Pros
:Pros: I wish I could list pros here. The only good thing was that I was hired as a website content writer, even though I only had experience as a freelance content writer. My other corporate experience was in other BPO domains like quality, technical helpdesk, incident management, project management etc. The second good thing was the RMG (Resource Management Team)- the team which handles employees who are on bench. It was my bad luck that in my 2.5 years tenure, I had to work in four projects, however within a few days of being deployed on bench, I was allocated a project. I didn't have to travel from Electronic city (my home) to Bhuwalka Icon (Whitefield where RMG team sits for more than a few days. Life was great with TCS when it was work-from-home. It was employee friendly, considered my constraints that I couldn't work in a morning shift project and released me on bench and I got into a night shift project within a few days, however, life became hell from Apr 1, 2024, when they ended WFH and asked us to come to office.
Cons
Cons: 1. The first setback I experienced was when I received my offer letter in May 2022. I had developed a parallel content writing career along with my full-time BPO job since April 2014. It helped me earn some extra money, develop a new skill and give cushioning during the job cut scenarios (which happens very frequently in our industry). TCS's offer letter stated that I can't have any other source of income other than my TCS Salary. Even if I want to do some honorary work, I would have to take permission from the HR. The irony was, they hired me on the basis of my freelance career, and forced me to quit it. Since, I was unemployed back then (other than my freelance projects, I didn't have a full-time job) and I was 47 years old (not a great employable age in our industry), I had to accept the offer. I tried to take permission from the HR to continue with my freelance career, but none of the HRs even responded to my e-mails. 2. The salary was very pathetic and the hikes were even worse. In spite of getting and exceeds expectations rating, I just got a 3.5 % hike and they already had taken away my extra source of income through content writing and translation projects. 3. There is no career path in this company. I have been working in the BPO industry since March 2001 and I have worked with quite big companies like GE, Accenture and Infosys, but in none of the companies, I saw such a pathetic state of things. There was no IJP (Internal Job Postings). I have worked in small companies like First Advantage, Mphasis and Convergys-Concentrix, and all of them give us an opportunity to apply for IJPs and move to our chosen career paths. But in TCS, it is that RMG (bench) which puts us wherever there is a requirement. In my last role, which was that of a technical helpdesk, people from IT development and other domains of IT were pushed in to take calls. They were frustrated beyond imagination, but the company didn't care. They treat employees like cattle herd. 4. When I started going to office from Apr 1, 2024, I got to know, that my colleagues were earning 12-15 LPA, and I was just earning 6 .35 LPA for the same job. I had more than 20 years of experience and the management used to showcase me as a trophy employee as I had worked with such big brands, but when it came to salary, I was earning the least amongst the 20 employees sitting there. I had joined at 6 LPA as a website content writer and after 2 years it became 6.3 LPA. 5. The worst was the Think Campus facilities. The toilets were so dirty that I used to fear that I will get some infection any day. There were mosquitoes all over and I was scared to catch dengue. People saw TCS and Infosys are similar, I will tell all of them to go and see the Infosys campus. It is heaven and TCS Think Campus Electronic City Phase 2 is hell. There were dogs roaming around everywhere and used to come to the cafeteria ground floor and second floor too. So every day, we used to have dinner with dogs roaming all over the place. The gym was so pathetic that I never felt like entering it. Not that I had any time in a call taking role. But the equipment looked like that they were procured 20 years back and were covered in dust and grime. 6. My health started deteriorating so much, that I had no other option but to quit. I requested for a sabbatical for one year which they declined. So without having any other offer in hand, I had to quit. They didn't have any proper work space for us, They had herded all twenty of us in a training room and we used to sit next to each other and take calls. The AC never worked properly and due to suffocation in a small space, my health degraded to an extent that quitting was the only option. I begged them to release me early, but they tortured me for 90 days (plus the days I had to take sick leave during the notice period). 7. Amongst the nine companies I have worked with, TCS was my worst experience. I don't want to compare it to smaller companies like First Advantage, Mphasis and Convergys (which is Concentrix now) but the work culture, hygiene and everything else was far better in those places. They paid very less as that's what those companies pay, but they never forced me to stop my content writing work. So, join TCS, only if you don't have any other offer.