normally asks questions of. […] I had always thought that if he ever did call on me, this is the one thing that is really central to his presidency.

This was an interesting question from an online forum. Another similar question that came up. Is it true that Cognizant is planning a mass layoff in the upcoming months? Rumours has it there are plans to layoff as many as 20,000 people from the company. As a result there has been a delay in the appraisal cycle as well. Seniors or any people well informed kindly shed some light into it. To respond, let us start by looking at the basics: The business model in the western /developed countries are much more ‘business friendly’ and many states in the US have "right to hire" or “employment at will” laws. What this means is simple: Employers can terminate employees “without cause,” just like employees can leave a job without giving a lengthy notice period. However, employees who are part of such involuntary termination can file for ‘unemployment benefits’ till they find another job. Software service companies in India operate in the same global environments...

Forum For IT Employees ( FITE ) continues to get a lot of media attention An IT Workers’ Union: Outlandish Or A Sign Of The Times? Bloomberg wonders, adding "India’s software services industry faces a twin challenge: U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies and automation. And as companies lay off staff, a group of employees is now trying to form an IT workers’ union. There’s been a growing sense of insecurity among the IT professionals over the last few years, said Elavarasan Raja, a 27-year-old IT worker from Pune. That’s led the group to try and form a union to better protect employees’ welfare, said Raja who is part of the group. Called the Forum For IT Employees, the group now has around 3,000 members and chapters in nine cities, including its headquarters in Chennai, and in prominent IT hubs like Bengaluru and Pune, according to Raja. The group, in a recent press release, alleged that Cognizant Technology Solutions was illegally terminating thousands of emp...

There are two interesting headlines on layoffs in Indian IT, both from from Bloomberg. The one from today (25th May 2017) claims "Trump Blamed for Job Losses as India Tech Workers Face Cuts."    The other headline from May 11th claims "These Job Cuts Aren't Trump's Fault" The article in Bloomberg today basically quotes some former Cognizant employees to make an argument for a headline on Trump. The Article quoted Swapana Bhosale from Cognizant “Pulling people out of projects to sack them is unheard of in our industry,” said Bhosale, who demanded to be fired rather than resign so she can take legal action. The 36-year-old sees an unusual culprit behind job losses in the country’s outsourcing industry: U.S. President Donald J. Trump.  Bhosale’s not alone in blaming Trump. In cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata, thousands of engineers who have been axed or face dismissal are banding together on social networks and WhatsApp group...