Yesterday, during a training session on IELTS/TEOFL, I happened to have an interesting chat with a software professional of a famous IT Company. He had a lot of thoughts to share and some of them were, from my perspective, quite shocking. Here begins his tale of woe:

My day at work starts around 8 am and I've to spend nearly 40 minutes speaking to my representative from the US, updating project details carried out the previous day and about upcoming tasks.

Being the PL (Project Leader) of a team of 20 members is a very arduous task in itself. In a team of say 20, only one person will be found to be very sincere, find out bugs, if any, and streamline the whole thing. The rest of the 19 just while away their time, doing almost nothing, and enjoying at the other's expense.

Secondly, most of them are freshers and they are not committed to their work at all. The reason being that, a majority of them use this IT Company only as a mere stepping stone towards their own career aspirations elsewhere. Sometimes I find, the fresh faces preparing for their CAT oe GMAT exams discreetly, as they find this "Big" company just a rung up the ladder. Almost a major chunk of them leave in the first two years, around 60 per cent, and so we go on a Campus recruitment spree to fill up the lacunae.

Thirdly, We dont have job satisfaction at all. Who am I working for? It is for some company off shore, who doesnt know me at all. For him, it is the end product that matters and not the means. If not me, it's somebody else. So, we normally dont have any involvement in the job at all.

Fourthly, almost every other day we get mails in our mail box from our Company which opens like this: Remembering a Special Person - None other than a young software professional around 35 years of age, who has died of cardiac arrest. Many IT people also commit suicide because of Stress, and some end up nervous wrecks.

Fifthly, most of the parents are afraid to give their girl in marriage to a software professional, because of many factors. The odd working hours, resulting in a temptation to falling to the vices, immorality after work time, and husbands having to wait for their wives even at around 2 pm at night to finish her 'shift'.

Sixthly, now that the rupee value has risen, we've been asked to compensate it by working on Saturdays too. Our clients do not go by nation or community at all. It's sheer economy in money matters that proves the clinching factor. If you guys in India cant do it at $100, and if you charge us $120 just cos your rupee value has increased, we dont bother. We can shift our operations to the Phillippines who are willing to do the same work at $90. So it's all about pressure and competition.

Seventhly, China is bound to overtake us by the year 2011. They are catching up on their language lacunae too..So it wouldnt be a surprise if in the near future, the whole world turns to them for project execution, leaving us in the lurch.

I now prefer working as a teacher in a small school, teaching a few passionate students in a poor village in my country, and do something to uplift them, which gives me immense job satisfaction and happiness. It also gives me involvement, a sense of belonging, and a great sense of achievement etc., which I dont and can never hope to find in IT.

That leads me to the question, what counts more? job satisfaction or money? health or wealth? peace of mind or a mind in pieces? 

He sure had a point worth a ponder, a thought worth a thousand dollars or even more there...!