Nov 10, 2019

In Indian IT companies, creative people like programmers are treated like subservient labor class by managers and supervisors

This is a very old and systemic problem, call it a work culture issue or a mindset problem. Ironically, creativity isn't appreciated at all in an industry which deals with as progressive a thing as information technology.


Be it TechM or Infosys, be it TCS or Capgemini, ask any friend or relative who works there in a technical position and they'll open their hearts to you about how painful this issue is.

Firstly, people simply look down upon programmers and testers, and I mean people in general. Programming is a role suited to only the filthy and unwashed labor that exists in the communist manifesto of Karl Marx, whereas managers and supervisors are the bourgeois who have a right to enjoy all good things in life - believe it or not but this is the average mindset prevailing in the average dude who works there!

This mindset could be seen in action everywhere, the ambitious guy who wants to enjoy the appraisals and promotions will never touch the code. Even if its about writing a single SQL select query or changing a constant string value which hardly takes 5 minutes of work, he will "assign" that work to a "coder" (or "asset" in HR lingo). Its as if writing code or testing an app will somehow make him filthy or closer to the proletariat or labor class.

Of course, abstaining from writing code isn't the only way through which the bourgeois exploit the proletariat in the Indian IT companies, there are other things too such as having a ritual that requires techies to serve coffee to their seniors (Capgemini) or mandating the labor class to address the seniors as "Sir" (Infosys) or even requiring that every team member stare grudgingly with a disgusted look upon the techie who makes the blunder of leaving early or take a break for gym or library (Tech Mahindra).

These are little things but sting like thorns upon the creativity of programmers who work there. A creative dude who works in this toxic atmosphere might still do it because she has to take care of her family or she is unable to find a similar paying position elsewhere. But exploiting the techies in this manner is both unethical and unwholesome, and will have consequences somewhere down the line.

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