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India Today
17-07-2025
- Business
- India Today
TCS benching policy sparks fear among employees after first cycle: Report
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has completed the first round of its new bench policy, and many employees are now feeling anxious about their future at the policy, introduced on June 12, limits the time employees can remain without project work to just 35 days. After this, they face the risk of losing out on promotions or even losing their workers have taken to social media platforms like Reddit to share their worries. Some say they are being pushed into projects that do not match their skills. Others complain about being rejected by clients during interviews or being asked to work in cities far from their home post said, 'This is the first step towards employment rationalisation based on utilisation. Brace for layoffs.'Another user, who recently joined the company, wrote, as quoted by The Economic Times, 'I was trained in Java, but within a month of being on the bench, I was being forced into a support project that doesn't use Java or Python.'There is no official number on how many employees might be affected. However, industry experts say that about 15–18% of workers in top Indian IT firms are usually on the bench. With a workforce of around 6.13 lakh employees, the impact at TCS could be employee rights group, the Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), has raised the issue with the government. In a letter to Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, NITES called the policy 'inhumane' and 'exploitative.' The group accused TCS of threatening employees with job loss and denying them experience letters if they fail to find a new project in time.'These are not non-performing employees, but skilled professionals who find themselves temporarily without allocation Instead of support, they are met with suspicion, coercion, and threats,' said NITES president Harpreet Singh the other hand, some voices on Reddit support the move, claiming that some staff have misused the bench system. 'This may help TCS trim some seriously underperforming resources, those stuck on TCS like a leech,' one user response to the growing concerns, TCS CEO and MD K Krithivasan told The Times of India that the policy simply makes an old practice more structured. 'It's always been expected that associates take responsibility for their careers,' he said. 'While HR supports project placement, we also expect associates to proactively seek new assignments after completing existing ones.'He added that TCS invests in training its employees and wants to see them deployed after that. 'Projects are driven by client needs, not personal choice. If skill gaps exist, we try to close them before deployment.'Krithivasan did not answer questions about whether TCS has stopped salaries for employees on the bench for long to a report by The Economic Times (ET), the company is facing pressure from rising employee costs and slower business growth. TCS recently reported its third quarter in a row of decline. At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) is automating many routine IT tasks, making it harder to place entry-level engineers.'IT companies are likely to get stricter with bench policies because of soft business conditions and a shift toward high-demand skills,' said Pareekh Jain, founder and CEO of IT consulting firm EIIRTrend. He added that employee costs are affecting company profits, so tighter rules may follow across the experts agree. Nitin Bhatt, who leads the technology sector at EY India, said that tech companies are now asking employees to upgrade their skills to match changing client needs. 'By revisiting bench policies, companies are pushing workers to reskill in areas like AI, cybersecurity, and digital engineering,' he also believes that in the future, promotions and pay raises will be based more on skills than on job titles or years of Chief Financial Officer Samir Seksaria recently told ET that employee utilisation at the company had dropped, leading to a hit on profits. The company's wage bill touched an all-time high of Rs 37,715 crore in the April–June quarter, making up nearly 59.5% of its revenue. Attrition also remained high at 13.8%.Rival firm HCL Technologies is also feeling the pressure. It saw a fall in profit margins due to delays in project starts and skill-location mismatches, its CEO C Vijayakumar said during a recent earnings call..- Ends advertisement
Time of India
17-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
TCS employees on the edge as co's new benching policy completes first cycle
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills As the first 35-day cycle under Tata Consultancy Services ' ( TCS ) new bench policy ends on Thursday, thousands of benched employees are staring at uncertainty, with many taking to social platforms to voice their policy, implemented on June 12, caps the maximum bench period — that is, time without any project allocation — at just 35 days a year, after which they risk career degrowth or even forums like Reddit are flooded with posts from TCS employees expressing their several employees have been scrambling for projects, others allege that they are being forced into projects that don't suit their skill sets. Some are getting rejected in client interviews while others are unable to find projects in their home locations, going by various posts on Reddit.'This is the first step towards employment rationalisation based on utilisation. Brace for layoffs,' one anxious Reddit user fresher claimed, 'I have recently joined TCS and training was conducted in Java. Now, it's not even a month on bench and RMG is pressuring me to join a *** support project, far from Java and Python.'ET could not independently verify the veracity of any of these number of people likely to be impacted is also unclear. According to industry estimates, on an average, 15-18% employees in leading Indian information technology (IT) firms are usually on the bench. TCS, India's largest IT company, has a workforce of about 613,000 an employee welfare body on Wednesday urged Union labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya to take urgent action against TCS for the enforced bench policy that it called 'inhumane,' 'exploitative' and psychologically distressing