Pay cuts by IT cos forcing employees to reduce spending (India)

[OhioChick]

27 Feb, 2008, 0441 hrs IST

MUMBAI: As he winds up a chat session with friends at the local pub on the weekend, 24-year-old software professional Vijay Shankar emerges poorer by Rs 2,000 just this week. Youngsters like him have seen their careers and pay packets skyrocket in recent years and have amply fed the consumer-driven economic boom. This year, however, they may just be going slow.

Concerns over fall in demand in the world’s largest technology market, United States, have forced Indian outsourcing companies to save every cent possible, even if it means cutting variable pay to employees and hiring less robustly than before. As a consequence, the consumer class represented by the two million outsourcing workers in the country may be whittling down their expectations and spending plans accordingly.

Vijay Shankar (name changed) has seen his employer, Tata Consultancy Services, reducing the variable component of his salary for a quarter, and smaller companies are now following suit. This has left him feeling his Rs 2,000 entertainment purse is perhaps too lavish. “I do not expect I can continue spending such high amounts for long,” he says. “The company just cut our variable pay by 1.5% and I expect that the salary structures are in for a change in the coming 6-8 months. Even new job offers are not offering as much salary increases as there were 2-3 years ago.”

The mood is reflective of what employees in the IT industry, the largest employer in the organised sector with about two million employees at last count, are feeling today. The note is one of caution, and depending on whether the situation improves or worsens , it could have implications on overall spending patterns ranging from spends on dining out and apparel purchases to bigger investments in cars and housing.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/ITeS/Pay_cuts_by_IT_cos_forcing_employees_to_reduce_spending/articleshow/2818004.cms

:nopity: I've had so many pay cuts and had to reduce my spending habits for years now. Deal with it.

[Fresh_Start]

1. I also read an article that the outsourced customer service

workers are under a lot of stress. For some reason, people on the phone are rude to them.

[lapfog_1]

2. As I told my Indian counterparts at the last company I worked at

Just wait until they outsource YOUR jobs to China or Africa!

[OhioChick]

3. India is Already

Outsourcing Their Jobs. They're Not Happy Campers.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

4. Someday the "jobs" will come back to the USA

USA outsource then outsource then outsource then outsource.......

[madmom]

5. if the $ falls much lower, they'll outsource to the US.

[LiberalEsto]

6. Awwww

Now they're finding out how American IT workers feel.

:nopity: