Saturday, December 6, 2008

Headstrong Corporation - Immoral Management?

Incorporated in Virginia and having offshore development centres in manila, noida and Bangalore, Headstrong employees were sent an email that no increments will be there in 2009 citing the global downturn and talked about how the Management was leading from the front and not taking any increase on their salaries. However it did not disclose that the Indian Management awarded itself $8m bonus in October this year out of the blue. Do employees have any legal recourse against such unscrupulous managements worldover who are trying to take advantage of the downturn to either fire people or make them slog hard without expecting any wage increases?

115 comments:

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
December 8th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Sorry to hear that. But its the same state in almost every Indian company.

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Can the author please share some material where it is disclosed that Indian Management awarded itself $8m bonus ? Maybe the headstrong guys can use that to **** their management …

Rah_ul said...

Anonymus Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I have been with the company for several years and always found the management very ethical. Arjun Malhotra is very respected by the industry and has been very open and trustworthy. Salary freeze in the current environment is everywhere. The leadership of Mr. Malhotra has given a very positive direction to the company and making such statements of immorality is not fair. Even the best companies have areas to improve and we all need to work together. I am not sucking up to the management and as a consultant see a good future with Headstrong.

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
December 19th, 2008 at 12:29 am
The way Headstrong deteriorated in last 3 years is amazing. I wonder how the company is surviving. Except its CEO, everyone in the senior and middle management is Simply Fraud. Everybody is looking for tricks and short cuts. Three years of my experience with this company has given me nothing and i am very soon planning to quit it. Work culture is surprisingly inconsistent across different delivery accounts. They track people appearing for different exams like CAT, and fire them as they do not see them loyal to the company. Is it the way aspirations are handled in this company. During the days of early techspan, after Webtech, it was one of the best place to work, but immoral management, incompetent leadership and bad politics has taken it to its current level.
The HR team here is curropt like that of any government organisation. They degrade departing employee’s rating to steal the bonus. They lie on the relieving dates of the leaving employee to steal the notice period.
This company has simply gone to its worst. Company is hiring people from private colleges who bribed the private institutions to get into the engineering colleges of UP, which are like roadside weeds along the Delhi-mathura-Agra highway. Now even such incompetent guys are preferring not to join the company.
I think Arjun Malhotra should tight his belt and look into what is going on there with the managers. Focussing on the revenue targets, EBITDA and such crap numbers is certainly a way to run the company, but we expect much more from our college senior. These numbers would give him some cofidence, but let me tell him that he got to correct the company’s moral values, HR department (which has gone completely corrupt) and the work ethics.

Rah_ul said...

Anonymus Says:
December 19th, 2008 at 8:12 am
I sent my comments early morning and do not see them posted. I think the system is biased and not fair.

Rah_ul said...

govinda Says:
December 19th, 2008 at 10:51 am
headstrong is realy a nice company. of late th emanagement has become really greedy
and they are not at all worried abt employees. and why the hell they shoukld be, they say that company is sitting on a large cash reserve ( 42 mill USD) , they are so crap that they ( management ) doesnt want to share with employess
god save headstrong

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
December 19th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Well… I hope none of you have been working lately and have left the organization so far. Even if you are still with Headstrong, Maybe you haven’t seen the world outside. postponing one increment scheduled to be given in January 08 does not makes a company bad or worse. At least they did not lay off anyone in current situations. many of the companies have forced their employees to take leaves during US shutdown in last weeks of the year and they are still uncertain whether they are going to layoff people in coming months or stop any increments. If compared to whats happening elsewhere, Its more safer to choose no increments. and well that 8 mn Bonus rumour, thats completely baseless until you have a proof . You should not be writing like this for any comapany who is surviving without fear in latest turmoil. No increments does not makes a company bad or ugly. it shows the alertness of the uppermanagement to handle troubled times. Calling the upper management fraud can make you happy when you are anonymously writing on an anonymous forum, but its hard to ask a question in face to a upper managemenet person when they are trying to pull up with all their strength to keep sailing in these troubled times. Try once and you might get a better answer than fooling around a forum and spreading unnecessary rumours

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
December 19th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
i completely agree with you and let me tell all, i am in the company and would like to be part of thecompany for many more year to come . Headstrong is a great company to work for , it is good thatmanagement is taking all that steps which are necessary to keep company alive in this turmoil

Rah_ul said...

anon Says:
December 20th, 2008 at 2:59 am
A few points:
1. HR = corrupt. They eat money from consultants for recruitment. Hire from private 2nd grade colleges. The workforce has deteriorated at an amazing pace.
2. HR eats employee’s referral money.
3. Useless management parties in prime locations like NY.
4. Recent policies aimed at cutting earn leaves and casual leaves. HR fudges up statistics here to show low average casual leaves per employee and reduces total holidays from 25 to 20(lower than industry average).
5. The company blocked this blog in company premises a day after this post was made. (cannot confirm this) Instead of blocking and sending a wrong signal, it is preferable to clear out the rumors.

Rah_ul said...

Ramalinga Raju, John Thain, Madoff and you (Headstrong Management)…you are all bretheren aren’t you? The more you are fed the hungrier you become…Someone wants that 55 foot long boat, and someone wants to lie down on the golden sand in the bahamas…but do remember “khaali aaye ho, khaali hi jaooge, itni jadojahat kuch kaam nahi aayegi”
O thou white collared sinister gremlins, dont get so consumed by greed that you got to counter reality by calling it baseless rumour…i guess you borrowed that from Asif Ali Zardari…thats what he has been doing since 26/11

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
December 20th, 2008 at 10:13 am
All your actions are positive if you didn’t do the 8m thing. Employees are devastated and news is spreading thick and fast. If you want to salvage anything then call an emergency meeting on monday and share the detailed financials with every employee. Let the finance head testify hand on heart….Else you just got to see “how the cookie crumbles”

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
December 20th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Let us check the author’s claim with our colleagues in finance hoping the management doesn’t do what our neighbouring government did - ask the people of faridkot not to own kasab or reveal any details about him

Rah_ul said...

HSVictim Says:
December 20th, 2008 at 11:28 am
fellow Headstrong PPL
of my 10 yrs professional exp , one thing i can tell you , it was a mistake to join a cheat , creep , and amateurish co like HS.and i am lucky and fortunate to have left it at rite time.
when they hire you , they will show you a Disney .world . excellent Clients Morgan , Lehmann Blah Blah. but reality bites when you join them . its a purely body shopping institute . Tell me when they hire you , they already took N rounds of interviews , then why d hell resources have to wait 3-4 months , waiting for Client Interviews ? Are we sheep and goats or Professionals?
and when you dont get projects , they will start exploiting you , Teasing you , that you dont have utilisation so no bonus No variable.???
and for your information the PPl who are telling that atleast HS didnt lay off .. Just go to Noida and bangalore office and ask PPl how many they fired in FEB08- July08 Period.?
You wont go bangalore ? ahaan You are fired !!
You are a Java guy .. wont work in Support .. fired !!!
PPL sitting on Seniormost positions are good and i respect them but they are sleeping when ROME is burning .. and who is burning this rome ? Middle management who dont have proper MBA’s degrees and are sitting on Plum posts just because of flattery and Politics..
Guys wake up now and start thinking seriously for your career.
Regards
One of the guy who has been Exploited by HS .

Rah_ul said...

Anonymmous Says:
December 21st, 2008 at 3:31 am
Good to see people are paying interest to such posts. I would really love to answer the questions raised by few other fellows after my last post, criticising senior and middle management. I share my experienceof being lucky to leave the company in time. Currently i can see and feel the financial turmoil in a much better way than anyone else sitting over there and serving for clients like “Me”. Cutting bonuses and no-hikes are not the one for which HS should be blamed. I think everyone in the company should share the tough time. I back their decisions. I raised doubts on the capabilities of the senior and middle managements. Unethical and corrupt HR policies are the ones which make it different from the others. It would be really unethical and completely unprofessional to name few incompetent and twistedmanagers on such anonymous posts, otherwise it would be wise to tell you few such names.
To give statistics, what i know from my first hand sources (as they never made anything public), between feb and april they fired almost 5-6 people every week adding upto around 60-70 from Noida office only. Reasons were almost always unknown. There were companies who have started taking fired ex-HSemployees.
To my friend who asked me to come forward and discuss such issues with management, I’ve done it “N” number of times and i am happy that before quitting i was quite sure of what i am doing as i likedHeadstrong very much from the day i joined it. I do not think there was a single of those Big Giys left with whom i have not talked and expressed my opinions and ways to get over such issues. Response always was like the one you would expect from Home ministry of Indian Government.
How could you justify any of such HR policy which track people appearing in exams like CAT and fire them based on that, especially when those guys are doing good and are honest with their immediatemanagers to tell them that they have such plans? There were atleast two such incidents when it happened. Being honest to your managers is the last thing you should ever do in this company. They were fired when they did not have any offers from any IIMs and eventually they neither had any job nor any admission. To hell with their career, what matters even if they had served you for one year and you posed fancy Xanadu lands when you went on campus to recruit them.
The reality is, these managers are so much incompetent that they are jealous of any accomplishment of their subordinates. That is why they discourage them and laugh at them. I remember the day i joined HS 4 years back, they really appreciated good things and pointed out bad ones in you. That is the kind of environment you should be looking for in a company where you are plannning for long term commitment. Time has brought a lot of changes in this company.
There is something called “Agency Problem” in corporate finance. Headstrong is severely caught in this. Personal interest and internal politics are all above the Creditors and Shareholder’s interest. They are not at all alligned. Neverthless it is worth mentioning that, as long as this company is under the able Guidance of Arjun Malhotra, it would keep on doing good. I am sure he would get hold of such things before they become cancerous and ruin the entire company.

Rah_ul said...

fairthought Says:
December 21st, 2008 at 5:53 am
I am with this company couple of years now……. I don’t see this company anything different from any other company. Their one motto, that is to earn money and distribute among themselves, like any other businessman does. So nothing to blame them anymore.
I read all the points above and I myself is victim of couple of them and agree with most of the points. Senior management must wake up and work honestly if they want to see the company to grow.

Rah_ul said...

HS Victim Says:
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Peoples have wrote enough. I need not to mention any thing. I just wanted to say.
Shame on such management………………..

