Cognizant review: manager's harassment! 75

I am also a victim of Cognizant Technology managers and recruitment team. They gave me false assurances about the COLA, saying salary would always include that much COLA and later on when i moved to a state, they stopped paying it to me. Their recruitment crew member Abhishek Pandya is big bluffer, he gives all false assurances at the time of joining the company, but later on you realize when you join the company. All the managers are unfortunately very rigid and when you talk to them, they say ' leave the company we dont care' they dont have much projects and force you to work 16 hrs a day and 7 days a week. This is the worst company i have ever worked with.

I agree. The COLA problem happened with me as well.

I agree, they have a shady recruitment process. Fortunately, I was able to spot their trick with salary figures before I joined and backed out. They, then blamed me of reneging !

I dont agree with this totally. It is also the responsibility of us as candidates to get to know the policies before we join. COLA policy exists is a lot of companies and these policies are similar for all companies.

Agree with what verma said. If we are making a job move, we should know the policies of our future employer and more over COLA is paid differently in different cities. Once cant hope to get the same COLA for Manhattan NY and Glendale AZ :-)

Cognizant Salary is the worst even when compared to desi companies like infy and wipro. The cola is a joke. No salary hikes for last 5 years. performance pay is meagre 5% at best and if you consider inflation thats actually a decrease in salary. Every year hr ppl come up with false justification saying salary is benchmarked against other companies never say what those companies are. Plain hogwash. growth oppurtunities are few and far between.

Performance pay is 4.5% of base pay for those who get EA. What about the rest of us who get only EM or MA? It is even low. The base pay is low, so the performance pay is negligible. Now they are kicking out everyone from USA because they are unable to place us. What kind of nonsense is this. They make big promises and hire us at USA. Then we find out that our designation doesn't make sense and our salary is another sad story. But we still do hard work, please the managers and complete our project. Then they tell us to leave the organization because they cannot place us. What about our families and our H1 visa? It is pathetic. We should start an employees union.

I m recruited for IT field.Now they are telling they dont have any project in Information Technology(Testing).so we have to work in Cognizant BPO.I suggest Bsc Candidates dont join cognizant.They will play football in your career.

Worst place to work is cognizant technology solutions.

worst politics. beware of tamil bhramins and malayalees. very silly people. dont know to behave professionaly. all sambar iyer vals .cunning bhramins. no growth.

60% people are Fake all from Andhra pradesh. most of my friends put fake and working for more than 3 yrs even now. what honesty? and integrity?

bhramins dominations.(Cognizant).

Beware of bhramins(curd rice) and cunning mallus

Non bramins:- if you are fair, then plz try to learn iyers slang, the way of talking.put one white rope. def they wil promote u. will get good appraisals and chances for onsight.

Cognizant sucks…. people continue there for 15 rupees cheap meals and… i pod.. DVD gifts..etccc…. Good place for putting kadalai( chatting with girls in the campus in cafeteria.( recently they switched off the A/C in cafeteria’s to avoid these kadalai’s.

sombu adichuu kakka pottu soapu podara pasangla

very cheap employees and a cheap company. girls put over scene acts like they are very intelligent as though they were from IIT’s but from remote rural colleges. if u ask a Cognizant employees which is your previous orgaization 75%

people will tell we are from Kekkran mekkaran( junk companies like pan shops) company. none of them from reputed organisationsalmost 80% Fakes.

Hi,

If you are not comfortable with cognizant, Please go ahead and resign.

Guys let we think what we have done to the company instead of asking what company did to us.
Every company has its own bureaucracy. If you guys feel its difficult to work and the pay is low. Please do resign instead of writting ugly comments.
May be the guys recrited for IT, beign placed in BPO, its really not advisable.
However regarding salary and beacuse of one or two managers u can't say whole cognizant life is bad.
All the very best.

Cognizant has got big set of lousy damn stupid managers who take proud to harass girls under them and HR are use less damn busy in their own illegal stuffs & corruption.

CEO & precidents are great liars of ages.

i dis agree the statement against bhramins this is very stupid. i think that guy who gave the comment against bhramin is mental, he must be admit in mental hospital. i don't think he is a normal man.

