"I work for a US bank in India. It’s a nightmare"
I’m an analyst at a major US investment bank in India. We’ve had layoffs recently, and my bank was sly and calculative throughout the whole process – and exploited India’s awful labour laws to get away with things that would be illegal anywhere else.
In my team, for example, people getting laid off aren’t given severance. The bank gets away with it by putting employees on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). Failing it allows the bank to fire them without severance. That might seem fair to you, but it’s not. Undeserving people are constantly put on PIP because of unfair politics in the office.
My bank operates a dual review system, in which peers you’ve worked with rate you out of five (stars), your manager packages it all together, and then adds their own observations and score.
The problem is that this year, even above average performers with good reviews (4 or 5 stars out of 5) from their fellow employees that were nominated to provide feedback were eventually given an average or below average review (2 or 3 out of 5) by their managers, citing frivolous reasons such as quality issues – when none were ever flagged during the year – absence from the office due to health or personal reasons, and other excuses that may have nothing to do with the individual's performance but a lot to do with the politics and dynamics of the office.
Effectively, people who had a good rapport with the manager outside of work were given good feedback, and those who didn't, yet diligently did their work with their head down all year, were given average or below average feedback, even if their work was good. They were put on a PIP, and being put on PIP means a 99% chance of being fired.
I personally am not on PIP yet, but I was also given average feedback by my manager for frivolous reasons – because I don't suck up to him, and not because my work was terrible or even bad. Under the peer review system, I was awarded 4.6 stars out of five by other employees who reviewed me, but I’m counting my days.
Akshay Kumar is a pseudonym.
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