Rah_ul said...

HS HS Says:
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:13 am

Rah_ul said...

I'm Headstrong Says:
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:41 am
I think people need to be more responsible in their articulation. Posting such malicious content helps whom ? I feel if someone really really had a problem they would take recourse to formal methods of communication within an organization rather than resorting to such anonymous blogging. Just because a few people feel they want to vent their frustration on an organization does not make their utterances true. I feel too much time is being wasted on reading and writing here. Am sure everyone has more important things to do and focus on. The general feel of most people is that we should refrain from such posts. All these posts do is try to polarize opinion, create negativity. Just step out into the real world today – see whats happening around you in the market, economy and country. Will help some of us educated people to serve those causes better

Rah_ul said...

HS HS Says:
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:44 am
finally someone made sense ……….I agree 100% with I’m Headstrong .

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous1 Says:
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
its nice to see people with some amount of maturity also visit blogs occasionally !! Half Baked information is worse than no information et all…

Rah_ul said...

hey Says:
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
guys, just chill. i see the last few responses and feel that they have been said by pro employees ofheadstrong!
i dont find the post offensive, but just a truth of what probably happened. if you have information which says that the management did not give itself 8m then give that proof, instead of trying to prove your allegiance to your organization blindly without any concrete knowledge of what actually happened.

Rah_ul said...

Former Headstrong Says:
December 23rd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Guys, I have spent enough time with the company and at different levels to understand how it works. I wanted to grow with the company and retire from the company. How does that sound to you Mr. “HS HS” and “I’m Headstrong”. I am sure both of you are either from the levels of management where you got in through contacts or cheap politics or simply because someone at the top was from your religion or state. And I am sure you got your bonus this year ahead of time for ensuring that the employees (billable ones) are stripped off of their hard earned increments. I have seen people working round the clock and getting paid below market rates. The client treats them bad because the client is paying a high bill rate, but the employee is not satisfied, because the employee is not getting much of it. This is just one problem, and I do not want to go on listing all problems because this company really is the worst that I have ever seen or heard about. I just want to add that, the reason why so many people are posting on this blog is because they have been threatened or fired for speaking out. Headstrong management can fall below to any level just to ensure that the secrets are not leaked out to the public and media. Headstrongmanagement has violated so many labor laws that I will not be surprised if a class action suit is filed against the company. One last thing. We should not put the entire blame on HR. Many in HR have tried to fix things. But anyone who tries to raise a voice about improving the standards for employees or ensuring that wrong doings are controlled and employees are not exploited like slaves, is either fired or treated such that the person stops coming to the office. I am going to wait and see at what point of time, Arjun Malhotra realizes that pure numbers are not what a company is about and that he has hired goons to run the show just to make the numbers meet the targets.

Rah_ul said...

Former Headstrong Says:
December 23rd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
One last point. People are not making comments on this post only because of what happened with the $8 M bonus. This blog would have exploded with comments if people had a chance to comment during the good times of the market and each comment would have been negative against Headstrong. So, please do not connect my comments with the actions taken by the company during these bad times. I am sure most of the employees are willing to support the company during the bad economy. But I want to point out that the company has done worse acts and violated some of the basic laws of employment and treated employees like pure slaves during the best times. During the bad times, it becomes a lot easier because you have a good excuse. “Sorry we cannot pay you because the market is bad”. It is THAT EASY. But you need the best of the breed to tell employees that they will not get an increment because their cat crossed the neighbor’s fence this year. Trust me pal, it is extremely difficult to come up with excuses during the good times for not paying an increment to an employee for his hard work and themselves taking home a fat bonus for purchasing the next investment property. I could never do it, so I am sure the management is the best of the breed to have such a quality.

Rah_ul said...

anonymous Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Hi! I think there are people from the Headstrong management who are trying to fool we people by writing good things about Headstrong. Company’s bad days have now begun and we can see it all over. “MANAGEMENT IS CORRUPT” from top to bottom. I will not call them middle level managers but it would be correct to call them ‘MIDDLE MEN” who are bringing down the company reputation doing malpractice. Lets talk about the admin/services. we have been complaining about the food vendor. why is it that no action has been taken so far and the confidence in the vendor stays. who has inked the deal?
Why is it that cab drivers have been saying that “Headstrong mei setting achaa hai, maalik ney mota paisa khilaya hai”
PD/people development- one should be extra careful or vigilant while talking to them. They have got nexus with the consultants and this cannot be ruled out. I’m sorry, i can’t write anymore. I think this is the time when all these things should be forwarded to Headstrong MD & CEO so that they can investigate into it and see where the management stands. 2008 was the profitable year for HS but cheap people sitting on top decided to freeze our hikes. They have lost all the respect now.

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Dear “HS HS” - you just can not fool yourself, if so many of us feels so strongly that Headstrong is manages by some really greedy dogs, then there has to be some truth to it. I server for more than 6 years, have seen Techspan and Headstrong both, specially at India and US. The Techspan was an wonderful organization to work, whereas Headstrong is the worst place to be in today, the market meltdown is the only reason why people are still sticking around.
Arjun Malhotra – please wake up and see what’s happening at the place you created. It may be good idea to take Anonymous feedback from all geographies/levels/roles of employees and take corrective steps before its too late, else Headstrong will never ever be able to recover…

Rah_ul said...

Long timer headstrong Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Another question that needs to be raised to Arjun. Why is that some of the employees at Headstrong are paid so much money that they are always looking for more ways to invest money. And on the other hand there are employees who are not paid enough to pay their own bills. How does it sound when you say: “A computer engineer working for headstrong, U.S. does not have enough money to buy his own computer”.Headstrong works on the principle of GREED. (Total revenue * n%) = YOUR BONUS. Just bring in business and you will make more money yourself. But don’t worry about the company’s image or the quality of the product or services or the health of your employees or even client satisfaction. Just get in more money through the door each quarter and keep high margins. How many good technical folks will Headstrong continue to waste? No worries, there is always a fresh crowd coming in andHeadstrong has the best material to showcase themselves to the new comers. Headstrong is nothing more than a head hunting + body shopping firm with 100% focus on sales. That is it. Nothing more than than. Some technical folks may think that they are important because they have been key to some projects and the clients appreciate them a lot. But they will know the truth very soon, when they see the rewards once the payments have been made. The rewards are always shared by the top management, middle management and the trickle stops at the level of a BDM. Not a penny is sent down to a technical member of the team who spent days and nights in the office ensuring that the project is on track and ensured timely delivery. Not a penny in increment for the technical staff who increased the team size from 4 to 40 (Not even the market rates for the salary). All credit and $ go to the sales team and their bosses and their bosses. And the cycle continues with a new crop of technical team members trying to be recognised and rewarded in the company. The end of a cycle is marked by the day the project ends and the dream of the technical team is shattered and the cycle starts with a fresh crop…… Dhanda hai… Aise hi chalta hai…..

Rah_ul said...

left headstrong Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I was made to work 70 hours minimum a week by the client on many occasions. I enetered 40 hours in HS timesheets because they never allowed me enter more than that. I entered actual hours in the client timesheets because someone advised me to do it. HS gave me no increments for 2 years and then a pathetic increment in the third year. Can I get paid for the overtime hours I was made to work for 3 years. During this time, I did not take vacation because one time when I requested, the account managerthreatened to fire me. I also worked during Diwali and Christmas day in the 3rd year.

Rah_ul said...

anon123 Says:
December 24th, 2008 at 11:54 pm

Rah_ul said...

anonym99 Says:
December 25th, 2008 at 1:57 am
anon123, I agree with your statement. But this is a reality for many professionals in the U.S. working for any consulting firms being managed by Indians. Consultants are not cowards but they have no way but to vent out in such blogs, because they are caught up in L1, H1 or other immigration issues.
Consulting firms like Headstrong have found out another way of exploitation. They do not apply for a Green Card for these guys, so that they can be exploited for some more time.
But I agree with your comments for folks working in India. During the good times they should find a job with a company that respects and pays them for their hard work.
Would you like to add some comments on how such situations can be handled by a consultant. I am sure your comments will be welcome because thousands of Indian consultants are caught up in this web and there is no way to get out of it but to go back to your homeland or continue to be exploited by the same company till they get their Green Card. I am sure there is no way out but to accept it as a way of life and make your own decisions but I still want to hear your opinion in case there is a way which others are not aware of.

Rah_ul said...

! HS HS Says:
December 25th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Many of us have already left it and the purpose of such posts are to warn those who are planning to join this company or in dillema of wheather to leave it or not. Some one rightly said, It is like burning rome and they are all sleeping. someone said, writing such anonymous posts is a cowardious act. What about threats to fire people when they ask for leaves, what about tracking people taking exams like CAT. he he he he… come on! you got to be among those ones who are being pointed by few of the above posts.
I am pretty sure that those who are talking like an idea and loyal HS guy, they would not have servedheadstrong for the period greater than those who are not happy with the company. Sooner or latter you will realize the same about it. I do not know whether Mr. Arjun Malhotra is reading all this or not. It would only be of any use if he reads all these and come out with some solutions.

Rah_ul said...

