Indian IT Industry

SRoy · Post by **SRoy** » 18 Nov 2008 21:12

sum wrote:
I thank Allah and Zarathusthra for taking me to good colleges and giving me campus
job so I directly joined a good co(HSS) without this 'initial struggle'. the deep pile blue
carpets, the cubes, pyts, dilli billis, the famous (free) luncheon, late night cabs, priya
cinema on saturdays after free lunch and browsing in office...boy those were the days.
HSS=?

HSS=Hughes Software Systems

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 18 Nov 2008 21:36

Rumour had it that everyone working at HSS had to bathe 7-8 times a day and use disinfectant on their hands every hour.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 18 Nov 2008 21:48

why ?

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 18 Nov 2008 22:54

Job lost, time to pretend & hide in park.

Rahul Karmawat is hunting for a job. A middle-level manager with a global chipmaker, he has collected his severance package: three months’ salary.The 35-year-old, who was earning around Rs 30 lakh a year, has not told his wife that he has lost his job.

“My wife does not know I have lost my job. I visit and follow up with at least two recruiters a day and often spend up to two hours in a park at the other end of the town before driving back. This is my routine five days a week,” he said.
For Karmawat, the reality of losing his tech job has begun to sink in. “Now, I cannot afford my earlier lifestyle despite having a house, car, shares and a big insurance policy,” he said.

Bangalore’s vaunted IT corridors have been feeling the ripples for the past month and a half as company after company has been announcing job cuts. Recruiters believe the real picture will unfold before the end of this quarter.“The number of placement enquiries has doubled in the past few weeks. They come not just from those who are panicking but from those who have already accepted severance packages,” said Thomas Mathew, managing director of placement firm Amboseli HR.

His company specialises in placements for chip companies and research jobs. “Most global IT names had research facilities here. This is the area that has seen the most layoffs, often with manager-level jobs held by people between 33 and 40 years. More than 2,000 senior and mid-level people are without jobs. The challenge is to find placements for them in this atmosphere of uncertainty,” Mathew said.

Karmawat says he is ready to look at temporary contracts, an option that Mathew claims is being explored even by those with jobs, since it means extra cash.

“Earning extra money is like saving for a rainy day. You never know when the pink slip will arrive,” said a young engineer warming the bench at a big IT firm since his team completed a project.“The project was extended by some deft manoeuvring by our bosses, else we would have been on the bench a few months earlier.”

Many IT companies have been stretching their projects by a few months and have instructed their business units to extend the delivery deadline.

The layoff numbers being mentioned around Bangalore are scary -- Freescale: 150, Sun Microsystems: 600, NMS Communications: 40, Conexant: 400.

“Often the numbers don’t tell the real story. It could be the number of people working in an Indian unit or it could be a global number. Either way, it has scared those employed in the industry,” said a recruiter who did not want to be named.
The trend of merger and acquisitions, too, has taken its toll since companies that acquire smaller businesses often become top heavy.“This trend alone is responsible for at least a thousand senior jobs being cut. Most of them are still out there for several months now without jobs,” the recruiter added.

Some techies view the crisis as a purely American problem and feel this is the right time to move to safer jobs in Indian-owned and managed companies.

Priya Jain, 31, moved last month from US company Dell to an Indian firm located in the same building on Koramangala’s Intermediate Ring Road.She said: “It was as easy as moving to another floor in the same complex. But what you get is a whole new way of working and a safety net, since Indian companies don’t just hire and fire.”

Dileep · Post by **Dileep** » 19 Nov 2008 06:19

I don't know why people don't tell the wife about the job loss? What are spouses for eh?

The moment I got the wind of the problems, I told the lady to expect a "paycheck to paycheck" existance. Life is not fair, and you took a wow to be together in good and bad times. Of course you can't maintain the same lifestyle if you have lost the job. DEAL WIT IT!!

If my current job closes, the best I could get with another one would be 1/3rd of the current amount. Since I haven't made an agreement to anyone to live in a certain way, I would be fine with that.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 19 Nov 2008 07:02

Intel also had / planning some rif of certain units and so is ma-gorilla. nobody is safe these days. its hard for senior people to find a good job even in the best of times.

Rajesh_MR · Post by **Rajesh_MR** » 19 Nov 2008 09:18

^^^Cadence did layoffs in India as well, apparently some senior folks got the axe. Intel's presence in India is not big compared CSCO and other giants not sure if its good or bad.

