I was appointed by, Polaris Consulting & Services Ltd.(presently, VirtusaPolaris), for the, Chennai location, as a Visual Consultant, for the UI/UX Practice, in the year, 2014. I was more than happy to join, since I hail from Kolkata, West Bengal, and that the state is suffering from a scarcity of industries and justification of true talents, due to the existing political scenario.
Life is all about the expectations for the good.
1) In my seven years of experience then(2008-14), I haven't come across a wonderful reporting manager like Mr. Guruprasad Sira, who had been more of a mentor. Under his guidance and mentor-ship, I have learnt a bit about the traits of maintaining the balance between professional and personal equations of life. I came to know more about my domain and got exposed to many professional facets of the business practice which I was not aware of till my working with the mentioned concern.
2) It was due to his identifying my talents, that I could bring the first, Gem Award for my performance, to my team and practice, in eight months of my joining the concern.
3) The hike given, was fair based on my payslip for the concern I worked for in, Kolkata(comparatively lesser than what people join with, at my level of experience, outside West Bengal).
Things were fair for a start, but then.
.with the good comes the bad.
Guys, I apologize about the lengthy review for cons, but wasting sometime in a patient reading might save you more time, to take certain decisions about, VirtusaPolaris, Chennai.
1) I did lengthy travels on train from an extent of, Chennai to Delhi and back, on railways, as my grade did not level up with the travels by flight. This policy is a humiliation for a person of my experience then and that it was inhuman and a time and health killer.
2) After the.'India tour', for almost 38 hours, they expected me to report to the client without loosing a moment and least consideration about the employees' tiring journey. It was descent enough for the client's part, that they gave me a day off, after understanding the course of my journey with surprise.
3) The finance team was irresponsible in crediting the advance for the travel and obviously the delay increases the holes to your pocket. You'd be reimbursed for sure but after you return back to Chennai. Thus, you might be tensed about the immediate expenses for your travel to client site and lodging, and specially when you are a family man and that the travel happens when the days near to month end and that your salary ain't that high for a back-up after running a month of bill and loan payments and compulsory investments.
4) The fear of loosing too many deals, due to sales incompetency and less exposure to trendy business solutions both in non-banking and certain BFS business solutions, the company had given birth to a breed of poikilothermic(cold-blooded) diplomats called,'the yes-men', who would commit anything to the client without knowing the requirement and the precise technical skillsets to execute so. As the result, the deadlines extended the committed limits of course with tantrums of useless escalations and mails and calls, for an unscientific planning.
5) The basic foundation of, Polaris Consulting & Services Ltd., even now, is laid on the sole project of, CITI Bank and God help!, if the client changes the mind someday, and that the existence of the concern might come to a halt.
6) Most of the deals are lost, as the competitors are equipped with updated tools and technologies and of course a talented manpower unlike, Polaris Consulting & Services Ltd. Even for POCs, there was no copyrights, and thus in many cases, even reputed clients took the concepts and got the job done by a third party vendor with a namesake payment and our team sat tight.biting off nails, paying the price of not patenting what they publish, due to fear of loosing a reputation among a handful of clients.
7) The core unit of executing a task, was directly approached by the client, for any sort of iterations or addition of certain details, that was not included by them in any prior discussions or promised to be worked on by the agreement with the company, without coming through the proper channel respective project manager, who obviously are the typical.'yes-men'(as mentioned earlier).
Thus, filtering of information and precise briefing was affected and if something went wrong, a'blame-game', match would be the future of the internal communications.
8) The hike in salary is next to nothing and there is a half yearly, Annual Performance Driven Pay that would depend on the manager's feedback, that might be a subject to biased reports, in-spite of a splendid performance, which they use as an arsenal to encourage the people they want to retain or discourage the ones who they are willing to say'GOODBYE', for a willful submission of resignation.
9) Every service company is bound by customer service, to all extent. However, there are certain conditions that the company empowers the customer with, regarding the resource commitments and the customer's expectations regarding the orientation of the job required to be executed. This however, is not practiced in, VirtusaPolaris, due to fear of loosing the client. That it goes to any extent to satisfy the client, is always not in a very comfortable way. This happens on an usual business practice, just because of their commitments without knowing the pros and cons.
10) Even going for an onsite can be cancelled by the client anytime, even after your Visa is approved, because the management fails to understand the requirement to the core, for your justified availability for a particular onsite opportunity. It happens quiet often in the organization and that, nothing is guaranteed till you fasten the seat-belts in the particular flight.
11) The major population of the company, is local Tamils, who in every internal business meetings, would start communicating in a typical mother tongue influenced English and to make situations worse, they don't hesitate to continue in their mother tongue, with no regards for the people present on the conference table, who are usually from other states. This gives a low morale to the people who has come from elsewhere to work in Chennai. The entire meeting is to be briefed again in the language that can be grasped by all. Thank goodness! that the company can afford that time and energy.
(My writing out this point, is not an initiated approach to humiliate the inhabitants of a particular state but to point out the fact where the company fails to attract a manpower who can have a better communication for better understanding approach).