Manager not Management Says:
December 25th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
I am not management but an ordinary employee and a manager with HS – Been with HS for 3+ years, and I have felt the pain at times myself. Regarding the 8M thing, if I were to put my money on Yes or No, I would put it on Yes. Yet, here are some cents of my thoughts on the posts on this topic.
8M: HS is a privately owned company which is no answerable to any shareholder. It’s management is the primary stake holder and they are free to reward or punish themselves. We are workers and get asalary for what we do there. What’s the fuss around the 8M? No one is forced to work here, feel free to find a company that you trust will care for you at these levels – I don’t think you will find many.
Salary hikes: Many companies have given hikes, HS hasn’t. Many of the seemingly better companies however are not paying out the variable components this year citing company performance and market conditions. HS is not holding the annual payouts for a single employee. These will be paid out after normal IPR cycles in Feb. So what’s the net difference. Moreover, HS has a special incentive called IGB which is equal to 10-20% of your annual CTC and 75% of the population based on grades get them. How many companies in India gave such a bonus? So does that make up for the zero increment?
CAT: About 10-20 employees appear for CAT. There are close to 2200 employees in India. Nomanagement has time to track 0.5-1% of its population which might leave. There might have been some stray incidents – I feel it is waste of your time to further track them.
Aspirations: Which companies (>2000 employees) do you think handle employee aspirations ahead of business goals? Put a hand on your heart and answer to yourself, how many days did you take to fill your IDR. When was the last time you scheduled a meeting with your manager and let him know your aspirations and suggest that you and he work on them?
Hiring for local colleges: Consider you are running the business. When you work on production support and low level support. Basically trivial or mechanical work for which client pays 10-15$ per hour. You need 200 people. Would you go to IIT Delhi where starting cost is about 7$ and in one year if you do not increase pay to 10$, the guy will go. Would you not choose the local college? Would the IIT good do this work?
42M in cash, yet no increments: Being in IT, I am assuming you would have 3-5 lakh rupees in your bankaccount, or Demat account atleast. Which of the following things did you indulge in last few months?
- Buy a CAR since your car is very old and not comfortable
- Buy a house since rent is very high and at a little more, you get to own your own
- Invest a lot in shares since market is at bottom
- Upgrade your washing machine or AC or TV
- Gave a hike to your supports? (Maids, washer man)
- Buy a cool watch or jewellery
- A nice international holiday to Singapore
There is no comparison of these to Salary, but try comparing your salaries with a chemical engineer or mechanical engineer of your batch. How many of them drive a Honda City?
Lay offs: Which company does not let go off the under performers from time to time? God save those who do not. How many companies (2000 +) can you bet will not fire anyone because of recession? Arguable, Infy does not lay off people. It does not give choices to people either. Right?
Corrupt Recruitment: Majority of the hires in HS are either via referrals or campus. Currently there are recruitments on for 100+ engineers via BGB. How many did you refer from your friends? Are you on theinterview panel? If you do both – Then many of your complaints will go.
HR eats referral money: If you fill the form, then there is no way your money would be denied. There are however policies – which is there is any enterprise in the world. You and your buddy need to be in HS on rolls for 3 months. The form needs to be filled.
Useless parties in NY: Seems you were not invited :-). Which sales organization in the world spends conservatively? Even I hate that expenditure – I get an award of 1$ for an employee in terms of Pat on the Back, my NY counterparts spend 100$ in a sales meeting in a bar.
Leaves: 110 Saturdays and Sundays. 10 holidays. 20 earned leaves. Would 4 extra leaves make a hell lot of difference?
Blocking the blog: You do not want such discussion to be done in official work hours at client billable time.
Hungry for more: Warren Buffet does not retire even when he is the wealthiest. Why should you? If you got 2 cr rupees in the bank, would you stop working and just live on the interest? Try reading Rich Dad Poor Dad.
Client – Disney dreams etc: There are close to 400 working for Morgan, 100 for Goldman, 100 for Merill. Not sure of others, but if I am assigned a new resource, I do want to chat with him to know if we would be able to work together or not. If the risk was on some one else, then I do not care (fix price projects - and they do not have any interviews). Get real. Even manufacturing companies take interviews.
Firing people from bench: If you could not clear 5-6 opportunities (interviews) and yet are admant (read stubborn) to be picky, then what choice do you leave the company with? If the statistics you have are of 2 people who were not at this criteria among 70 who were asked to leave, then that is not worthy of discussion. That period was also coinciding with the IPR cycle. Most guys who are in bottom 5-10% are denied bonus because of non-performance and are asked to leave if they have not shown improvement despite counseling.
Middle management: Yes, that is a concern in some areas. Some of the non-performers have been asked to leave in 2008. This has made others pull up their socks as well.
Manager
Relationship: It is a two-way thing. You need to earn that respect as well. Was the relation in place? How many times did the two of you have lunch together?
Sales people getting the most: They have close to 50% CTC variable. Your’s is 10%. Who has more risk? Have you ever sold some business to a customer? You signed on the line after reading and not with a gun on your head. Is your contract different from what other standard 2000+ companies offer?
70 hours work/No Increments for 2 years: If you could not patch up with your manager for 2 years and could not talk to his manager or PD to help, then I am sorry but you have a tough life ahead where ever you go.
Company which does not work for greed: Yes, there are lot of non-profit NGO’s. There would be a zero less in the salary though.
Having said all above, I have no plans to retire from here. I feel frustrated several times a day. I am unhappy with my pay just like you. However, I also realize that the grass on the other side always seem greener. Just switching companies gives you temporary relief only. The other company has its unique befits and drawbacks. There are some seemingly perfect companies also, but if I or you were good enough to belong there, then we would have been there.
Try and work out the issues, if you cannot, then walk around them. There are other ways to vent out the frustrations.

Rah_ul said...

Harassed Employee of HS Says:
December 26th, 2008 at 10:39 am
I truly agree with guys who posted truth about HS Mgmt. here you have surveys/ employee feedback but i don’t think mgmt realli take it seriously just DEKHAWA. Managers here are least bothered about yourcareer and leaves no stone unturned to exploit you and cut cost to please their seniors. people development / administration guys are here to accept gifts/ bribes from vendors. needless to mention the pathetic food being served in HS Pantry. if you continue to stay with the company for more than 2/3 yrs then your managers start thinking about you as a useless resource/ under-estimate your capabilites (worst part of your employement) and never give you challenging tasks. so wake up guys before it is too late….a Harassed employee of HS

Rah_ul said...

justanotherguy Says:
December 26th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
“Manager not Management”, regarding your comment on Middle management. You said that non-performers were fired. But who decides who is a non-performer. Why is non-performance only decided based on the $ figures. Some managers are lucky to get good clients with big bucks and others are not so lucky. But why not decide the performance based on strict quality standards for deliverables and take feedback from both client and team members on the manager’s performance. Judging a managerpurely on his numbers clearly shows that the company is trying to promote greed and selfishness in the middle management layer.
Why do employees not raise concerns to their managers? Simple answer is that their manager is incompetent and an a**h***. He/She does not know how to address the concerns of an employee and how to mentor. Most of the managers do not even know how to talk or document. They talk like street goons and it is very difficult for a cultured professional to keep an open communication with such a person.
One real life example: An employee who has been asking for a raise for a long time and is working very hard day and night to grow the account. The BDM offers the guy a lunch at a local restaurant and says “This is for your hard work and keep it up. I am always open to rewarding hard workers like you”. OMG this is total sh**. That same BDM takes home a bonus of thousands of dollars for the account that was grown by the consultant. No one in the top management ever finds out the truth and they reward the BDM in the Annual Meet.
I have seen many people addressing concerns straight to Arjun. I agree with them because Arjun is the only one who seems to be a true professional. Everyone else on the management team is a liar, cheat and a total fraud. That may be the reason why there are so many like them in the middle management.

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
December 26th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Mr. Manager, an incredible one infact, I would say. Which project or department does he belong to that he has such an amazing understanding of such a wide range of issues spanning such a large (>2000employees) organization, such as HR policies, shareholding patterns, Sales incentives, Finances, Industry Benchmarking, etc,. I must say his grasp of HS is second to not even the HS Management. I am sure he has it in him what it takes to be the management. Didn’t spell out his name else would have been a talent well spotted. Anyways I am sure he is destined to have a meteoric rise
Well, enough of compliments for him and my sincere apologies if I made his face turn pink even for a split-second, but believe me my compliments are no less for a writer of his calibre then you would have for the writer of http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/opinion/09zardari.html
Anyways, his post has certainly dissipated the clouds and now things are as clear to me as clear can be. I now know what kind of company I worked for and not to work for. So the most important point that Mr Manager has definitely hammered into me is that HS is a typical >2000 employee Indian company, which behaves in no way different to any of the others. All these are run by small time businessmen, aka salesmen, aka middlemen, who made big with the IT boom. They typically create a good infrastructure (building etc.) which creates a good first impression on both prospective employees and customers. Then the middlemen start body shopping which is a very scalable model until you have about 2000 – 4000 bodies. Minimum pay increases are awarded (definitely good ones as well for those who can keep the noise down), minimum benefits like annual leave, nominal medical insurance, Rs.50 pat on the back (my driver spends more on his lunch), filthy canteen food (where the management never eats), constant pressure to work late and on weekends. Ultimately we should realise that without the middlemen our wares would have never found a buyer so he deserves to keep in a tidy profit. How can we forget that this has been the typical business model of our nation since the days of Rajah’s and Zamindars.
And in such a typical >2000 employee organisation, people typically don’t feel bad when the owners do not give any increments, and announce of their great sacrifice as well (so what if it’s a lie in your face)because these employee are very well aware that they work in the typical >2000 employeecompany. Probably you are to somewhat frustrated because you thought HS said it was different. After all it says it is in pursuit to be a global leader; I am sure as time passes by HS will keep taking leaves out of the likes of Jack Welch, Larry Page and Warren Buffett.
Speaking of Warren Buffett, I have heard a very common phrase in industry circles “apples to apples comparison” so am not sure comparing the middlemen’s passion for money with that of the Sage of Obama is one such comparison. Just to jog our memories, the brilliant philanthropist Warren Buffett decided to leave the vast bulk of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The amount when I last read was some $37 billion.

Rah_ul said...

Hopper Says:
December 28th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I think you are guys are fighting for nothing. I also stayed in Headstrong for a year or so. I find like any other company. As far as remarks above are concerned, its all matter of industry phase you are in. If market is good, its employee time and you can see any company (including headstrong) luring people, giving good salary and good increments, employee frirendly HR polocies etc. But now its employers’ time, so you see no increments, employee unfriendly HR polocies etc. If you are really frustrted. wait for the good time for employees, get some option outside and then find another job.

Rah_ul said...

Jio Says:
December 28th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Okay, I’ve been following this thread for a while, and have been an employee of HS till a few months ago. Even I’ve noticed something extremely lacking in the work culture at HS, and it begins with themanagement retreating to their ivory towers and totally distancing themselves from the workforce.
Complaining that the HR department finds every possible excuse to not pay out referral money might sound petty. But a friend of mine was denied his referral money since the person whom he brought into the organization had already submitted his resume to Headstrong through Naukri some two years ago (but chose to work elsewhere and do his post graduation). Okay, this might sound like an isolated instance of cheapness, but it all adds up and the s**t is bound to hit the fan someday.
Speaking of cheapness, complaining that the management never eats at the same place that the aam junta does might sound extremely petty, but offers valuable insights into the thinking patterns of themanagement. I’ve worked at Infosys as a regular software coolie, but can boast of having had coffee with Nandan Nilekani at the campus Coffee Day, and having had Narayana Murthy stand two places behind me at the lunch queue. This goes a long way towards making the employee feel at home. I’ve never felt at home in Headstrong. The money offered me was more than what I used to get at Infosys, but the HS management seems think that they can solve any problem by throwing money at it. Heh.
And speaking of money, we come to the allegation on improper distribution of wealth. HS being a private organization is not answerable to anyone on these matters. The salaries being paid by HS are on par with the industry average, and no one who complains on monetary grounds has a case to argue. Being private can also work to the organizations benefit, as not having to declare consistent earnings allows HS to be more flexible in contract negotiations. (The last line was irrelevant, but my point is made. Money is no cause for complaint)
But the behaviour, attitude and general comportment of the HR department (specifically the head) IS cause for complaint, and leaves a lot to be desired. Unnecessarily abrasive behaviour tends to leave a bad taste in the mouth, and was one of the triggers for my exit.
And the fact that there is not even a SINGLE person in management (with the exception of Mr. Malhotra himself) who has the charisma required of a leader and the ability to hold forth on his/her own in public only serves to make matters worse. IMHO leaders ought to inspire by being more visible in person, and by their actions, which I didn’t see during my stint there.
And its not like the HR department had a rude awakening because of this post, they’ve always known that HS employees operate in a low morale environment. (Haven’t you ever wondered why Headstrongdoes not even participate in any Best Employer surveys? It’s because NOT seeing the organizations name in the list of top 100 places to work for would make the situation even worse). Now THIS attitude sucks - knowing there’s a problem and consciously deciding not to do anything about it.
Anyway, I’m done saying what I wanted to. Techspan was held in very high esteem, and what I see now is a company that’s struggling with scaling up - growth pains, et al, and doing a clumsy job.
Call me Jio, that’s not my official name but is much better than Anonymous

Rah_ul said...

Jio Says:
December 28th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
(Reposting, just in case my previous attempt was not successful)
Okay, I’ve been following this thread for a while, and have been an employee of HS till a few months ago. Even I’ve noticed something extremely lacking in the work culture at HS, and it begins with themanagement retreating to their ivory towers and totally distancing themselves from the workforce.
Complaining that the HR department finds every possible excuse to not pay out referral money might sound petty. But a friend of mine was denied his referral money since the person whom he brought into the organization had already submitted his resume to Headstrong through Naukri some two years ago (but chose to work elsewhere and do his post graduation). Okay, this might sound like an isolated instance of cheapness, but it all adds up and the s**t is bound to hit the fan someday.
Speaking of cheapness, complaining that the management never eats at the same place that the aam junta does might sound extremely petty, but offers valuable insights into the thinking patterns of themanagement. I’ve worked at Infosys as a regular software coolie, but can boast of having had coffee with Nandan Nilekani at the campus Coffee Day, and having had Narayana Murthy stand two places behind me at the lunch queue. This goes a long way towards making the employee feel at home. I’ve never felt at home in Headstrong. The money offered me was more than what I used to get at Infosys, but the HS management seems think that they can solve any problem by throwing money at it. Heh.
And speaking of money, we come to the allegation on improper distribution of wealth. HS being a private organization is not answerable to anyone on these matters. The salaries being paid by HS are on par with the industry average, and no one who complains on monetary grounds has a case to argue. Being private can also work to the organizations benefit, as not having to declare consistent earnings allows HS to be more flexible in contract negotiations. (The last line was irrelevant, but my point is made. Money is no cause for complaint)
But the behaviour, attitude and general comportment of the HR department (specifically the head) IS cause for complaint, and leaves a lot to be desired. Unnecessarily abrasive behaviour tends to leave a bad taste in the mouth, and was one of the triggers for my exit.
And the fact that there is not even a SINGLE person in management (with the exception of Mr. Malhotra himself) who has the charisma required of a leader and the ability to hold forth on his/her own in public only serves to make matters worse. IMHO leaders ought to inspire by being more visible in person, and by their actions, which I didn’t see during my stint there.
And its not like the HR department had a rude awakening because of this post, they’ve always known that HS employees operate in a low morale environment. (Haven’t you ever wondered why Headstrongdoes not even participate in any Best Employer surveys? It’s because NOT seeing the organizations name in the list of top 100 places to work for would make the situation even worse). Now THIS attitude sucks - knowing there’s a problem and consciously deciding not to do anything about it.
Anyway, I’m done saying what I wanted to. All I see is an organization that’s doing an extremely clumsy job of scaling up.
Call me Jio, that’s not my real name, but is much better than Anonymous

Rah_ul said...

anonym99 Says:
December 28th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
This is not about good times or bad times. Headstrong is a bad company to work for and that is it. I gave my best years to the company and made sacrifices at family front to ensure client satisfaction and high end quality of service. Headstrong management did not care, and the only thing they were worried about was the invoices from the client. After every such project, I would be left at the mercy of an un-qualified, corrupt and disgusting engagement manager or an account manager to decide my fate in the company. They would decide my increment as if they were paying it from their own pocket. I raised the issues to the HR and even to Arjun Malhotra. But nothing happened. I realized after a long time, that this company was never mine. Headstrong can do business even with low end resources with no IT experience or mismatched qualifications. All HS does is put people on projects and get the invoices cleared. If it works out good, else they will either replace the resources or find another BAKRA (client).
If this is how HS does business, then why do they pay bonuses to resourcing, Sales and other departments? I have no idea.
Some of the Sales people including senior sales management are so corrupt and fraud that, you can easily make out when they are lying. Its all the time they talk.
There is no one to go to in the company except to leave the company because every door that you knock is opened by the same category of corrupt people. Every answer that you get is a lie and a false hope. I have seen tons of emails written by VPs at Headstrong promising increments and market rate salary toemployees with no effect. Just like corrupt politicians in India. But HS management does have a strength. They make people work for them with false hopes and squeeze the best out of them while they are still ripe. After that they just throw them away by saying that the market is bad and get a fresh group. The sooner people realize this, the better, else you will end up like me and most from my group. We had no option but to start over again after leaving Headstrong. We were consultants when we joined and were consultants (at a senior level) when we left. Titles changed, but we had to be billable all the time and generate revenue for the management with the false hope of being accepted at some point of time.

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
January 1st, 2009 at 10:50 am
Please help me!!! I still work for headstrong

Rah_ul said...

another ex HS Says:
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:42 am
just to add to the list is the un-ethical “re-alignment” that Hs did last to last year.I was a consultant and had spent 2 yrs in company, should have become Sr Consultant (as per my total exp) in this review period, but wait Management had a surprise for me. It re-aligned me as Lead Consultant and excuse me is there any pay hike? increment? …NOPE. ZILCH. So when i left Hs 1.5 years later i was still just a lead consultant and never got any promotions.
They change policies like peeple change clothes, just to fancy their logic.
Second change when they changed the leave encashment policy!! How smart, now i can only encash leave when i leave and what abt the leaves i already have…sorry that mnoey goes into our coffers, we will not pay it. Its all about finance. They make money by not giving it out. simple, save on each penny to add to your books. And, to add to this, they have a cap on total leaves that can be encashed - 45 (approx, not remember the exact no). So if you already have 45 in your balance(like i did) all the leaves that you are getting henceforth do not go into the EL bucket, they get lapsed. THIS is how they treat the old and faithfulemployees!!!
They have a simple policy, get young cheap people, eat up on there increments and bonuses. Let go or minimise the expenditure on old staff. Get new poeple to join from cheap college at cheap rates.
I have been so long in the system right from the A-35 to this new building that i am so very tempted to reply to each and every point by “Manager not Management” including Corrupt Recruitment, maybe he doesnt see the reality or want to ignore it for his own convenience.
i am an ex.

Rah_ul said...

XHS Says:
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Headstrong sucks bigtime dude! No wonder I see all these posts over here. I know lot of people there and it would be a blunder for one to join Headstrong, no matter good times or bad. Right from their salary structure, Food, Leave policies, and incompetent managers almost everything in the companysucks. GOD! I haven’t met even a single person who would have praised the company. No doubt that thecompany has no ethical values and the entire business is still being run as a “Body Shopping Model”. This itself tells that whereas other similiar establishments like Sapient and i-Flex have created a niche for themselves, Headstrong is still a non-entity. In fact it feels like shame when nowdays you have to tell someone that you work for Headstrong. I don’t understand why don’t they sell it off if they don’t have it in ‘em to run it, the best they can do is to ruin it and ruin the career of the employees.

Rah_ul said...

