Two Stories

Time: Once upon a time

Place: A distant jungle

   A wolf was drinking at a spring on a hillside when he saw a lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. “There’s my supper,” thought he, “if only I can find some excuse to seize it.” Then he called out to the lamb, “How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?”

  “No my lord,” said the lamb; “if the water is muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me."

  “Well, then,” said the wolf, “why did you call me bad names this time last year?”

  “That cannot be,” said the lamb; “I am only six months old.”

  “I don’t care,” snarled the wolf; “if it was not you it was your father;” and with that he rushed upon the poor little lamb and ate her up.

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Time: March 2009

Place: One of India's largest IT companies in Hyderabad who pride themselves on their integrity and human values.

A manager was sitting at his cubicle one day when he sees an employee who had been in the "freepool" for some time. "Let's get rid of her," he thought. "That will increase our company's margins and I may just get a hike." So he talks to the HR and the HR calls up the girl.

"You have to pass this exam, and if you fail we will fire you," said the HR manager. The exam was tough and the syllabus unfair, but the girl worked hard and managed to pass it nevertheless. After a few days, she gets another call from the HR department.

"We give you fifteen days to find a project. If you can't find one, you must resign." The girl was terrified. Finding projects for the employees was in fact the job the HR people were being paid for, but still, she went on to search for a project. At the end of a week, she finds a project where a "resource" of her qualifications was required.

"I have found a project for myself," she told her manager and the HR. "Now I won't have to resign, right?"

"Oh, that project is in a different 'vertical' (department). We cannot let you go to another vertical! We spent money on you. You have to stay here and find a project, or else resign," said the manager. And sure enough, a week later...

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The comparison seems far fetched? The scenario exaggarated and unbelievable? You better believe it, for this is a completely real incident. This is the way the Indian IT giants are behaving. Unyielding integrity indeed!