Human Resources at Cognizant Technology Solutions(CTS) has come out with a novel method to harass employees not in favour with the management. I have been at the receiving end of such a shoddy treatment engineered by Mr. Jacob Raj who is a senior manager, Human Resources, CTS, Chennai. This method was also being followed by third rate software companies and Cognizant (CTS) has joined the bandwagon adding a professional touch.

The following happened from April 2010 onwards to a senior person with over 20 years experience in CTS
a) Isolation of an employee who speaks up against wrong doings in Cognizant.
b) HR, CTS threatens him with termination. Puts him on bench & makes him angry. HR records conversations & put words into his mouth that there is a behavioral problem
c) HR, CTS sends him for counselling sessions at his expense
d) HR, CTS promises him a lucrative posting post-counselling, drag their feet and not to keep up their word
e) After 3 months, HR, CTS politely sounds him to look for another job telling lies that they can't fit him into any project
f) If he does not budge, HR, CTS abruptly asks him to resign and threatens him with termination again.
g) HR, CTS terminates him without any written notice or intimation and removes intranet & mails access
h) On his securing a job in another organisation, HR, CTS denies him a clean service certificate and blackmails him to return some monies paid to him during bench period. Jacob Raj, Human Resources, CTS, Chennai refused to even meet him when he went to the office to submit resignation and get a clean exit!!!. Mind you, Jacob Raj did all this as Senior Manager, CTS, Chennai and tries to keep it clean since there is nothing in writing officially.

There is nothing on record regarding reason as to why a person with so many years of experience should be terminated!!! It is a harassment of a CTS employee and an embarassment to CTS if made public.

Blackmailing him for return of monies paid during bench - is it not CTS's onus? Doesn't it look like a BRIBE? Is CTS so poor that it requires money generated like this? Only a few days ago the President & MD of CTS - Chandrasekaharan was proudly mentioning to a newspaper that CTS is a $4 billion startup !!! And I have seen it's chairman Lakshmi Narayanan make donations to charity and take his pictures!!! Wake up senior management of Cognizant (CTS) - you will be better off doing charity to your employees rather than strangers!!! After all, charity begins at home!!!

Much as I respect Cognizant (CTS) having been a part of it's success, this incident has left me wondering whether the HR following a vindictive policy had the approval of the top management in connivance?

Name of the person is purposely kept confidential for obvious reasons - we should not be spoiling his career just for publicity like what Cognizant (CTS) has done.

If any of you had similar experience with Cognizant (CTS), kindly mail me particulars at [email protected]
I would like to go to press when I have enough numbers.

The HR team in Cognizant is very unethical. They are like the mafia. When my manager along with the account management team worked unethically, I reported it to the HR, and the HR threatened to kick me out of the organization in the pretext of something else. The Code of Ethics is a document to cover the unethical operations performed by the senior management. Management team performs unethical stuff all the time. They bill for offshore staff who are on vacation. And they lie about the skill sets of associates. And they make onsite coordinators lie about the work completed by offshore. They lie about anything and everything. They set an example to the subordinates that not only is it okay to lie, but also that those who don't lie are against the organizational goals.

We shouldn't be forced to lie by our management. And we need HR and Talent Managers who have some bit of ethics and conscience. Our CEO and HR heads should try to pay more attention to the small details of organizational ethics instead of caring only about revenue. Management shouldn't teach values that it is okay to take advantage of the clients for the sake of money.