Cognizant is a very worst company. It is totally parthetic company. No work culture, no nothing. They have very bad attitude towards freshers. This company sucks. Its worse than a third rate company and they act as though they are the best. For all freshers dont ever fall into these stupid poeples trap. The HRs are big ###. This company sucks to the very last thread.

I once again repeat. Dont join this idiotic company. This company SUCKS SUCKS and again SUCKS.

Guys.. Most of you need to improve your basic english writing skills. You will be thrown out of any company if you write such english. I thought of reading some serious feedback but ended up laughing after reading your poorly written sentences. Hope you guys take up some english learning course.

Hi,

If you get chance to work in CTS DW (Insurance), please be careful with Guru Prasad Ragvendran, He is PM as well as dirty politician.He will ruin you career by playing dirty politics.
Because of him CTS lost big client . Guys please be careful.

I do agree that Cognizant is definitely not the best place to work for, especially where the freshers are concerned. Freshers get no preferences, none at all. Despite the skills a fresher carries, he is asked to work on any domain or technology. Infact some of the projects are so stupid and silly that a twelth standard student could easily do the work. But they need engineers so that they can charge the clients.

The managers are crazy and they screw their team members. Damn these managers. But moreover, they don't even release you from project even when you ask. They generally state that you can resign if you want to.

Cognizant has a lot of extra curricular activities like cultural programs, etc. which is some relief. But then, they are never the crux so one actually ends up ruining his/her career in Cognizant.

Stupid stupid company. But I wonder if all service providers are like this. They show big dreams to the campus recruits and in reality it is all bull ###.

@above
Stupid stupid company. But I wonder if all service providers are like this. They show big dreams to the campus recruits and in reality it is all bull ###.

Cent percent true... They totally brainwash candidates during recruitment.. They paint a very rosy image about the company... Only when the candidate steps in will he realise that he is in for a nasty surprise...

And the language based politics is so blatant and shameless... Oh my! Really glad that I ran away form this company...

yes! they treat the freshers very badly with no value to us...shuffle projects as they like..without jnowing our basic skills..
and im from production engg background and was given a ADVANCED JAVA project while an IT goldmedalist was given a support shift project...think the brains of the HR ppl who allocated us to projects...thank god..i had quit the company

You guys are rite..even i joined it recently...we r working like donkeys...12 hrs a day ...nd 7 days a week...since 2 months...nd no extra pay...nd nothing...managers suck...mallus and tamil here...nobody knows english...girls look like sweeperss and sex workers...

###ers, get a life. Get a job. Because of incapable people like you guys, outsourcing companies in India are getting bad reputation. Be sincere at work, and you will get reward automatically. Law of Karma is very very strong.

CTS MANAGERS = RACIST ###
Yup 4 yrs with them now.

CTS = RACIST ###

IF you guys cant ever tolerate with mallus/brahmins/politics/pm/@#$%(as u say) then why dont you just put your papers and leave rather than complaining about the company here and saying that you are tolerating with the company for 4/6/* years...

And your language proves your attitude...

Be good to where you are and if you cant the gates are open and you can become an entrepreneur

What do you mean by resign and leave?
do you know the meaning of business?
companies are meant to keep people happy and not screw them...looks like Cognizant is nothing but a dictatorial place...

What do you mean by language proves your attitude...a time will come when you will be judged for believing and saying things like this!

guy dont Fight here is words.! if u want to change anything in cognizant just take an initiative and change. i have seen people here they fear alot of loosing a job and they work like a salve here. which i dont like. more over the managers really sucks! they if inidan govement allows they will also ask us to lick the sheet. and i can assure your many people here in cognizant will do that.

i really cant undestand why cognizant is like this. May be our manager is being srcewd by there suppiries thats why they do the same with us.
but there is difference between work and salavery.
i m really fedup!
specially in sourthern part of cognizant. people here are slave. and they like salavry.