for IT a letter to the minister, Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate ( NITES ) alleged that the IT giant is coercing employees on the bench with repeated threats of termination and denial of experience letters if they fail to meet unrealistic deployment timelines.'These are not non-performing employees, but skilled professionals who find themselves temporarily without allocation… Instead of support, they are met with suspicion, coercion, and threats,' NITES president Harpreet Singh Saluja said in the some employees are supporting TCS' move, saying that several employees have remained on the bench for years, rejecting projects offered to them with some of them utilising the time to go for higher studies and generally not perform at the company.'This may help TCS trimming some seriously underperforming resources, those stuck on TCS like a leech,' a Reddit user did not respond to ET's requests for comment until the time of publishing this the new bench policy, TCS chief executive and managing director K Krithivasan told Times of India: 'It's always been expected that associates take responsibility for their careers. While HR supports project placement, we also expect associates to proactively seek new assignments after completing existing ones. What you're seeing now is simply a more structured version of what's long been in practice. We aim to minimise bench time.'He noted that the company invests heavily in upskilling. 'Once we've made that investment, we work to ensure associates are deployed,' he said. 'While preferences are considered, projects are driven by client needs, not personal choice. We deploy based on training, demand, and skill alignment. If gaps exist, we work to close them before deployment.'Krithivasan did not directly respond to a question on whether TCS has started withholding salaries for employees benched for extended like other IT companies, has been reeling under the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty and reported a third consecutive quarter of degrowth last IT industry is also bracing for the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) automating most of its repetitive tasks.'We expect IT companies to become stricter with their bench policies due to the soft business environment and AI-led demand for advanced skill sets,' Pareekh Jain, founder and CEO of IT consulting firm EIIRTrend, said. Employee costs are significantly impacting companies' margins, he decision to make its bench policy strict could have downstream impact among other industry peers with bench strength increasingly becoming a problem for IT companies as AI-led productivity gains have made entry-level engineers difficult to redeploy, experts said.'Tech companies must continuously align their employees' skill sets with evolving client needs. By revisiting their bench policies, organisations are encouraging employees to reskill and stay relevant in high-demand areas such as AI, cybersecurity, and digital engineering,' said Nitin Bhatt, technology sector leader at EY India.'Going forward, tenure and grade-based promotions and merit increases will likely be replaced by assessments of skills proficiency and competencies required to take on new roles,' he contraction in IT services had impacted TCS' employee utilisation, which took a hit last quarter and also affected the company's margins, its CFO Samir Seksaria had said last company's employee cost reached an all-time high of Rs 37,715 crore in the first quarter ended June. It now constitutes 59.45% of its revenue, even as attrition remains high at 13.8%, data country's third-largest IT player HCL Technologies, too, took an unexpected hit on its margins because its employee utilisation went down during the June dropped 'due to a delay in ramp up for a specific program, (while) we encountered ramp downs in specific areas, which resulted in a larger bench due to also productivity benefits that we brought about, and it was also due to demand supply mismatch between skills and locations,' HCL Technologies MD and CEO C Vijayakumar said during the company's earnings call on Monday.
Indian Express
04-06-2025
- Climate
- Indian Express
Massive python swims through flooded Navi Mumbai streets, viral video sparks alarm. And memes
A startling sight of a large, venomous python gliding through flooded streets in Navi Mumbai, after heavy rains, has gone viral. In the video, the enormous reptile is seen swimming calmly through stagnant rainwater, its head rising above the surface in an eerie display. The road, submerged in water, makes the sudden appearance of the green python all the more shocking. The video was shared on Instagram by user @sarpmitr_ashtvinayak_more with the caption, 'Rock Python..' and has since garnered over 6.7 million views and more than 268,000 likes. A post shared by सर्पमित्र_अष्टविनायक_मोरे (@sarpmitr_ashtvinayak_more) Sparking a wave of reactions from concerned and amused viewers, one user said, 'Mujhe python aata h ..baat karke dekhu kya??' (I know Python. Should I try to talk to it?) 'Are people asking the snake to speak Marathi as well? Or have they spared an animal?' said another user. 'Poor thing looks traumatized,' a third commented. 'Please call the forest department or something. The snake is probably stressed. It might also get hurt by a vehicle as it is hardly visible,' urged another viewer. 'They are all around us, 99% times unnoticed. If they have adapted to living with us, we should keep the natural areas natural and not just keep on building unnecessarily,' a fifth user said. This isn't the first instance of a python sighting in Mumbai during the monsoons. Last year, a video surfaced on social media showing a six-foot-long Indian rock python crossing a road near the Aarey Colony forest. Snakes are commonly seen after rain due to several environmental and biological reasons. When heavy rainfall floods their underground homes, such as burrows or crevices, they are forced to move to higher or drier areas, often bringing them into human spaces. This displacement is one of the most frequent reasons for snake sightings on roads or in gardens after a storm. The post-rain atmosphere is also ideal for snakes. As cold-blooded animals, snakes rely on external temperatures to regulate their body heat. The moist, cooler environment after rain helps them move more comfortably and stay hydrated.