Dileep · Post by **Dileep** » 19 Nov 2008 09:35

It is a tough time for people with creaky joints like me. You get steeped in one thing, and become a one trick pony. Difficult to adapt to something else. Also, I had been a feral and renegade for a long time, can't get back to a pack anymore.

. Know many others in the same state too.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 19 Nov 2008 09:52

How big a presence does Nokia have in India? Being an oiropean company do they also embrace hire-and-fire policy as rabidly as the american companies?

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 19 Nov 2008 10:15

Nokia has closed one shift ( the night shift) and is contemplating giving pink slip to few of them at the chennai factory

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 19 Nov 2008 11:19

thats for their Sriperumbudur factory.

iirc they have a R&D facility somewhere in or near whitefield. ALA-LU has in domlur and
Siemens as somewhere else. Infineon has in ITPL whitefield. ericsson has some outfit
in chennai?

but make no mistake, EU laws do not apply here and there's no protection against IT layoffs - same as in US. I am not even sure any severance is mandated and all offer letters mandate they can pay you 1 month salary in lieu of advance notice and ask you depart immediately.

bart · Post by **bart** » 19 Nov 2008 11:23

That is true, manufacturing employees in India have some protection but IT employees don't.

At least earlier IT employees during layoffs were treated sympathetically by local management, even if they were subsidiaries of US companies. People were paid 3 months severance and continued to be on the rolls till that time elapsed to help them find another job. But of late the same crude US style firings have started, where people come to office to find their accounts and access disabled and are asked to pack up and leave within a couple of hours.

Also, I was discussing with a guy from the manufacturing sector in Chennai, and apparently the word layoff has a very different meaning to what it means in IT or in the US. Basically when they do layoffs, they ask people to work half the week at reduced pay or sit at home for some time with reduced pay till the business picks up.

SRoy · Post by **SRoy** » 19 Nov 2008 11:44

Raja Bose wrote:How big a presence does Nokia have in India? Being an oiropean company do they also embrace hire-and-fire policy as rabidly as the american companies?

Singha wrote:thats for their Sriperumbudur factory.

iirc they have a R&D facility somewhere in or near whitefield. ALA-LU has in domlur and
Siemens as somewhere else. Infineon has in ITPL whitefield. ericsson has some outfit
in chennai?

but make no mistake, EU laws do not apply here and there's no protection against IT layoffs - same as in US. I am not even sure any severance is mandated and all offer letters mandate they can pay you 1 month salary in lieu of advance notice and ask you depart immediately

European ones do not resort to lay-offs as a first option policy wise.

Also a lot depends on the business model. In addition, pure engineering MNCs generate bulk of their S/W business internally.

The examples quoted above is interesting, since Nokia and Siemens have hived of their networking divisions to form Nokia Siemens Networks, it has proved to be a very risk averse (and sustained cash flow) business model.
NSN is obliged to provide all S/W projects to existing business units within Siemens (worldwide, any location). The clientle include combined portfolia held individually by Nokia and Siemens (network divisions) earlier.

NSN India is poised for a major expansion, so folks in distress might check out.

I will not disclose as which one the above 3 entities I'm with at the moment, but all 3 have undertaken a lay-offs in Admin/Finance-Accounts, and will do good hiring in technical profiles in next quarter.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 19 Nov 2008 12:13

Singha wrote:I am not even sure any severance is mandated and all offer letters mandate they can pay you 1 month salary in lieu of advance notice and ask you depart immediately.

I had mentioned this aspect earlier. The labour laws in India is applicable for IT companies too. And there are procedures of terminating people (even people under contract). I really don't know what clauses written in appointment letters etc. are actually valid under Indian laws. So far nobody has tried the option of moving to the court when they feel they have been unfairly terminated (though every one who gets laid off says he was treated unfairly).
Senior members like Dileep added that many people take what ever the company gives and try for a job else where. Since no one wants to sue the company and make him a persona non-grata in other companies as well.

In Kerala during the recent lay-offs at Techno Park the Labour Commissioner had made some ruckus. The CM was also to visit the IT head honchos there. No updates after that.

sum · Post by **sum** » 19 Nov 2008 12:41

Intel also had / planning some rif of certain units and so is ma-gorilla.

So, the rumours about the Gorilla were true, Singha-sir?
I couldn't hear anything more after my prev post regarding the "rumours" .

