Rajesh*, an employee of Cognizant in southern India, has a workday unlike most others in his company. The 29-year-old says he swipes his ID card at office, leaves the workplace, and spends time with friends all day, before returning, swiping the card again in the evening, and then heading home.
This has been Rajesh’s schedule for the last few weeks, ever since his company’s human resources (HR) team asked him to resign as a project associate, which is a software developer role. Branding him a low performer without substantiating the ranking, the company has been forcing him to resign “voluntarily,” Rajesh claims.
But despite the pressure, Rajesh has managed to hold on to his job, which he’s had for about a year now. And what’s giving him the confidence is the support of a small but growing group of techies like him, working under the banner of the Forum for IT Employees (FITE).