Former Headstrong Says:
January 4th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Some simple calculations for folks working for Headstrong U.S.A.
1) Headstrong employee:
- Below market salary
- Bad projects
- Work hours more than 50 hours a week (get paid for only 40)
- Pushed around by Client managers with no support from HS
- If client lets go the consultant, bench period starts
- Bench period impacts salary increments and consultant is let go after a few days on bench.
- No support from HR department
- No support from Technology department
- Consultant has to market himself in 99% cases. BDM only sends the candidate resume. Rest has to be managed by the consultant. Sometimes, even the bill rate and contract terms are negotiated by the consultant.
- No support for further studies and no investment in one’s career
- No mentor available to talk to. Consultants are on their own on client site. Client addresses issues such as personal/financial for the consultant.
- You start as a consultant and you continue to be billable till you leave HS. No responsibilities come to your plate. You are asked to do whatever project role is available (whatever is easy $$ for sales). Architects play the role of BA. BAs play the role of programmers and testers play the role of ProjectManagers. Project Managers play the role of QA testers. HS Sucks big time…..
- HS delays Green Card processing so that they can exploit you more.
- After 2-3 years, when you start GC processing, HS forces you to use their lawyer. He is worse than HS managers and makes sure that you get it through the slowest channel possible. And more exploitation…
2) Employee with “Chintapala Consulting” or “Muthu Consulting” basically any consulting/body shop with not more than a few consultants placed through 3-4 layers.
- Consultant keeps 70% bill rate. This is big money $$$. But said to come with risks. What risks, let’s see if they are any different from HS
- Consultant bills for every hour worked. The more the client pushes, the more $$ the consultant makes.
- You can start your Green Card processing anytime and also hire the lawyer of your choice.
- Medical is expensive (”expensive” is mis-leading. Cost is same as HS)
- Consultant has to sometime look for his/her own project. Not any different from HS. But if you are good, you have a much better choice than HS.
- Rest are same from HS.
Question: Why work for HS when you can make so much ore money with a mom and pop body shop with the same risks?
3) Working for a public company like Infosys, Wipro or TCS
- Below market salary
- NO concept of bench time (or consultants are shielded from such terms)
- Great support from technology teams.
- Mentor program available. You can see career growth with each year.
- Great support from HR and a lot of other departments created only to provide additional support to consultants.
- Great and sometimes not so great projects are available. If you are the best, you can get some of the best projects.
- You can grow up the chain with each promotion and have more responsibilities and a chance to manage more and provide more value to the company. You also get a pie of the stock options to give you ownership of the company.
NOTE: This analysis is based on my first hand experience with all 3 kinds of companies and I feel best with a mom and pop shop to make more money. Once I am financially strong, I would prefer to go back to Wipro or Infosys for longer term so that I have a good retirement. But HS is nowhere in the picture after having experienced how they work. It is a privately held company, held by greedy people who want to suck all the $$ from the company each year and not let the company get strong. There is nothing like growth for a consultant. There are just 2 buckets. The money making people who are the non-billable staff in sales and the other is billable consultants. Billable consultants never grow up the chain and always billable. Once they come on bench, their future in the company is decided by a non-competent, less literate, stupid manager who does not know the ABC of the technology that the consultant works on.

Rah_ul said...

Unfortunately HS Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 2:16 am
I am deeply pained at the current situation we guys(the coding-consulting losers still working at HS) are in now. Although almost every thing I can think of has been mentioned elsewhere in this post, but I think we all need to put together an act. An act of unity and courage. We need to start questioning. I have been seeing people around me buzzing with such opinions and alike, but we discuss it just among ourselves. We need to take this up with our managers, BU heads. Now I know many managers are jerks(mine included) who don’t know one bit about policies and are continuously trying to give out lame explanations/their own versions of policies in order to ‘motivate’ people into working and making them believe that good is on its way. The first and foremost policy which HS proudly presents in itself is ‘Openness’, yet we see it nowhere? Had it been so, we would have seen greater transparency by now.
In fact, the first time I saw this blog and subsequently it being blocked by the retarded management/IT (yeah, it’s even worse) I thought we will soon see an official follow up of this from higher management. But no, these guys are not even ashamed(which they should be if the 8M thing is true); Instead, they try to block it. Wow. Which brings me to the point I have been pondering over for so long. Point - HS is NOT pro-employee.
The person who works extra hours(or pads in extra hours) and rakes in extra money does not get complimentary offs or even appreciation. HS managers are probably trained to not give out any appreciation. Why, I can recall my last experience: One of my friends got a 6 in CSAT, his manager’s response was - ‘Nothing new, happens all the time’. The only appreciation I have ever seen in my careerhere was a 50 rupee pat on the back.(which is certainly less than what I spend for lunch at average) What the heck, there are companies which award 1000 bucks on the spot to a person who solves a bottleneck. Point - HS wants to set your expectations low. Whatever you think you do best is just ‘normal’ in HS’ eyes.
One thing which is something probably no one mentioned is Appraisals’ policy. How can we miss that, especially when we are at that time of the year! Now your manager will blabber a lot about Bell curve and whole lot of mathematical models which the company follows for deciding the rating of an employee(and discarding all other inputs somehow). Their belief in mathematics is so great that the rest of data collected from performance/individual statistics is conveniently discarded. On the contrary, my belief is that 80% of the management has no idea what a bell curve is, lest the ‘fitting’ of the bell curve which is actually mathematical rather than manipulation of figures and graphs in MS-Excel. But that’s what you’d expect from managers who have some flimsy BS/BCA/MCA degree and later did another correspondence degree only because they could avail the sabbatical. Oh my, if you heard your managerfitting the bell curve within your own project within some 5-15 people of a team: you know exactly whom I am talking about :). (besides the curve is ‘fitted’ in BU meetings for the whole BU using complex ‘mathematical models’, of course inside closed doors). My premier institute degree fails me here, but HS people have cool financial degrees which teach them all about so many curve. It however doesn’t tell them that tinkering the ‘points’ on the curve wreaks financial havoc(downpayments/loans, savings anyone?) on employees whom they never knew. but what would they care for, they have ‘targets’ to meet. ‘Guys lets make $xxxxxx in this financial, and you all get a party(in other words confiscate your leaves and your life and your weekends). He fails to somehow mention his own cut from that revenue target. Point - Approximately 60% managers on my floor lie in this category, and have actually reached this position because they have had quite slippery hands full of butter for their similar seniors, or have been prime examples of the recent ‘Gender equality’(or something they call it) - yes you know, again, who I am talking about. And needless to say, this is wholly represented in the appraisals. I just recall one of thefreshers getting almost a 40% hike (ahead of his colleagues from similar college and even premier institute guys of the same batch) simply because he was a close affiliate of a top employee. But I am just going to overlook this one, it happens everywhere.
When I joined this company, I thought it was the best. Nice facade, friendly smiles, apt policies/initiatives(atleast they are aptly named). The reality is somewhat different. Employees are frowned upon if they have problems(Did I mention leave requests?). The interests are subdued just because you are Level 1/2 and they are Level 3. Whoa, did you know that you cannot work from home if you are sick, while your manager can?(technically, he doesn’t do anything anyway, maybe send out a few mails?) Point - Employees at HS are treated second class, even IT/Services (again, you know who I am talking about :P) have better recognition.
Crappy work force someone said. Menial work is suitable for that crappy work force(no offense meant with ‘crappy’), someone else said. I have seen ‘crappy’ people do better work that ‘premier’ fellows. But the problem is something else. HS does not have either complex technical work or good pay package for premier guys. Hell, if HS paid me less and I was still working on something great I would have felt relished. But a crappy package coupled with menial work is just too much(and then if I finish work early, I have to STAY at work for 9+ hours or they will cut off 4-5 of my earn leaves every month). On top of that they tell you that you haven’t done anything astounding, so you don’t deserve anything great. Point - If you are a premier guy, you are wasting your time and mental health here. Non premier guys, I feel sorry for it is HS who classifies them as non premier. If they started recognising capability, I am sure the distribution would probably look so much like the pyramid that they go gaga about at every meeting. And, I am reminiscent of a speech at Baithak(The HS canteen) by the MD - ‘If you have the capability to handle a team, and you are still an Associate, HS lets and helps you do it’. Very well said, but you do not expect a technically superior ‘associate’ to work on par/above at lead consultants’ and draw a salary roughly half of them? It is pathetic indeed, to look upon a senior who is technically a retard(hear him/her say - I did COBOL!) and see him boast of his ‘experience’ and how s/he knows more about the ‘industry’ - again, you know whom I talk about.
Oh, and this one truly deserves a separate paragraph. Oh well, I just so want to give an example now. I went to talk to him about leaves and by the time I left his office I had been told about the three important stages of life (viz. birth, college, job - birth very important by far) and how they affect an individual. Random sh!t, this guy excels!
I can make so many more points and yet so many here would find it amusing and some others(def. less) will try to mock them(management anyone?), but in the end, this is just my POV. Like it? Do what I did, immediately informed my ‘premier’ institute student body to stop applying here at campus day(and copied a link to this blog for the inspiration, And I wanted a blacklisting but it would become formal procedure) and anonymously mailed my HS client VP about the prestigious market position and employee satisfaction of HS(again, just the blog link sufficed). And I have made it my number one priority to turn down extra work, extra weekends as and when its ‘offered’. Oh and I adore the idea of getting sick instead of begging for leaves. I just love the look on their faces when I do so. Oh yeah, it is so unethical of me. But so is HS.

Rah_ul said...

Left HS after long service Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Mr “Unfortunately HS”, You are so good at pointing out some of the bad folks at HS. I noticed that no one talked about the Bell Curve except you. I am from HS, U.S.A and I see that you are from HS, India. Hi, we have nevet met because HS avoids people gatherings where people express ideas or get together for some fruitful discussions without their sick managers nosing around.
For everyone’s information, the situation regarding the bell curve is just the same in the U.S. Some less intelligent, less capable and very corrupt manager comes to me and tells me that my rating was pushed down because I did not fit the bell curve. OK. I don’t get this, please explain.” What you just said is that I was on a rating of 1 and I worked weekends continuously for over 4 months and made my clientmanagers very happy, got additional business inspite of an incompetent BDM (who cannot speak in English and uses Hindi to fill the gaps). And you pushed my rating to 2 and are giving me a sick increment because I do not fit the bell curve”. OMG. Mr. Manager, you either need to see a doctor or you should now get promoted to a V.P. or an MD at Headstrong.
It is amazing, how these incompetent, un-educated managers get to keep their jobs and prosper at HS only because of their connections and smooth talking with their bosses. amazing. amazing. amazing. and amazing.
If I started putting instances of my conversations with some of the most senior managers at HS, regarding increment, leaves, APPR etc etc, this blog would soon turn into a comedy blog. The kind of stories they tell, the kind of examples they give on why I do not get a good salary at HS. I am always curious to find out who trained them. It must be someone below the level of Arjun holding such trainingsessions, because I am sure Arjun would be as troubled as all of us, when he reads these comments. After giving the best years of my life to the company, I have nothing better to do, but to blog out my frustration because there was no more door left to knock at HS, but to leave.

Rah_ul said...

IPR Says:
January 8th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Hey… in HS there was a meeting on IPR today..
Summary of todays meeting :
1. If CSAT is less than 4.2 (90% of projects CSAT score) then it will be considered as 0. People meeting expectation (Which is 4) and not meeting expectation are same.
Whatz the message mgmt is giving here.. even if you meet clients expectation we care a damn. We only respect guys exceeding expectations.
2. Utilization (40% weightage) less than 60% is equal to zero. Shadow resources, Internal projects are considered go to hell. No Hike.. no bonus even tough U had worked for the company just to increase project margins you are made bali ka bakra… make sure that you do not work as a shadow resource in any of the project if you are forced to work as shadow resource make sure that U introduce a lot of bugs.

