The Satyam Fiasco : VPP - The positives & the negatives

Sorry again for the delayed blog update. Have been busy preparing for my higher studies since I no longer am required to go to the office. This for sure is a huge take-away from the VPP.

Yes, for a change, I am writing something positive about Satyam! Well, I am a human and after all, who doesn't wanna get paid for a 6 month holiday!

The key take-away, apart from the free time is the money that they are giving out to the employees. Although it is the basic salary, but if a person has savings, which is highly unlikely, the survival is possible. Of course, you'll have to borrow from friends and family, but whatever!

And the rosy stuff comes to an end out here.

Think about the guy who has just got married a couple of months back, and has been shown the door through VPP. There are people who had liabilities running into thousands of Rupees in EMIs. They are screwed for sure!

I can say that I am enjoying my time on this 6 month holiday that has been doled out to me. But it gets frustrating after some time. If a person is living in the hope that they would be called back for projects, that is highly unlikely to take place.

Analyze this : If they could not find a project for you when you were present in person in the office, how and why the hell would they call you back?

There are many people who are getting out of billable roles, every day. They would be the ones who would get a priority over you in terms of project allotment.

Another thing. If you had thought that your FLCL (Full Life Cycle Leader) would be working in the office to bring you back, the chances are that they themselves would have been fired or would have been asked to 'let go' of the job.

There is utter chaos in the Satyam campuses these days. This what I have come to know from my friends who are still hanging in there. The senior management structure has undergone a thorough restructuring and there are many who are on the wrong side of the line. They eventually would be jumping the ship, or a dhow, if I may call it.

The point is, no one's job is safe. I am talking about the people not on VPP. As far as my brethren and the ladies on VPP are concerned, you'll keep getting that odd mail from the management regarding more people being taken back from VPP, but somehow, you would still be reading it from home on a Wednesday afternoon.

By the way, we're on Technorati now. I said Hello! They replied by saying epyh23st58 !

The Satyam Fiasco : Raju & Sons

The Times of India has reported that Raju stashed away millions in foreign accounts even before the money could reach Indian shores. This surely doesn't come as a surprise to me!

I still remember the 7th of January, 2009 and the week following the dreaded date. There were so many 'ardent Raju worshippers' who believed what Raju had written in his hog-wash of a letter. I for one, a sworn skeptic, could not digest what was written in the letter.

The perpetrator of crime wanted to leave as a sage. And he sure did succeed in luring many of his followers in his spell.

Now the questions that I want to ask, and answers to which are pretty obvious, are :

Why has Raju and his family's property not been confiscated and frozen?

I'm sure the answer to this question would be that the matter is sub-judice and that no action can be taken till there is a verdict in the case. The question that arises is that why the Indian legal system is so incompetent so as to allow perpetrators of a crime, who have wreaked havoc on lives of thousands of innocent people, still living lives of luxury?

Why can't there be a provision in the law that prima-facie evidence should be enough to confiscate the property and assets of the perpetrators when the evidence is glaring at the reality?

Why is he in a VIP jail when lives of over 200k people have been screwed up by that shameless creature?

This one surely beats me! I mean, this cheat is languishing in a VIP jail when the very people who worked hard for building his company are now living on subsistence salaries! Many people who had faith in Satyam and who had contributed in its growth have been put into VPP. Why in the world is he not in a regular cell? I would love to see him sharing a cell with petty thieves!

The Satyam Fiasco : VPP Call-back a lie

The recent media reports had suggested that 380 associates had been called back from VPP within the first week of being doled [pun intended] out to them.

The real picture is a bit different. These 380 associates include people whose Reporting Managers did not take proactive stand to ave them from VPP earlier on, and realised later on that the ship had sailed. Not a problem. They promptly assign these associates to other projects just to keep them in. They would not be doing any credible work as they would not have the know-how of the new projects. Its just that the associates had been licking the soles of these RMs for a long time and they have been 'rewarded'!

Another group that has been recalled would fall in the category of associates whose presence was demanded by the client. This shows how incompetent and blind the process was. The client had to force a recall as Satyam management had put deserving and critical employees on VPP.

The projects follow a rotating billing policy. Deserving associates were put into VPP because they were in between billing periods.

The HR department claiming that it was a fruition of their efforts that 380 associates were called back within a week is farcical and a blatant lie.

The Satyam Fiasco : Total Layoffs

The question of the hour is : How many people at Satyam are going to be put on VPP?

The answer : A total of 16,000.

In the first wave, 9,000 associates and their fate was consigned to VPP. There would be another round of VPP assignment process and would encompass another 7,000 associates.

There is another aberration that might lead to more people being accommodated in VPP.

A few of the associates who had been handed over VPP in the first wave had already been shortlisted to be absorbed into TechMahindra. There was some miscommunication on part of the management of the two entities, and thus, these people would be called back from VPP and will ake way for others to get into VPP.

The Satyam Fiasco : Layoffs for HR

So, the mess-makers become the target now. A total of around 30 HR personnel are responsible for handling 20,000 odd TechMahindra employees. Compare that to the 800 HR personnel at Satyam to manage 40,000 odd employees.

Today is the 'D-Day' for layoff/sabbatical for almost 600 HR personnel and around 300 Finance people.

These people were made to do the dirty work of putting many a deserving associates in VPP and now they are going to be a part of the same team.

Talk about time!