SRoy · Post by **SRoy** » 19 Nov 2008 12:47

Sachin wrote:
Singha wrote:I am not even sure any severance is mandated and all offer letters mandate they can pay you 1 month salary in lieu of advance notice and ask you depart immediately.
I had mentioned this aspect earlier. The labour laws in India is applicable for IT companies too. And there are procedures of terminating people (even people under contract). I really don't know what clauses written in appointment letters etc. are actually valid under Indian laws. So far nobody has tried the option of moving to the court when they feel they have been unfairly terminated (though every one who gets laid off says he was treated unfairly).
Senior members like Dileep added that many people take what ever the company gives and try for a job else where. Since no one wants to sue the company and make him a persona non-grata in other companies as well.

In Kerala during the recent lay-offs at Techno Park the Labour Commissioner had made some ruckus. The CM was also to visit the IT head honchos there. No updates after that.

I'm aware of a case where a guy was denied relieving letter after the notice period on some pretext or other. Sent a legal notice. The concerned HR sent his documents the very next day at his residence.

If the "educated" IT Vity kids are not aware of legal means then its their fault.

Dileep · Post by **Dileep** » 19 Nov 2008 12:52

The Technopark issue fizzled out, when the details came out. It was a very small number compared to the total staff strength, and all are well paid people. So, no one really felt pity on them.

Layoff here means what furlough is in USA. You don't go to work till that lasts, and you get a "sustenance pay" during that time. That is because you can't fire anyone in this country.

The public sympathize with the plant worker class, because loosing the job will starve their kids. No one will give a hoot about the ITVty guy driving a santro and eating at pizza hut. "Good riddance" will be the comment. Those guys won't even vote, and even if they do, won't vote commie, so why should the party bother either?

Remember, there is big resentment against the affluent ITVty guys among the general folk.

According to the law, in order to terminate someone:

1. Bad conduct: Need formal enquiry, chargesheeting etc.
2. Poor performance: Same here. Need record trail for consistent poor performance.
3. Business is bad: Seniority comes into play. The junior most guy goes first. Also need records of loss making and unsustainable operation.

Dileep · Post by **Dileep** » 19 Nov 2008 13:00

SRoy, getting the paperwork that is your right is something. Fighting termination is another. The former shows bad on the company, and the latter on the person.

Companies do a lot of illegal things, which the bluff could be easily called. People should know their rights, including the right to fight the termination. They should also know the repercussions of the fight as well.

I mean, be logical (not the lahori kind). Terminating someone with a severance package is sure logical, especially in a field where the guy would have quit and gone to another company with the same conditions if it suited her. Holding up paperwork OTOH is cheap vendetta. It is like holding up the design document. Some people do that too.

Nayak · Post by **Nayak** » 19 Nov 2008 13:03

Dileep-saar, you are correct on the lack of sympathy for the gooks in s/w line.

There is a lot of glee and hand-rubbing when the aam-janata see the hot-shot-fake-accent abdul/ayesha loosing his/her rozi-roti. Also the 'chip-on-my-shoulder' aggro attitude of the folks when things are good doesn't help either.

Admit it, for a guy in a sarkaar/pvt non-it job getting 15 k a month and trying to survive sees this 25 + jerk/jerkette blowing a wad of cash and throwing his/her attitude around will cause a lot of resentment.

Just watch the crowd in coffee-day/malls. Dumba$$es walk around with company logo shirt/bag and ID card strategically hanging near the crotch (abdul) or on flat-chests (ayeshas) even on weekends.

When they take a nose-dive in the dirt on career-front, the feeling is more like 'they deserve it'.

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 19 Nov 2008 13:27

Flat chested? Yeah almost everyone seems to saying the same thing "they deserved it" or "they were being paid way too much" and things like that.

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 19 Nov 2008 14:08

Singha wrote:why ?

Lame attempt at a joke

http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug05/hughes.html

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 19 Nov 2008 14:50

Dileep wrote:
The public sympathize with the plant worker class, because loosing the job will starve their kids. No one will give a hoot about the ITVty guy driving a santro and eating at pizza hut. "Good riddance" will be the comment.

True. Infact when the last recession happened we had an MBA chap in our place of stay who was finding it tough to get a job. Over a couple of pegs he invariably used to mention with glee with that fact that IT fellows are losing their jobs. More than any thing else, his crib was that they were paid better and flaunted it for every one to see.

My feeling is that it is only the first recession during early 2000s which atleast made IT folks hit some sense of reality.