12) The company doesn't attract a very bright crowd of professionals, with its pay and facilities, except for freshers under a two year bond.
Laterals, from scarcity of industries or industry deprived regions have no choice but join the concern with a hope, trying to look at the brighter side.
13) The HR facility is flat and their understanding a person and reciprocating to address him, is poor and not expected in a professional standardized practice. Policies are quite unclear and that they refrain themselves from explaining it, clearly and when approached behaviors are indifferent and unexpected. Of course, exceptions are there but then, if you are lucky enough.
And when the ship hits the tip of the iceberg.
Virtusa completes acquisition of majority interest in, Polaris Consulting & Services, Ltd., on March 3rd, 2016.
1) The American company, Virtusa, runs on the policy of resource augmentation model of evaluating the existing staff and then determining which additional skills are required. This has led them to body shopping of skilled resources, recruiting the same in order to contract their services out on tactical short to mid-term basis. Thus, if a person is on bench for a couple of months he might be asked to leave, through forced resignation. 2016, had been an unfortunate witness towards the layoffs that had happened under the acquisition of, Polaris Consulting & Services Ltd., by Virtusa.
2) People get a call from the HR, to take a willful resignations. Even the HRs, do not hesitate to lie that they had a talk with the immediate reporting manager of an individual. When things come to light, that particular manager falls from the sky, but there is no effort of any further clarification or investigation. This had happened with me thrice, on the ground of unavailability of projects based on my skills. Is that my fault? But the question was useless by then. After that I felt that my self-esteem is getting questioned and that I started to understand my way out.
3) There is no job security for anyone and it is not possible for anyone to get associated to a project as soon as he comes out of one. But in here you have to get in a project as soon as you come out of one, irrespective of the fact whether the project is suitable for your future enhancements. You might not show the size of contribution towards the project, when pointed out. But if you are a chooser in this concern then you are a looser.
4) This acquisition has shown me helpless and useless protests, with placards outside the company premises, of those who were forced to resign or are terminated, under the blood-drenched Chennai evening sky.
5) The red alert of your being on bench would reflect through,'Red Alert', mails as timers, ticking to explode, at regular intervals.This persisting circumstance is not a very healthy environment for a person to work comfortably, as the thought of a sword hanging over his head and that his head could be the next to be rolled out, would obviously hinder him to do productive work.
6) Policy of resource augmentation, Body-shopping, are not models that identify true talents. Thus, many capable people have walked out in 2016, leaving remnants of their history behind.
7) There is no employee retaining policy . If you are asked to leave, you would be given the payment for 3 months(notice period) and would be asked to leave after 10-15 working days. However, if your resignation is self initiated, without their asking, then you may be released in a week or so, if you are not on a project and that you would be payed till your last working day. Exceptional releases in four days has come to four hours, in certain instances, after the resignation is initiated.
8) There is exit formality but no exit interviews, as the company does not value the resources who are exiting. Resources are viewed not by the contributions they make but how billability can be impacted by their utilization. After the juice is extracted the remnants would be thrown with entrails.
9) As per the policy of VirtusaPolaris, your assets and softwares would be taken away from you along with the desk, after you come out of a project and would be given to you back, only when you are a part of another project. Till then, you are at the mercy of your peers, to check mails or your smart phone could be smarter.
10) For freshers under two year bonds, you will not be charged of the balance bond amount, if terminated. However, if those who willingly want to resign to pursue a new start somewhere or do higher studies, might have to pay the balance, for the breach of bond, as a compensation.
Other benefits.
1) There is no employee engagement facilities, except a shanty existence of a tiny gym and a snooker corner, both of which are not maintained properly.
2) The look and feel of the bays are very shabby and does not maintain the standards of a present corporate office trend, with certain air-conditioners that never ran or absolutely chilling to such an extent that it is advisable to wear woolens at a weather condition of a Chennai day.(When reported, the maintenance unit couldn't explain their failure in not being able to control the room temperatures).
3) The company assets given to employees are not up to the standards of regular maintenance and that the service of the same, if required, would take a day's running to get things in place. Nice experience to be a,'GO-GETTER'.
4) We had been working on trial versions of Adobe Photoshop and operating Windows XP as OS, from 2014-16(my tenure in the concern).
Thus, I have seen the two extents of good and mostly the bad in VirtusaPolaris, but I am happy that this acquisition, taught me a lesson of life. to be prepared for the worst because the ground on which you stand, might be quicker than sand. It made me grow up fast and strong from inside by making me see the worst thing that can happen to someone coming from his hometown leaving his old parents behind, with wife and responsibilities, to Tamilnadu, which is a challenge for most of us who come from East and North, seeing the brighter side, honestly(no offence meant).
A free advice to the management, please identify what you are loosing and pay some respect to them who walk in your campus, every morning with a new sunshine and walk out, with a new hope. If you think you'll carry on like this, then every sinking ship has life boats attached and surely people would make use of it to survive.survive with a bit of self-esteem.
