Home Computer blast kills TCS employee in Chennai

In one of the most bizarre stories, Vijay Kumar an employee of TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) was (suspected) to be burnt to death in a  freak accident involving computer. Though exact  reason is unknown  he was found charred to death in a sitting position in front of his Home PC, which was also completely burnt.

The victim was sharing the room with two others in telugu brahmin street in Velachery and was working in TCS Velachery. His roomate Ram Prasad was taking bath when he heard a blast, and found his roomate burnt in front of his computer. Ram Prasad reportedly fainted on the scene.

Vijay Kumar hails from Madurai, a southern city in Tamil nadu. Till now there has never been a case of computer related death, there have been cases in China due to buring batteries etc. But this involves a PC and mostly assembled one. Chennai Police havent ruled out foul play yet.

Whats a PIP in TCS ? – Performance Improvement plan

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TCS is trying desperately to damage the name it had with associates few years back. Now the HR has totally different role in this organisation, how to reduce cost at any cost.

Earlier TCS had PIP – Process Improvement process which were suggestions given by employees to improve company in any area. But now after the TCS numbers started going down, the company has come up with one more way of firing employees – PIP (Performance Improvement Plan). Though TCS claims this process is for improving and motivating employee the truth is this is one more tool in blackmailing employees into submission and firing them when they need to reduce the employee count of highly paid staff.

A PIP is sent to the supervisor of the employee who has a lower score in annual performance evaluation and bar for lower score has been increased recently which will cover almost 20% of employees. Since TCS has curve fitting model for giving performance rating ,15-20% of its 1,20,000 employees will get band D or Rating 2.  Now they have introduced PIP to send out this employees out. The funny part is this whole performance evaluation never reflects actual performance of individual rather it  depends on various factors as I had mentioned in my previous post here.

Now what happens if your supervisor gets a PIP for you ? . Either he can save you by giving you a rating(this is PIP rating) of  2.5 or above (for 5) or he can give you a lesser feedback and get you fired. As if the PL’s and PM’s in TCS doesnt have enough say in your salary now one more way he can make you a slave.

So how does this process work and what is the criteria for receieving a PIP (ie ur supervisor getting one for you).  Refer the below table for verifying the criteria for PIP this year (and past year)

TCS PIP chart for 2008 -2009

According to this chart released by TCS HR anyone at C3B level and above will be fired if they get continous 2 rating or Band D as I ahd earlier mentioned in the previous post. For employees Below AST ir ITA or ASE, they will be fired if they get a Band E or Rating 1  twice. In all other scenarios they will get a PIP and your PL / PM has to save you.

So do pass the word to other TCSers and also cautions the others interested in TCS about the same.

TCS asks employees who got continous 2 ratings or Band D to resign

Yesterday some of the TCS  employees who have obtained two or more years of continous 2 rating or Band D have been asked to resign from TCS even if they are currently allocated in projects.

Though this might look strange but it might be a relief for unlucky ones in Bench at the moment and create panic among associates who have got 2 rating last year. This appears to be a strategy of HR making way for associates with good performance rating not to be fired from TCS.

By firing the currently allocated associates with poor record, the company tries to give opportunities to  associates with good track record and  currently unallocated . In a way this ensures the employees are not fired on pure luck and their influence with top management.

But to most this has been a bolt out of clear sky, and set the tone for Performance evaluation negotiations.