Rah_ul said...

another ex HS Says:
January 9th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Just to narrate my exp during IPR, i walked in the room. Talked about all the stuff, asked if i will get 100% bonus. He said yes and that was the end of IPR. This is how the IPR is done in Headstrong.
I raised the concern in one of my IPR that i would like to be released from the project but he specifically denied saying client would not approve. So i got 100% bonus, satisfied with my life went on in the same project. CAP is with a silent “R” (read CrAP). Read the fine print. “Client should have new resource. There should be a requriement for you elsewhere”. They are least concerned if you are not satisfied and would like to move to something else. And in case if you move between projects then that period they will count as “non-bilable” and give you 0 utilization which will impact yoru bonus. So just sit tight and silently continue what you have been doing so far. Who gives a damn about what you feel. just mint money for HS and be glad you are getting your pay. Thats the way it works over here.

Rah_ul said...

Low on morale Says:
January 9th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Mr UnfortunatelyHS,
“Oh, and this one truly deserves a separate paragraph. Oh well, I just so want to give an example now. I went to talk to him about leaves and by the time I left his office I had been told about the three important stages of life (viz. birth, college, job - birth very important by far) and how they affect an individual. Random sh!t, this guy excels!”
I didn’t get a name/person in there?
I am wondering if you are talking about the finance or the HR left most cubicle?
Its really funny how these guys handle problems.

Rah_ul said...

Low on everything Says:
January 9th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I was told by a VP at HS that I cannot survive in the company till I have a contact from my own state who can be my mentor. Can you believe that??? I cannot have an American as my mentor in a company that operates in America as my mentor in order to grow. Am I incapable or what? why do I need a mentor from my own Indian state to survive in the company?
The VP also gave me a lame excuse for not giving me an increment inspite of APPR rating of 1. He said “We are not making a very high margin on you”. Ok Mr. VP, how is that my fault that your sales team is a bunch of jokers who cannot get the client to approve bill rates and cannot even create an acceptable rate card. I deserve the raise and you should pay me the raise. If I have to worry about margins, why should I not start my own company?????

Rah_ul said...

No Parking Space Says:
January 10th, 2009 at 2:39 am
The latest of the Headstrong lows is the huge parking issue.
Every week, the Noida traffic police tows away dozens of cars - we end up paying fines and having ourcars damaged.
There is a building of capacity 1500 but parking for barely 40 people in basement, 40 in front and maybe 200 in a village where there are “thekas” on the entrance which means there are enough drunk villagers around when you try to drive home.
So you do not have any choice if you come after 10:30 since the guards simply shut the parking doors. Off late they have been reserving space for big managers which is a feather in the corporate hat.
So either you come on time and work 12 hrs if you have a US client, or you pay weekly challans. This too will mean that parking closes at 10 instead of 10:30 since that does not create more space. Is there a nexus where they earn a hafta from the police?
Is there any other sizable company which has this much parking issue? Worst is that the problem was already there in A-35/37 to a grave extent and they have not improved a bit based on experience.

Rah_ul said...

Leverage Index Says:
January 10th, 2009 at 2:47 am
How many projects does an Infy or Wipro execute with < 5 team size? The reasons for asking this questions is that HS management always comapre their’s with the big guys.
Headstrong executes close to 75% projects of this size and most of them are of size 3-5.
And then they want to stuff freshers into this sized teamed under a code name Khufu which strangely is not targeted to increase average project size but just to reduce average age!!!
Good luck sufferers…Learn to work 2 hrs more from tomorrow.

Rah_ul said...

No Plates in Canteen Says:
January 10th, 2009 at 2:50 am
So you can now pass 15 mins of the compulsary 9 hr in office in canteen now. In no hike time Headstrong has reduced the food rate by 5 rs, atleast you pay low for the garbage.
And to make up the loss, there are less than half the plates required. So wait for the people having food to finish and then plates washed.

Rah_ul said...

Work 9 hrs Says:
January 10th, 2009 at 3:00 am
There is some smart guys preparing a policy where:
If your monthly average hours are 7-8, then they will cut 5 ELs/month
If your monthly average hours are < 7, they will cut 10 ELs/month and potential termination
If you are 8.5-9 hrs average, you lose 4 EL’s/quarter
If you are 8-8.5 hrs avergae, you lose 8 EL’s/quarter
Is there any single IT company in the world which has this kind of policy or even close to it?
But in recession, this is a smart way of making money. Soon there will be a collection box near flap barrier asking to pay Rs 10 for every in entry so that you do not go out for smoke or tea.

Rah_ul said...

Best Margin Says:
January 10th, 2009 at 3:18 am
I learnt this trick recently. Following is the best way of having highest margins in Headstrong.
If your project starts on 1 Feb, then reserve the people from bench from 10 Jan and on pretext of training, start the project. You can also raise the “PRF” from 15 Feb even if project started on Feb 1 and use the resource on company cost and not project cost for 15 days.
Similarly, you can release people 15-20 days early and still use them for another 2-3 weeks on pretext of tranings.
The labours lose their utilization for that period which is the highest weightage KRA, but the greedymanagers get good points on the highest weightage KRA’a.
Who says they do not have smart people in the manager league?

Rah_ul said...

No Parking Space Says:
January 10th, 2009 at 3:27 am
I saw a fwd today which talked about some woman stuff (I am not against) which is aimed at increasing woman in office.
One good questions is that they do not have car parking for more than 50 woman. Would the new woman park in Mamura village next to the “theka”?
Services guys, stop the task force.
Woman (man also) joining Headstrong, check with HR on parking slots. Take it in writing!!

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
January 10th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
management could have atleast spared a little change out of the 8m to create some respectable parking instead of us going to the theka where drunken men keep falling in the drain in front of u every night. wait till one of us hit a villager and the guy would be lynched by the villagers but why would HS bother. hey who are our shareholders, can we not speak to them about the management or does the managementown HS?

Rah_ul said...

No trust in HS any more Says:
January 10th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Management owns part of HS. Other shareholders are the investors (VC firms). HS managementgenerates money for all shareholders including themselves. They suck money out of the company every year as dividends on preferred stock. Rest they keep in the company account to show the cash deposits of the company. But as far as spending the money to grow bigger and better is concerned, they do not want to spend a dime. That is why they hired some very sick management guys who suck our blood to generate more profits for the HS shareholders. In return these sick managers are given a small share of the pie (I call it “throwing a bone”).
All this time, we were doing nothing but generating more money for the managers to save in their personal accounts. The thing about working for the company and making the company stronger is nothing but a myth and a big lie. Even after serving the company for more than 5 years, the company had nothing to give back to me, not even a week of bench time. That means there is no company but a bunch of management guys trying different ways to get rich. One of the ways was to start a body shopping firm and lie to your employees that they are working for a company.
But there is no such thing as a “company” or “enterprise” called HS. Just greedy management guys getting richer by the day. And one fine day, they may sell the company for a very high price to another company saying that we have such a high cash deposit and look at the dividend we paid to the preferred shareholders. The other company will never find out that this money was sucked out of the hard workingemployees and nothing was given back to them.

Rah_ul said...

See it Coming Says:
January 11th, 2009 at 12:12 am
HS started working for Merill in 2008 and the lady who runs that account kept people like me blocked for more than 2 months making us unavailable for any other project.
Now it is IPR time, and I will bet that she will give us zero utilization for that period as if it was our fault that the account took that long to start.
We will be screwed for no fault of ours. Usual HS management style!
How does this work in Infy, Wipro, TCS?

Rah_ul said...

No trust in HS any more Says:
January 12th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Abusive Comment removed permanently

Rah_ul said...

xWipro Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Wipro is no different. i was shown my utilization and billing everymonth. however, there 80% billable is acceptable. all other things suck. i got out.
now my job is as follows:
35 hours per week
5000$ post tax
one hour per day for work, 2 hours of meetings, rest for coffee, smoke and personal tasks.
airfare to home country once a year - J class
school fees reimbursement upto 15000$ per year
7:30-2:30 timings throughout
30 working days vacations
25 official holidays (apart from vacation)
upto 15 sick leaves
paternity leave (i don’t need it though)
More benefits that are trivial but sum up to a lot.
the best one: Work estimates
example: follow Murphy’s law of estimation (as follows)
estimate work, multiply by 2, upgrade to next time unit (or even the next next one if you are bold enough) and commit
solved example:
if a task takes 1 hour, multiply by 2 to get 2 hours,
upgrade to next time unit (hour to days) so 2 days.
for the bolder ones:
upgrade hours to days and days to weeks. hence i can finish a 1 hour job in 2 weeks and this is acceptable.
downside - be treated like an alien, but i think all of you would be used to that
xWipro and certainly not trusting any india based company

Rah_ul said...

another ex HS Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Dear “No trust in HS “,
Can you please repost your comments seems someone took offense, but we want to hear what you had to say.

Rah_ul said...

MNC_chap Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Well guys…frankly before seeing this ‘Mahabharat’ post, i didn’t know about Headstrong…maybe my ignorance. But being an outsider, there’s one thing I can definitely say…This post DOES NOT provide a good scenario of the company. I personally wud never encourage myself or anyone on joining HS…not because i’m Einstein…but maybe HS does not provide a good picture.
Can’t anyone do something ’bout this????

Rah_ul said...

No trust in HS any more Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I did not say anything abusive, but my guess is that the moderator only had a few options in the drop down selection box for “reason” and he/she picked what ever was easy
I only stated the fact the it works differently for other consulting firms as compared to HS. In other firms, consultants do not talk about their utilization or bench hours. Competent managers in well defined departments are paid to handle such details. Consultants are given increments based on their performance, the feedback from their managers and peers and also the performance of the project (overall). There are well defined instructions for getting to an increment and bonus number.
At HS, the only way to get a decent increment is when your stars are all aligned in the right direction. You put in your resignation exactly when you are required the most on the account. Someone will hear you out and will understand your pain and be your friend. Other times, no one has the time to talk to you.