You are absolutely right my friend! Why should we keep quiet with all this things happening?
Why can't we get together and give a hard kick. Cognizant also tells lies like they are increasing salaries, bonus so that investors will invest in stocks. BC, MC liars!
Loosing job means losing whatever meagre earnings we are getting and then comes the fear of getting screwed in life!
You know what, there is no dignity in dying everyday.
If God is there and gives me a chance(He Should), then I will ### Cognizant till it cries in pain.
And this is the message I want to convey to everyone dying each day of his/her work in this blood sucking company, if anyone of you get a chance, ### the people who are screwing us till they screams in agony and pain.
These ### are buying other firms(75 million$ for UBS) and they don't have money to pay the really hard working employees. If there is anyone there who is true and controlling the world hear our words! feel our feelings!
HELP US TO MAKE THINGS STRAIGHT!
Cognizant has violated all Human Rights and they are also buying firms and ###ing everyone they are embracing. BEWARE!
If there is any really powerful person there listening to us, please do something, please investigate what is happening in Cognizant, you will come to know how they are playing with not only the employees but also slowly with the every employees dreams of having a happy life and a happy world. A person turns bad to survive in a bad situation and
they are making people bad and slowly spreading the disease.

A BULLET KILLS YOUR BODY, BUT FEAR KILLS YOUR SOUL!

All ex-Cognizantites who are powerful now, please don't create another of your kind, please don't let another person go through the same pain you have gone through. There is more dignity to stay and fight then to run away.

If I was powerful I would have really bought the responsible people in Cognizant to their knees, I can't but I will and if there is a Power there I will do it!

Its not any better on the American side. My firm was acquired and I was released to the Cognizant Deployment Pool - had no clue about this company. Managers literally STALKED me - calling me every single day - to try and get me on their projects. Projects I had no interest in. HR also called to harass me and I just stopped listening. American's don't deal with these corrupt management politics. They leave. Also, there is a STRONG American protectionist sentiment right now with so many people unemployed. I personally couldn't contribute to the loss of more American jobs - I am morally opposed to it as many of us are. That sentiment, along with visa reform, will kill this company. Your wish will be granted soon enough.

Cognizant is the worst company in the IT business, do not join them! I joined them in Europe and they are nothing but a bullying sweatshop

Never met such evil management with such little clue how to run or design an IT endevour

So many people leave hating Cognizant that this company cannot survive in the medium to long term

The only selling strategy is dropping the price

And of course you have ###ters at the top and they hire ###ters around them, of course its going to look like a madhouse to anyone decent who joins

Yep..never think about cognizant, even in your dreams...stay away from it and live your life happily ever after :)
Idiotic Managers especially they belong to particular caste, treat others like slaves.
Don't join CTS ...If you working in CTS ...please get rid of your s*king job and look for better companies. I left CTS six months back and joined a new company and living my life peacefully. I can even provide my cts emp-id - may be i'll do that in future. So what ever I said is true. stay away from cognizant

I do not have IT development expertise (I am a business development guy) - in this review I hear about freshers (does that mean inexperienced people straight out of college?) - what’s wrong in putting them to any project. If they are also demanding (about skill/technology/domain) why doesn’t the company pay a little more to hire experienced hands from the market? Else a fresher need to be very clear in the interview that I will work only in this skill/technology/domain.

Have any one of you complained to the company HR about the working hours / condition / Managers / harassment or else just taking out the frustration and waiting for eternity? Hope you guys have done your discussions with HR and want the outside world to know about it.

And my view about getting assigned to a project – I want a project in X technology, Y working hours, Z benefits, A customer, B Domain, C location, D Manager, E colleagues – any such project/account exists in this world? If so, I would be the happiest person to work in such a heaven.

Any way - all the best and have a wonderful 2010.

Re "I do not have IT development expertise (I am a business development guy)"

Shouldn't matter bullying is bullying, harassment is harassment, racism is racism, whether you look at it from the point of view of IT or bus dev skills. Cognizant is would leading in bullying, harassment, and racism.

Re "- in this review I hear about freshers" yep but there are lots of comments from old hands in the industry too.

Re "need to be very clear in the interview that" sadly its routine for Cognizant to lie and misrepresent at interviews for all levels and skills of staff, much more so than industry norms.

Re "Have any one of you complained to the company HR" HR have no political power in Cognizant. The management chain are given all the chips in the game. There are hundreds of people who have complained to HR about some of the more outrageously bad managers such as Tony Virdi and Steve Ross-Talbot but you will not find HR taking any action. The culture of intimidation sweeps into HR too, and they are human and just see their role as supporting what the management team are up to, no matter how unjust and counter the norms of ethics and even what's best overall for Cognizant.