Those guys won't even vote,

Guess that is the biggest mistake to do. I feel that Bangalore became such a mess primarily due to large number of people NOT interested in the politics of the city, and trying to get their issues sorted out. If people are not interested to vote, then don't expect leaders who will listen to them either. So we have a large number of people, who may be paid well but with zero say in any thing. Other smarter organised groups can rip off them.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 19 Nov 2008 15:35

Tanaji, in 1997 HNS the parent of HSS was a subsidiary of GM. not too sure if HRH H Hughes had any link to it ever.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 19 Nov 2008 20:00

Nayak wrote:Dumba$$es walk around with company logo shirt/bag and ID card strategically hanging near the crotch (abdul) or on flat-chests (ayeshas) even on weekends.

When I saw that I thought they were simbly working weekends at behest of desi boss who was sucking up to videshi boss onlee

..didnt know it was being used a status symbol of coolie-giri.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 19 Nov 2008 21:14

lots of people do have to work in weekends and plenty of call center workers get some other days off in lieu of weekends. some people seem to get very comfortable with the
badge thing...almost like jewelry.

but its also true that some boys & girls like to flaunt their badges of MNC cos as a
status symbol..kinda like a amex black card or country club membership etc.

the older generation cannot play smart now and act innocent - when times were good it
was they who were demanding H1 marriage partners, checking his/her GC status, boasting
loudly about the cars and homes of their sons/daughters in US, running down India to
justify why their son settled abroad, hiding the matter if their wards neglected them,
hiding marital troubles of their kids from the public here and so on.

name one family who has been in bangalore or chennai for 20+ yrs, is in middle class
and doesnt have a NRI component.

pride and greed know no age , race or creed.

paramu · Post by **paramu** » 20 Nov 2008 07:04

Nayak wrote:Dileep-saar, you are correct on the lack of sympathy for the gooks in s/w line.
....
When they take a nose-dive in the dirt on career-front, the feeling is more like 'they deserve it'.

Abdul... don't you feel the same about MBA-wallas?

Nayak · Post by **Nayak** » 20 Nov 2008 07:14

Singha wrote: the older generation cannot play smart now and act innocent - when times were good it
was they who were demanding H1 marriage partners, checking his/her GC status, boasting
loudly about the cars and homes of their sons/daughters in US, running down India to
justify why their son settled abroad, hiding the matter if their wards neglected them,
hiding marital troubles of their kids from the public here and so on.

I was still in my first job when I attended a wedding of my friend's elder brother. Most of the folks over there were of typical Jayanagar-biradari, old folks all doctors and lawyers, sons and daughter working in Infy/Wipro/TCS as code coolies in Cali/Nj/NY.

The talk would always gravitate over

* how much was the kid earning
* what was the platform
* His/her lifestyle there
* GC/Citizenship status

If one worked in a desi apparatus here, he would be sneered at and reminded of not being good enough to get H1B in the most condescending manner.

It used to depress this desi abdul content enough to feed his goat dry grass and still water !!!

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 Nov 2008 08:43

TOI has a article now that IT people are the pakis of the marriage market, unwanted
anywhere!

one girl was quoted saying they prefer a doc or lawyer earning 2L/month opposed to
a IT guy 50k-1L/month. and those lines are more stable.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 20 Nov 2008 08:52

Infosys thing is not voluntary. The targeted person is given two options. One get fired or do NGO work. The pitiable part of Indian layoffs are not announced layoffs and everything is under the table.

John Snow · Post by **John Snow** » 20 Nov 2008 09:13

Ha

While doing my MS in (MSU after finishing M Tech IE) using my fresh knowledge of Work Study and Method study, I had studied Moms and SHQ cooking methods, and my protfolio being diverse in domain knowledge, I have a fall back option which I think most ITvity wallahs don't have CIA skills..

I am opening a Mirchi Bandi ( CB CC aka Chat Bandi or Chat Cart which I intend operating near AG office or Rail nilayam) I am also buying a used Brinks armoured van and modify it to have LPG cook top a microwave operated (powered by Honda generator) this is for operation near Temple University campus from Sep thru Jan Fall semester, and rest of the time in India Feb thru July. Thi is future of MNCs

Nayak · Post by **Nayak** » 20 Nov 2008 09:17

paramu wrote: Abdul... don't you feel the same about MBA-wallas?

I am equal - opportunity - redneck.

I do not discriminate anybody when I hate. Everybody feels the afterglow in an equitable and justifiable manner.