Rah_ul said...

Offered by HS Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Hey guys I have been made an offer by HS and i have thankfully come across this post right in time. Is it also correct that at HS, a new joiner is told in no uncertain terms that it is his responsibility to find a billable project and get himself on it else he will suffer at the time of appraisal due to poor utilization. Also somebody told me HS gives only 15 EL’s and no casual or sick leaves…is this info correct?????

Rah_ul said...

left HS offer Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
absolutely correct info buddy … (to the guy posting above)
I myself had left HS offer in Oct 2008.

Rah_ul said...

left HS offer Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
To all the HS khiladis here …
What if one gets an offer from HS for a 35% salary hike (project - Morgan Stanley . mainframe domain) … and at the same time the current company is ready to send you onsite for 6 months and also ready to give you promotion with 10% salary hike ..
which is the better proposition ?

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
If the offer from current company is after you threw in ur towel, then perhaps ur organisation and HS are twins separated at birth. else all the facts for HS are laid bare on this

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
If the offer from current company is after you threw in ur towel, then perhaps ur organisation and HS are twins separated at birth. else all the facts for HS are laid bare on this you shdn’t have trouble deciding

Rah_ul said...

No trust in HS any more Says:
January 13th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
I can tell you something from my personal experience. You cannot select a company based on compensation alone. I and hundreds of other professionals did not choose HS because of compensation but because we believed in Arjun Malhotra. We worked very hard to ensure that HS is recognized and always stood for the company during good and bad times. HS is a bad place to be right now, because the management has deteriorated in the years, specially after the HS-TechSpan merger. But many of my friends working for other companies with a much lower salary are happy because they get a lot more mental satisfaction.
So an advice from a guy with lots of gray hair: Choose a company that respects you as an individual and allows you to grow to the next level.
It is very similar to choosing a life partner. For short term fun, you choose the hottest girl in town, for long term commitment, peace and fun in life, you choose the girl with whom you can connect. With her as a life partner you go places that you never thought you could. The extremely less intelligent ones choose the girl that brings in a lot of dowry.
I am not sure if you will be able to find the ideal company, but please do not choose a company purely by compensation. It is short term because you will stretch your means to whatever compensation you get, and soon, you will be looking out for another firm that pays more.

Rah_ul said...

HS Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Great post! “No Trust in HS anymore”
I had an HS offer around 5 months ago. Although, I aced the interview and got an offer with 30% raise, I could not convince myself to join HS
Reason:
The first interviewer got more grim and uncomfortable as I could answer his questions. That is understandable for a guy taking the first round tech interview. But then I might have to work with this on a daily basis. what then?
The second interviewer although good-humoured was hell bent on the potential of investment banking projects. So much that it had started to sound unrealistic and dis- interesting. I can only hope the current state of investment banking has not affected him adversely.
The HR sounded as if they are not interested and just want to finish the job.
Thanks to all that, I am currently lot happier than I could have been there.

Rah_ul said...

another ex HS Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 10:35 am
well said, you got the right picture. Its exactly the way it happens. Trust me, I was on the technicalinterview pannel for both telephonic and F2F.
The role of recruitment team in these interviews is pathetic. They just want to wrap up things and the crowd that they shortlist for interviews was so disappointing.
On one occassion after the telephonic interview, recruitment personally called me up and asked me to improve the rating of a candidate as they needed people for “support” role and “technical nahin ho stong to chalega” is what she said. This is the level to which the HS recruitment team stoops to get people.
They literally request us to select “ANY” people and if you reject too many candidates, you will stop getting calls for interviews. And if you go to gym together then its a win win situation for both the recruitment team and the guy taking interview. I guess lot of people will know what i mean.
Most pathetic is the attitude, if he doesnt know lets say databases, then “lets give him time to brush up his skills”, or “we will reschedule”. Why dont these guys just hand out the offer letters!! Any tom dick n harry can get through a technical round if he reads thru his books.
ps: Absolutely no offence to people who got offer letters, just presenting the true picture here

Rah_ul said...

another ex HS Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Dear “left HS offer”,
when i read your post, i gave myself a laugh…dear friend “(project - Morgan Stanley . mainframedomain)” - Dont buy it!! There is no such thing and i can say that because i was in MS account.
Once you are in, they will start your body shopping. Push your resume to client who will reply that exp is not adequate blah blah blah…then you will be asked to join a Java project!! which you will have to join because yoru 2 months buffer period is over and if you dont join then your utilization (read bonus) will be impacted…and all this while you will have to market yourself.
Can you fancy they asked me to write a bogus work experiance skill, on which i never worked before, just so that they can push my resume to client. Then they asked me to read about it and the best part - client bought it.
scrupulous is not the work you will hear a lot in HS!!

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
“another ex HS”, remember that you willingly lied on your resume about your bogus work exp. That is nothing to be proud of. People like you are a disgrace and the reason indian IT gets a bad name. Before attacking HS for being bad/immoral, look at yourself. You could have refused to lie…but you chose to anyway. That shows there is not much difference between you and all the people you blame.

Rah_ul said...

left HS offer Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
thanks friends for your replies .. btw anyone has any idea about what happened to the 40 odd people recruited for so called ‘mainframe’ projects by HS few months back ? Do they have work ?

Rah_ul said...

left HS offer Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
oh and by the way .. the current company which i was referring to earlier was CapGemini

Rah_ul said...

another ex HS Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Well dear anonymous,
before pointing fingers and calling names i guess you should first see the situation. And even then, blaming someone on an anonymous forum - NOT GOOD!!
A guy who joined the org and the resume totally owned by headstrong (TMS) being forced to write up Perl as a skill because mngmt forces him so that he can be presented. You think you can refuse in such a scenario. Calling me a disgrace!! You are on bench mind it and no opening for 2 months and the mnmgt each day forces you to make changes depending on which client you are facing!! You dont have much choices there mind you. They make a fool of their clients and make a fool of the people whom they hire and then you have such audacity to call names. And moreover its there internal matter about how they manage their resources, if they decide to do it like this then you can not question them. Either do it their way or leave. But i guess its simple for u to just blame people.

Rah_ul said...

left HS offer Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
fully understand ur situation ‘another ex HS’

Rah_ul said...

Another example Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
In favour of ‘another ex HS’. I was told to start preparing a team of resources for a project by a managerin US. He wanted me to prepare the team by preparing a list of all candidates cleared by resourcing including their areas of expertise and matching it to client requirements. The plan was to show the clientmanager that we will conduct the screening ourselves for all candidates and ensure a successful team. Good so far.
But the plan had a very short life. Soon, the sales team intervened and asked us to start preparing any available candidates with interview questions from other candidates. “Are we a body shop or a cheap head hunting firm from the shady parts of Nehru place”. I did not want to change the resume of people and give them interview questions because in my world, it is called “cheating”. But I was told to do it and I was told with sufficient force. So I had 2 options: Leave the company or do it. Leaving the company was a bad option for my family because I had to pay my daughter’s school fees and a car loan. Could not miss those.
I decided to work as told by Sales head and account people. I left the company as soon as I could find a new job. I had to accept a salary cut of almost 20% but I am happy, relaxed and very satisfied with my job.
From what I saw, HS was a good company but is now being run by some very cheap middlemanagement which goes up to the level of VPs. There are a few very good managers in US and India, but they do not have a lot of say.

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
another ex HS, please remember that we have to make tough choices in life. When you are confronted with such a situation it is upto you to fight it or quit. Escalate all the way upto the CEO if required, trigger a case with your corporate governance team or anything similar if it exists. Once you agree to be part of the misdoing, you have absolutely no right to point fingers at anybody else.You have only yourself to answer to. The management being immorral does not justify your wrongdoing. Yes, easy for me to say - but you do have a choice - leave.

Rah_ul said...

Ano Says:
January 15th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
I agree that the thread does not paint a very good picture of HS..but is this the situation for consultation stream or is it same across technical and other streams too?

Rah_ul said...

left HS offer Says:
January 15th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
its the same in technical streams thats for sure .. starting from Associate, Sr Associate, Consultant etc

Rah_ul said...

Dhawan Says:
January 18th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Hi Guys,
I always thought of HS as a very attractive company from outside. But after coming through this blog I am completely taken aback. But however I now start believing whatever is written above after personalexperience.
I am an Indian IT professional working in US at the moment. I had applied to HS for a position that came out on the job portal on Dec 18th, 2008. No sooner I read the job requirement, I immediately rushed out my resume by 21st December, 2008. I even called up the contact person (listed on the job requirement) on 21st Dec, 2008 to confirm if she has recieved my resume successfully. The lady greets me and confirms that she has recieved my resume. She also tell me that since it is Holiday season (Christmas and New Year) and so the job interview may not begin until the Jan 5th, 2009.
SO FAR SO GOOD
Wished the lady Merry X-Mas and also Happy New Year
On Jan 3rd, 2009, I called up the lady to find the latest position on the job post.She says the recruitingmanager has not yet returned back from holiday and she has forwarded my resume to him and just waiting to hear back from the recruiting manager. Ok Glad. After waiting for communication from HS for 2 weeks, on Jan 15th, 2009 I called up the same lady and there she gives me a bolt from the blue.
She confirms that the job is closed now. Whooooooooooopssssssss. It was a big shocker for me. Why at all she kept me in the dark for almost a month when I was in constant touch with her. After all, if she did not find my experience suitable to the job requirement she could have denied me flat on face and I would have not contacted HS back. On top of that this lady now asks me if I am interested in another opening at Connectinut. Even though I said YES at that time, but I felt completely cheated and dejected.
A company which can change its colors much before the entry level interview, god knows how many times they’ll change colors after I join the company (if at all that wud have happened).
Seems this company is fond of treating people like that, as seens from the posts above.
Is it true that they boast of a 70% alumni from IIT/IIMs as written on their web site

Rah_ul said...

Another example Says:
January 18th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Dhawan, what you stated is nothing in terms of cruelty to consultants. I have seen my friends (referred by me) go through a worse nightmare. Their resume were passed on to the client and they were interviewed by multiple people from the client office. In the end, one of them got through and got his offerletter. Rest were passed on to other clients for interviews.
This clearly proves that HS is only a head hunter or a body shopper. They take money from the client and pass on a small percentage to you (under the disguise of SALARY) and call themselves a consulting firm.
To answer your question on alumni from IIT/IIMs, the answer is “partially true”. They do hire ’some people’ from premier institutes, but the hires either leave after some time or are groomed into the same evil management. But just for your information, during my employment at HS, I came across only 2 guys from IIT/IIM after having worked with or known more than 300 different people in the company.

Rah_ul said...

Another example Says:
January 18th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Dhawan, I forgot to mention, these guys were in continuous touch with the recruitment department and account managers for more than 3 months and got nothing but lies and false commitments. If someone had told them that you will not be accepted on the payroll of HS till we find a contract for you, these guys would not have waited. I am ashamed of making my friends go through this kind of a nightmare and I am sure I will never refer anyone else again to HS.

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
We have been told that no increments for 2009 but 2008 variable component will be paid. What about variable pay for 2009. will it get paid or company will decide after the end of the year. does any one know?

Rah_ul said...

From Official Mail Today Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Note: FCFS Basis [Better be at office at 7am if you don't want to park at a paid location in a nearby mall as suggested in the day by them]
—————-
From: #Headstrong NOIDA Front Office
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 5:54 PM
To: #OFFICE : Noida; #India-SA-A-PMO
Subject: DO NOT PARK your vehicles in front of the office compound starting 21st January!
Importance: High
DO NOT PARK your vehicles in front of the office compound starting 21st January!
Dear All,
The Noida Traffic Police are conducting a “Road Cleaning Drive” from tomorrow.
Please DO NOT PARK your vehicles in front of the office compound or in the service lane until further notice.
Any vehicle parked outside the premises will be towed away by the authorities.
You can park your vehicles at the Headstrong rented parking areas in the village across the road on a first come first serve basis.
We are in discussion with the Noida Authority and Noida Police jointly to resolve this issue. We will keep you updated on any developments.
—————–
Parking at Main Road & Service Lane
Dear All,
This is a special request to all the Headstrong Employees to remove their vehicles from the Road Side parking and Service lane immediately.
There is a road cleaning drive from Noida Traffic Police. They started towing away the vehicles from the road side as well as service lane. Please park your vehicles at the designated parking area.
In case of emergency, the closest alternate parking is self paid parking available at Shopprix Mall, Sector-61, Noida.

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
January 20th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
omg!what kinda company u poor lot work for. even a lala factory assures that labours hv a cycle stand inside. I sincerely hope that market improves so that u can explore options

Rah_ul said...

anon Says:
January 21st, 2009 at 2:30 pm
i am sure this rule will not apply to the logix park cars or taxis

Rah_ul said...

anonymous Says:
January 21st, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Because we are the dedicated lot and will never question our management or look elsewhere for a job. Let us all start coming to the office on bicycles (foldaway ones). We can fold them and put the bikes in our cubes, under the tables. That will save my management some more money so they can get richer.
I am counting every minute for the market to improve………….

Rah_ul said...

anonymous Says:
January 21st, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Dear management, we cannot get a chartered bus service like most of the other IT companies of our size, but can we get rickshaw services.
No, that will cost you 4 rupees per person which is a lot of money to spend on an architect like me. Please do not bother SIR, I will take a blue line or red line bus.
But wait, what about late nights when our clients want us to work till after midnight so that we have an overlap. I do not want the management to burden themselves with providing me a laptop or an internet connection for me to work from home. That will be too much for a small man like me to ask.
During those nights when there is no bus service or a soul around in Noida where crime is all time high. I will either sleep in the office or walk back home singing the bravery song.
Nanha Munna Rahi hoon. Headstrong Ka sipahi hoon. Bolo mere Sang Jai Hind Jain Hind……..
I love HS.

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
January 21st, 2009 at 7:08 pm
lol

Rah_ul said...

left HS offer Says:
January 21st, 2009 at 9:17 pm
hahahaha amazing imaginary letter ! people really do seem angry at HS !

Rah_ul said...

Anonymous Says:
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I worked in Headstrong for around 2 years:
some people have made it worst…..
Bad points:
worst Salary structure……….Net take home …..25 paise
Incentive……………THey can simply make your rating one down..so jo dihta hai wo hai nhee
Work……..mostly Call center type or very client specific,Lucky guys gets maintenance work
Fire people ……..in jan to march 2008 fired around 200
Some manager sitting here from last 7-8 years…comapny ke damaad..koi kahane wala nhee unhe….
They says …dont want to work in support or shift project…you will be fired
working hours 9.5 jaroori hai..kaam ho ya nhee ho….
Politics…………core politics….
I have seen people..working there for last 5 yaers…dont know j of java….
Darao aur kaam karao…..their policy
Top most Mnagement is good no doubt

Rah_ul said...

anonymous Says:
January 24th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Just curious.
Is it possible that the top most management is driving such behaviour and we are unnecessarily blaming the middle management. What if the top guys want this kind of a company. I am sure the topmanagement is aware of what goes on, still no policies have been changed or updated. They continue to talk only about profits and no profit sharing with employees or at least making of policies that are employee friendly. Even with low salaries and no bonuses, I would work for Headstrong if I could enjoy my work or if the quality of work was good, or even if the premises had everything I needed to grow in the field of Computer Science. All I see is talks about billing, billing and more billing (and margins). If they were allowed, they would me on multiple projects in parallel and make me work 3 shifts so they could make more money.

Rah_ul said...

Salary Structure? Says:
January 25th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Anonymous Says:
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Can you recommend what is a good structure (assuming no tax evasion leading to another Satyam!). Maybe they will consider
They currently provoide:
a) 1500 pm - meal vouchers (FBT paid by company)
b) 2000 pm - internet & telephone (for most people) (FBT paid by company)
c) 6000 pm - Petrol (once your salary is in the higher bracket of taxation) (FBT paid by company)
d) 20000 pa approx - LTA (FBT paid by company)
e) 15000 pa - Medical (FBT paid by company - not sure if this is applicable)
f) Std 80C and 80D benefits

Rah_ul said...

Very Disturbed... Says:
January 25th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Talking about sharing of wealth with the deprived and inclusion of the underprivileged in the society, what would one say if the shareholders paid themselves this bonus which the author alleges…shouldn’t the wealth created by the hard working employees been shared with them rather then shareholders rewarding themselves? and rewarding for what….? For getting employees work like ponies and donkeys and giving peanuts in return.

arnabkarmakar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
arnabkarmakar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
myheadaches@headstrong said...

Fellas for those of ya who find it kinda difficult to register urself n then post a comment, i hv created the following login and password that u cd use safely for sharing ur headaches at headstrong:

Login - services@uttarbharat.com
P/w - headstrong

Happy Blogging mates !

myheadaches@headstrong said...

HR Honcho is reportedly quite miffed cos he dint get a dime outta bonus payment. lil birdie says another USD 8m got paid last month. way to go man!

myheadaches@headstrong said...

any one knows what happened to the 40 odd mainframe resources which headstrong recruited in Noida in Aug08 ? are they on bench ?

myheadaches@headstrong said...
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myheadaches@headstrong said...

ha, i can't believe i just found out about this site. many years ago, i was a client of Headstrongs at BoA and we got a saying there: sandeepan mukherjee who was a complete waste. while headstrong had talented developers they recruited from iits, sandeepan or did he go by sandy was completely worthless and was the main reason BoA terminated its relationship with headstrong. i just looked that fool up on linkedin, and he says he's the head of delivery. if that's so headstrong must promise to deliver very little. that's true, one of my colleagues moved on to lehman, where headstrong once again royally fucked up the prime brokerage project. my friend said the headstrong engagement manager was so bad he might as been a white sandeepan mukherjeee

myheadaches@headstrong said...

dear friends, i have been offered a role by headstong and i was doing the diligence on the net to find out if there is some material which can help me decide about this company as i do not know anybody who works for it. this blog does not throw a good light at headstrong so i request u to please guide me. i am based at bangalore and this role requires relocation to noida and then to the US within 3 months. they are willing to pay for the relocation to noida

myheadaches@headstrong said...

It is a body shopping company. And it is profitable. The senior management is here for business - NOT for making a reputed and respected software consulating company.

myheadaches@headstrong said...

Being a private company does not give it the right to lie to new hires. They lie to hire the best and continue to lie while they exploit. After a few years, they throw away the experienced folks and hire freshers and the cycle goes on.

Body shopping is not bad, but the company should include "staffing firm" in its profile. "Consulting" is a high end service that Headstrong is not capable of.

myheadaches@headstrong said...

We at BoA, threw Sandy Mukherjee out. when i learnt from this blog that he's still there, i said, he must have a godfather there that watches his back because there is no way someone can carry himself so stupidly and unprofessionally and still be around. he may write evaluations for his people, but what about the bad feedback we gave headstrong about him. well, the one good thing about us acquiring Merrill is that Headstrong lost another client haha

Unknown said...

hi..I have been offered a job at Headstrong , Noida. Please tell me about the work environment, bench situations, variable salaries.
Should one join this company or not because i have heard mixed opinions from my friends.

Unknown said...

Hi HS guys

I've got an offer from HS, USA for a position in Morgan Stanley. I'm with one of the Top 3 IT companies. Im looking for a good co who can process my GC. not sure whether HS is a good one to move from one of Top 3 IT co.

myheadaches@headstrong said...

buddy u r lucky to hv such a valuable insight into the affairs of the company making u an offer. wish we had the same !!! everything written here is from headstrong employees and should be enough to enable u to make ur own decision.

Laks said...
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Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Good news for all those who suffered at the hands of Headstrong : Capgemini in talks to buy Headstrong

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/capgemini-leads-race-for-headstrong-buyout-deal-pegged-at-500-mn/articleshow/7736110.cms

Will this deal be good or bad for HS in the future ?

Unknown said...

Finally Genpact Buys Headstrong.. End of woes for all HS victims hopefully.

aanand said...

Hi fellows,
Needed some advice from you guys. recently i have been offered role of consultant at headstrong with package of 9.3
I have 4.7 years of experience. I think because i completed all client rounds( in Morgan account ); they have offered this package.
Needed pointers from u guys about work culture. I heard work is hectic and policies are very strict.
Please suggest.

sekhar said...

anand did you join the organisation and whats ur experience with HS