Re "If so, I would be the happiest person to work in such a heaven." resourcing in a professional services company is a simple process, with complex decisions, which rely on good skill and people awareness. Cognizant is remarkably bad at matching people to roles, the basics of good resource management, and the people skills for matching people to assignments, are just not there. It mainly comes down to bullying folk into whatever meets the metrics in the latest fashion from on top, the Pinnacle rubbish from McKinsey and so on. I could have done a better job of spotting the obvious than McKinseys has done, and could have implemented it much more easily, and kept the staff on board.

Morale in Cognizant is dire, and it has a big and growing pool of folk who have left that know just how evil and corrupt it is, quite unlike the alumni of other large companies who often retain affection for their old organisation.

But simple answer to your question is oh yes HR know, in many parts of the company they have been told many times.

Cognizant is not the place to be. It sucks big time. There is a culture of intimidation throughout. Managers are corrupt and bully and are busy promoting their personal interests at the cost of company interests. Favouritism and sycophancy are rampant. Getting a promotion has become unrealistic of late. Last but not the least people are not treated like human beings but like beasts of burden. Sometimes a single person is billed under two different names from offshore focing him to work for double time with no extra pay.

is it true pls im a fresher, i ws planning to go to campus interview dere

Yes brahmins are over active in oing internal politics here and also they are basically not from india they belong to aryan race which is somewhere from other continent. so to avoid such cues they will behave like this b4 evry1. more over they are not so intelligent they will point others mistakes and make themselves safe hiding in white blankets, Everywhere non - brahmins should unite togather to kick them out we should push them out of our nation We must support other communities too for gaining support. Even they doesnt know in gods language brahmins will get hell fire after death its proven scientifically. One saadhu who attained Mukthi went to hell where brahmins are put below the worst creature co they lived higher life on earth this truth they wont accept coz it was hidden by some saints from their eyes. Even RSS has burnt those books nd testimonials regarding this some 12 yrs ago.

So dnt worry about brahmins they will berewarded in hell.

Firstly, I thank all thoes people for telling others - about their bad experience in cognizant.
Now I also want to tell you what type of experience i had in CTS. I joined CTS (cognizant) on December 2009. I was selected by CTS in campus interview when as an MCA student. The year was 2007. After passing MCA(the time of recession) CTS delayed my joining by 1 and a half year. In this mean time I sat for Mtech entrance exam and got chance for doing MTech. Everything was going fine untill CTS called me to join just the day befoore my 3rd semester exam. I requested the HR to allow me sit for the exam; but i was not allowed to sit.
My financial condition was not good thus I deceided to join CTS (the biggest mistake of my life) . I was the topper in my class so my teachers asked me not to join CTS and carry on with my study. But I needed money for my mother’s kidney operation. So i deceide to give a 1 year drop. And i did.
After joining CTS I was completely suprised to see that they are giving us training for testing- and i must mention this- that the training they give is a complete 'CRAP'. Its of no use. if a good student join CTS kolkata- his / her carrer is completely doomed. After two months of worthless training I was shifted to a project in 'technopolish' - known as D&B project. (they also take exit test which any one with a little bit of sense can pass)
The project members used to come to office at 3 pm an leave within 6 pmto 7 pm. I was new to the project as a tester. I asked the members to give me the project related documents and some ideas about the project. But I was very suprised to know that the team donot maintain any document even the Project Manager was a worthless person. I had three managers,
1> Amit DAS (emp id: 119950).
2> Anirban Das (emp id 183916)
3 > Arasavalli Chandra.
Chandra was a good man but of no use but the other two had very big mouth and always busy with oiling their client and boss.
As a new Joinee I was told that I will have to find a machine for myself on my own and after I do that I had to go for VPN and Quality Center connection.
Don't get supprised – CTS never provided a dedicated machine to me.
What the managers asked me to do was - 1>Come to office within 7 am 2>sit on any one of machine belonging to your team and use the perticular member’s userId and password 3>Do your work until that team member comes 4> Continue your pending work after the team member has left for the day or if you manage to get some other machine.
If the work assigned to me is not done thaen I should stay back and complete it.
I used to stay in office from 7 am to 11 pm but in time sheet I was forced to enter only 8hrs of work. This continued for two months.
Moreover my D&B project client - known as 'ANITA Benfield" used to call at 6pm everyday .She used to assign us job at that time. She was a complete jerk. She complained about me since I told her that I was a new to this project and needed some document to study and know the details about the project and application; not only this - she even complained that I had very bad communication skill.
I had to sit 4 times for client interview. Anita and offshore peoples working for CTS (least interested to help me) asked me questions in such a way that even a person working on the project for 4 years could not answer ( the person was my team lead).
In the mean time I got very ill. One day suddenly I started to bleed heavily from my nose (in my office). I used some ice creams to stop the bleeding. I went up to my managers to allow me to go to the doctor. The managers just laughed at me and said that - the life style is such that you may have to go the the doctor after finishing the companies job on earth.
I came home all by myself - the company did not provide me a transport. The very next day the manager called me and said harsh words to me and asked me too come to office since the client wanted to talk with me.
My dear friends I went to office by taking some steroids. the managers just shouted at me for nothing. Amit Das told me that his job was in danger for me an i should have told anirban das as well as Anirban Das that I could be ill. I said to them that how can a person know that he will become ill on perticular day day. I also told the managers that I had a chronic internal infection in my forehead and I needed a surgery. I CTS did not provide me a paise for it. Instead my managers put me on no pay. I came back home with a lot of pain. I called the HR Mr. Nilangshu Ghosal ( to be true he is the most rediculous person I ever meet – in bengali you can say hiim a “Nir-Bhay-jal-Chotolok”)
I said to him about my condition and also requested that I want to take leave for my MTech exam. What I ened with was some non sense words.
I finally resigned from CTS and resumed with my studies. By GOD’s grace my mother is well now and my uncle is back to help us.
My dear brothers and sisters please avoid joining CTS if not absolutely necessary. CTS is like a gold- cage. In CTS you have no chance to develop yourself - all your skill will be lost. Moreover the corporate culture in CTS is not for human beings. In CTS you have to give up your family, your self respect and all that you have earned and learned through out your life. There are people in CTS who will deatroy your carrer to built their owns. During campus interview they will claim them selves a CMM5 level company. The HRs will give lots of speech but donot let those thing get you. They claim to be CMM5 level company but the true they are not even elegible to be a CMM company. In my opinoin go for higher studies – go for small companies where you can truly learn something.
All the best to you all. I hope that no one makes the same mistake that I have made by joining CTS.