Nayak · Post by **Nayak** » 20 Nov 2008 09:40

Meltdown impact: 'It was over in five minutes'

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/me ... s/388197/3

Saritha Rai
Posted: 2008-11-20 09:19:19+05:30 IST
Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 0919 hrs IST

Sandeep Jadhav, a 27-year-old professional in India’s outsourcing industry, had only seen the good times. He worked hard as a support technician in the local subsidiary of an American software company and took home an annual salary of about Rs 5 lakh.

He frequently bought expensive sarees for his wife, toys for his eight-month-old son and cricket gear for himself, maxing out on his two credit cards. In December, he planned to take a home loan and buy an apartment in the Kanakapura suburbs of Bangalore. Last week on Tuesday, Jadhav was called in by the vice-president of his company, handed a month’s salary and sacked on the spot.

“I signed the letter, took my cheque and walked out without speaking a single word. It was all over in five minutes,” said Jadhav, reliving the moment. The vice-president told him that he was being terminated due to “bad market conditions”.

A nightmare called the “pink slip”, familiar to most Indian workers as something that happens only in the West, has arrived in Bangalore. In this city, one of the world’s hottest outsourcing centres, companies have begun laying off employees and putting a freeze on recruitment. Even campus hiring, a process by which most fresh recruits break into the industry, is at a low. Bangalore is hurting.

Jadhav said he never expected the job situation in the software industry to come to this. In the past years in Bangalore, professionals like Jadhav — personable, articulate and with good spoken English — have been besieged by jobs. While the outsourcing industry has grown at averages of 30 to 35 per cent in recent years, the boom has cascaded into thousands of new jobs for college graduates with sound technical and communication skills.

To be sure, workers took advantage of the explosion by hopping companies, demanding and getting handsome pay jumps. Jadhav has worked in the past for the business process outsourcing firm FirstRing and Dell Financial Services.

But the recent, serial bust-ups in Wall Street and a recessionary US economy has badly hit Indian outsourcing firms. With American companies — their biggest customers — facing an economic dip, outsourcing companies are cutting back and, in turn, choking the job market.

“The scene is really bad and I now realise what my brothers in the United States must be going through,” says Jadhav....

Outsourcing to low-cost countries like India has been a controversial cost-saving measure adopted by Western companies, and has been the source of much heart-burn amongst workers because of the lay-offs. During the recent US election campaign, president-elect Barack Obama declared himself against the practice.

None of this makes any sense to Jadhav’s father, an official with a government-owned bank, who reacted, “I cannot believe this can happen”. Jadhav says his father has worked for the bank for 29 years. He expects to continue working there for the next four before retiring.

Despite being pink-slipped, Jadhav himself holds no grudges against his employer of one-and-half years, Dulles, Virigina-based Everest Software, which makes products for small and medium businesses. “If Yahoo, IBM and Microsoft , all big companies with huge cash reserves can lay off, why not smaller companies which lead a month-to-month existence?” asks Jadhav pragmatically.

In the last few weeks, most of his colleagues in the company have been fired, too. “I was one of the last to be shown the door because I was one of the better performers,” he says.

The slowdown in India’s outsourcing industry, the mainstay of Bangalore’s economy, is showing up in unexpected ways. The city’s restaurants and drinking lounges are reporting a 30 to 50 per cent dip in revenues. A publicly-listed real estate firm has slashed prices of apartments. Others have introduced low-end options. Rush-hour commuters are even talking of de-clogging in the roads during peak times as outsourcing workers prefer taking the company bus or riding a two-wheeler to driving their cars.

In the last week, Jadhav has been frantically surfing the internet and scouring the newspapers in search of a job. He has dispatched his resume to a dozen companies unsolicited. He has fired it off to several placement consultants. He has attended three interviews so far but he has had no luck.

Jadhav may not yet have a job offer but he has a plan. “At the next interview, I am going to say to the company, give me a job, don’t give me a salary. Pay me only after I prove myself. I’m ready to go to that level.”

Jadhav’s wife Debadrita quit her job as a content editor at Yahoo when she became pregnant last year. The couple now has an eight-month old son. Jadhav has...

crossed the overdraft limit on his two credit cards and has run himself into a Rs-70,000 credit card debt. As he describes, “I am quite a spendthrift”. If he does not land a job in the next one month, Jadhav cannot pay his credit card dues and the card company will “come knocking to my door.”

Jadhav’s credit card debt has not found favour with his father whom he describes as his opposite because he abhors loans. “If my father has ten rupees in his pocket, he might consider spending one rupee. But I will spend two rupees if I have one rupee in my pocket,” he describes. Jadhav concedes he will have to change his squandering habits for the sake of his wife and son. His wife might soon start job scouting too.

