My experience working in TCS is, to put it mildly, very bad.
If at all it is allowed, it is best to work for this company on a per-job basis, rather than on a permanent basis. And you better negotiate a high price for your services.
The reason for this is that if you are a permanent employee at the entry level, or at the base level, this company will squeeze the juice out of you.
First of all, in the BPO sector of this company, they will make you work 10 plus hours every day. Then, they will give you a hard-to-achieve daily target for the work you do. Then they will conduct a time and motion study to find out how much time you take to do each task. Then they will say the daily output is too less, and increase your already tough daily target.
So, in all probability, although your working hours are 10, you will probably have to work for 11 or 12 hours every day. If you thought this is all, then there is more coming.
This company does not believe in investing in training employees. They believe this is a massive waste of time. So, after a rushed training program, you will be quickly put into production.
More often than not, they may put you into a learn as you work program-this is the amount of importance that the management of this company gives to training. How does the management think that you can do a fair job without giving you training, or the tools to do your job?
Okay, if you think you have experienced it all, then you are mistaken. Once you start production, you might be forgiven for thinking that you can learn the rest of your job from your colleagues.
But surprise, surprise, you will find that more often than not, you have a bunch of colleagues who believe in cut-throat competition and back-stabbing. Not only do they withhold vital information from you, they will also be surreptitiously watching your work, and complaining about you to your supervisor, if you so much as make a tiny mistake in your work.
So, not only do you have to do your work properly, but you will also have to constantly watch your back all the time.
Then you have a bunch of Quality Evaluators whose job is to act a Fault-Finding-Machines(FFMs). These worthies will be constantly checking your work, and finding minor faults with it all the time. And if you think they will only send these faults to you, then you couldn’t be more mistaken. They will send your faults to you, your manager, your manager’s manager, your client, and all the supervisors in your client’s office.
You will be constantly battling sharks in this organization. Your workplace can rightly be described as a shark-pool, where everyone is on the lookout for some weakness somewhere to attack and kill.
So, after battling your work, your back-stabbing colleagues, your bully manager, and faultfinding QAs, if you think you need rest and try to take some earned leave, then you couldn’t be more mistaken.
If you ask for a day’s leave in a month, your manager may reluctantly agree. But if you try saying that you have 40-50 earned leaves, and you would like to take a week off, then your manager will literally start crying. Because his performance benchmark is based on his wards taking as few leaves as possible.
Leaves in this company are termed as ’shrinkage’. So, if any employee takes a day’s leave, his team will be marked down for shrinkage. Needless to say, most employees decide not to take any of their earned, sick or casual leaves so as not to displease their managers or senior managers.
So, after you somehow manage to negotiate long working hours, cut-throat competition, back-stabbing colleagues who withhold vital information, no leaves, bullying from managers, and public humiliation by managers, if you thought that all of this harassment will at least entitle you to a good review at the end of the year, again you are mistaken.
You will be highly lucky to get a B or C in this organization, if you are a very good performer who has taken very few leaves, has consistently clocked 12 plus hours every day. But the A is reserved for apple-polishing, boot-licking employees who are moderately good at their job.
You will find that there are many employees from West Bengal and north India in this organization, who may not even be that good at their job. There seems to be a culture of nepotism and favoritism that pervades this organization. Your apple-polishing and boot-licking skills have to be at their peak if you are to even survive in this organization.
The only people who thrive in this organization seem to be freshers(they will have to do a lot of work, and if they are lucky enough to be in the good books of their managers and earn a promotion, they can stick on), managers with a sadistic and mean streak, who think nothing of victimizing employees, and senior managers, again with a sadistic and mean streak, and HR personnel(these are the most lucky people in this organization. As far as your conscience does not hurt you when you do absolutely nothing to help employees struggling with a very high work load, harassment, victimization, bullying and unhelpful and back-stabbing colleagues who withhold vital information from them, then you can have a great time doing absolutely no work).
All in all, a very bad organization to work in.