The worst Company one to be with...
Even i joined cognizant as Fresher and Experienced the same problem. Manager dont give any respect to Low cader employees. They treat us like Slaves. Even Experienced folks can come here with FAKE Experience. The Worst management to be with.

biggest problem in india is HR practises are well defined but never practised everyone project mangers is role maker whatever he says HR has to bend his/neck. This is waht i have seen in cognizant...
Appraisal process is biggest mockery ..they will assign any no. and fro there the will not tell what work instead they take up petty issues...Totally useless... Manpower lis like machine to them...if u wag ur tail even for wrong reason then only u are good...one competitor in IT services to inidia . India is definately out of pcture way comapnies are doing bussiness... u ae done but what mail u have wriitten since after tranfer u were not getting acess acard hence was not able to login logout and book cab in new location

ness technologies bangalore is aslos wrost palce to work .. if u can lick foot of mangers then join ness...there is big lobbyism there.. it is like cha cha, mama tau company...all relativs family frind oly can join...after that they create lots of mess then they hire people from outside to clear up that mess and make them bakra...There are there are managers like subhash joshi, debabrata das there are like people from animal kingdom. suddenly dropped into this world. they do not know how to adjust and leve peacefully with people.. they think comapny lik like there praja and they are king...others are all slave..other then there family friendswho have joined the company...there is no din iman or appriasal system.. if mangers like your face first day and on day of appriidsal then u will get approased otherwise not...3 yrs i worked ther i got 3 awards but how only 15% hike from 1 year to next year...but all cha cha mama, bhatija got good hike...without any work...

amused

Wow! this is a great forum for some timepass - just like some of the 80's and 90's indian movies - mostly [censored] but around a semblance of seriousness. Low pay, politics in workplace, manager harrassment (!) are serious stuff..but the way people are putting it is hillarious!
My take is - if you dont like it, leave it, but the leaf always looks greener onthe other side and you will be making similar judgements at your new job...but that is my opinion...please go on with your comments...i'm loving it!