Infosys Employee Quits Over No Promotion Increment, Toxic Culture
The techie quit his job without having another offer letter in hand, even as he is the sole breadwinner of his family.
A Pune-based techie, Bhupendra Vishwakarma, quit his job at Infosys Ltd. despite getting a promotion and accused the company of a toxic client environment, regional bias, and unfair workload redistribution.
The techie quit his job without having another offer letter in hand, even as he is the sole breadwinner of his family. In a LinkedIn post he mentioned that several systemic issues forced him to make the decision.
Vishwakarma highlighted that he did not get any financial growth despite promotion. He was promoted from system engineer to senior system engineer, but with no monetary hike. “For three years, I worked hard, met expectations, and contributed to the team, yet saw no financial acknowledgement of my efforts,” he rued.
The industry at large has been delaying annual hikes to employees, as they defend their margins in a weak demand scenario, marred by macroeconomic factors. Infosys, too, for the year has postponed its hike cycle to the fourth quarter. The management has noted that the hikes will be issued in January and April.
Query sent to Infosys seeking a response based on the accusations did not elicit a response at the time of publishing this report.
The techie also accused the company of unfair workload redistribution. For instance, he said that when the team size reduced from 50 to 30 due to attrition, the additional workload was simply dumped on the remaining employees. “Instead of hiring replacements or providing support, the management took the easy route—overburdening the existing team without compensation or even recognition,” he wrote.
He also said that as he was assigned to a loss-making account, he faced stagnant career prospects, with limited salary hikes and growth opportunities, which led him to a sense of professional stagnation.
Further, he accused Infosys of having a toxic client environment. The client’s unrealistic demands for quick responses created a toxic work culture, leading to constant stress and escalations at all levels, leaving no space for personal well-being, Vishwakarma said.
The employee also said that despite consistent effort and recognition from peers and seniors, there was no tangible reward such as financial growth, promotions, or career advancement, making the hard work feel unappreciated.
He has also accused the company of having a bias based on linguistic preferences. “Onsite opportunities were never based on merit but rather on linguistic preferences. Employees speaking Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam were frequently prioritised for such roles, while Hindi-speaking employees like me were overlooked, regardless of our performance. This blatant bias was both unfair and demoralising,” he wrote in his LinkedIn post.
Broadly, the company does not provide yearly hikes in the initial years of joining, according to four employees NDTV Profit spoke to. The yearly hikes are rolled out to employees after completing two years in the company. The quarterly variable pay, which is linked to the company's revenue growth, is only rolled out for employees of certain bands.
There are no yearly hikes in initial years, but the company has multiple certification courses that help employees get a pay bump, said an Infosys employee working as a senior process executive, requesting anonymity. The employee got a hike after completing certain courses, they said.
Two other employees who have completed about two years of employment with Infosys said that while they did not get yearly hikes, certain role shifts and promotions to other positions got them a 7-10% hike. While one was promoted from systems engineer to senior systems engineer, the other was promoted from senior systems engineer to associate consultant.