It has only been a week since he has lost his job and Jadhav says he can manage for the next couple of weeks on his last pay cheque. If he does not find himself work within a month, Jadhav says he will go to his dad and say “zindabad” to his bank. He says how he expects his father to respond: “He will call me shameless!”...

This is the sort of attitude on living on a month-to-month pay cheque will lead to.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 Nov 2008 10:22

Jadhav’s wife Debadrita quit her job as a content editor at Yahoo when she became pregnant last year. The couple now has an eight-month old son. Jadhav has..

thats another trap. people should size their home EMIs assuming only their own income,
desired savings level and expected living expenses...esp if the wife doesnt have parents
in a position, health and age where they can come over and look after the kid(s).

also do not assume a continuous smooth curve of 10-15% pay raises every year and
constant modest inflation...then go out and shop yourself a 1 cr loan all for the 'prestige'
of getting into a villa/sobha 4bhk.

the only circumstance in which I would live large is if I had 5-10 cr of family or esop wealth in the bank as a cushion.

negi · Post by **negi** » 20 Nov 2008 11:05

TCS does it yet again...

TCS to bag India’s largest e-gov deal

India's largest IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has emerged the lowest bidder for the country’s largest e-governance contr
act, to computerise Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and provide smart cards to around 1.5 crore industrial workers across the country.

According to a government official, TCS bid Rs 1,677 crore ($320 million) for the contract, beating its closest IT rivals Infosys and Wipro who bid about Rs 2,100 crore ($420 million) and Rs 1,890 crore ($380 million ), respectively. The financial bids were opened on Tuesday.

Desi IT companies are pretty competitive,however I always wonder how does a TCS manage to go that extra mile and quote so low .

Imo this being a guvermund deal , the project delivery schedule is surely gonna escalate and eventually the cost.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 Nov 2008 13:39

Sum, this is what your radar may have picked up. the timeframe sounds right.
must be some kinda product they are EOLing.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 943c3.html

Cisco Systems to lay off 129 at Richardson facility

07:42 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 14, 2008

By ANDREW D. SMITH / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

Cisco Systems Inc. will lay off 129 of roughly 1,200 Dallas-area employees over the next two months.

The company, which is based in San Jose, Calif., and makes telecom networking equipment, announced the job cuts in a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission.

Cisco told the state that it's shutting down the Broadband Telephony Services operating unit in its facility at 2200 E. President George Bush Turnpike in Richardson.

Most of the affected employees, who will be laid off between now and Dec. 8, are programmers or software developers.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 Nov 2008 13:40

and just the beginning ofcourse.

Neela · Post by **Neela** » 20 Nov 2008 13:49

25 - 40% savings guys! Every month! Every month!

If you are paying mortgage , stack the account up for a full years EMI before thinging about a trip to Kodaikanal.

Beer at Bar: Rs150
Beer at home with friends : Rs.35

Get ready to dig in and prepare for the harsh winter!

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 Nov 2008 14:23

chicken entree in restaurant 200-350
same thing from home delivery shop - 100-150
pizza hut medium pizza - 200-300
home made pizza - max 50 considering the ingredients.

single people need to get hold of a wife or live in obedient gf asap(or is that a oxymoron)

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 20 Nov 2008 14:30

what about transportation, movies,clothes,computers,mobiles..........

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 20 Nov 2008 14:37

transportation
> reduce long drives, club together multiple tasks, walk upto 2-3km for small jobs
> use subsidized office bus if available

movies
> imo avoid or get cheap pirated dvds or torrent kit

clothes
> why do men need new clothes? women and kids can reduce. strictly forbid
> wives/gf from impulse purchases and gifts.

computers
> no need to upgrade unless paid for by employer

mobiles
> no need to upgrade

eating out
> avoid the overpriced crap restaurants and "roma italia we import our cheese from
> florence" types. get wife/gf to earn their pay and make italian/thai at home.
> buy them a cookbook or better download recipes and print them on office printer
> and use a office file to collate

stationary, pens & papers
> raid the office cupboard

cars
> "oh we must upg what will neighbours think" - commit fiscal suicide if you
> want and lay out 12L for a new civic. for now just repair the old buggy and lie low

vacations to backwaters/egypt/machhu picchu
> bannerghatta zoo and lunch in krishna mess opp IIMB

mainland china/saigon/samarkhand
> pai comforts, xyz sagar, kamats