This speech is delivered from a hastily arranged WFH setup, probably near the router.
Mere Doston, Colleagues, fellow Survivors of the Offshore Grind! I am happy to join with you today, virtually, of course, in what will go down in LinkedIn history as the greatest demonstration for decent working hours and fewer “urgent, EOD” requests in the history of our Service Level Agreement!
Thinking back to that big project kick-off, feels like ages ago! Our Onsite Manager – you know, the one we usually only saw half of on the webcam call – signed the Statement of Work. Sure, it was loaded with corporate jargon, but wow, what a relief it was! For so many Desi techies stuck on the bench, it was the hopeful news we needed. It felt like that awesome moment you get an offer letter, finally ending the long wait for a project.
But one hundred sprints later, the Work-Life Balance still is not found. One hundred sprints later, the life of the Indian IT professional is still sadly crippled by the manacles of time-zone differences and the chains of last-minute client demands from halfway across the world.
One hundred sprints later, the employee lives on a lonely island of sleep deprivation in the midst of a vast ocean of “global opportunities.” One hundred sprints later, the techie is still languished in the corners of late-night calls and finds himself an exile in his own home after dinner time. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition: the 9 PM to 1 AM shift masquerading as a normal workday.
In a sense, we’ve come to our appraisal meeting to cash a check. When the founders of our IT giants wrote the magnificent words of “Employee First, Customer Second” (or was it the other way around?) and the Company Values posters, they were signing a promissory note to which every employee, from fresher to architect, was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all staff, yes, developers in Bangalore as well as testers in Pune, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Career Growth, Respect for Personal Time, and the pursuit of a Decent Internet Connection during monsoon.” It is obvious today that the Corporation has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as its offshore teams are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, the Corporation has given the Indian employee a bad check, a check which has come back marked “Client Needs Trump (as in the language not the person) All.”
We refuse to accept that our Jugaad (our knack for finding solutions) is over. We also refuse to believe that there isn’t enough talent in our Offshore Development Centers (ODCs). So, we believe it’s time we get what’s fair: predictable work schedules and genuine psychological safety. We should feel safe enough to honestly say, ‘I couldn’t finish this task because the requirements changed during the US morning call,’ without immediately worrying about being put on a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan).
Whether we’re grabbing chai at the office or taking a break at home, we need to remind leadership: Things must change now.
We don’t need another Town Hall with only pre-screened questions or more empty promises like ‘We’re working on flexibility.
It’s time to:
- Actually respect Indian Standard Time (IST).
- Move away from constant night shifts so we can work during Indian daylight hours.
- Get clear client requirements before 6 PM IST, instead of confusing feedback late at night.
Let’s make ‘अच्छा काम समय पर ‘ (Good Work, On Time) a real thing for all Indian employees.
It’s crucial for leadership not to underestimate the current employee sentiment. The dissatisfaction among techies is genuine, fed up with things like canteen food and late-night passive-aggressive client emails. This won’t blow over without real improvements – for example, ensuring project handovers are done well within our Indian work hours.
With the start of FY2025, employees are now focused on getting their personal evenings back. Relying on team outings to boost morale isn’t a long-term solution. If the company goes back to scheduling late-night ‘sync-ups’ at 11 PM, it will likely cause problems. Ultimately, employees (and their families) need respect for their personal time to feel settled. Otherwise, the trend of people leaving right after receiving their annual bonus will continue, disrupting projects and teams until working hours become more reasonable.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of the next late-night deployment call: In the process of gaining our rightful place (and maybe that H1B visa), we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds (like putting fake updates in the daily status report).
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for promotion by drinking from the cup of चमचागिरी (sycophancy) and pulling down our colleagues. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity, discipline, and well-documented code (even if written at 2 AM). We must not allow our creative protest (like setting our Teams status to “In a meeting – Do Not Disturb” permanently) to degenerate into actual server crashes (tempting as it may be). Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting impossible client demands with soul force (and copious amounts of filter coffee or cutting chai).
It’s great to see this new confidence growing among Indian IT folks – like people actually feeling okay to log off at 7 PM! But hey, let’s not start distrusting all our managers because of this. Many of them (bless them, they’re probably losing sleep too!) are right there with us on those same late-night calls.
They know their success – like getting a good client rating – depends on us managing to stay awake and make sense during those calls. They also know their own promotion often depends on how cheerful we manage to sound at 11:30 PM! Truth is, we’re often in the same situation together. We can’t handle it alone. (Plus, let’s be honest, someone needs to be awake to take notes if we start dozing off on the call!
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead (towards the next appraisal cycle). We cannot turn back (the EMIs won’t pay themselves).
There are those who are asking the devotees of work-life balance, “अरे, when will you be satisfied?”
We can never be satisfied as long as the Indian techie is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of the client changing their mind after we’ve gone to sleep. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of working across time zones, cannot gain lodging in our own beds before midnight. We cannot be satisfied as long as the techie’s basic mobility is from one late-night call to the next morning’s early status update. We cannot be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their evening story time and robbed of their playtime by screens stating: “Dad/Mom is on a US call.”
We cannot be satisfied as long as a developer in Hyderabad cannot attend a family function and a tester in Chennai believes they have nothing for which to celebrate Diwali peacefully. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like chai from the office pantry, and righteousness like a mighty monsoon downpour.”
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from navigating Bangalore traffic jams that last longer than your lunch break.
And some of you have come from projects where your quest — quest for an onsite opportunity left you battered by the storms of endless visa interviews and staggered by the winds of client budget cuts. You have been the veterans of creative suffering (also known as “making it work with limited resources and impossible deadlines”). Continue to work with the faith that unearned late nights are… well, mostly just leading to burnout and bigger dark circles. Go back to Bangalore, go back to Hyderabad, go back to Pune, go back to Chennai, go back to Gurgaon, go back to the sprawling IT parks and SEZs, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed (maybe if the Dollar rate falls drastically?).
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair (or the comments section of LinkedIn posts by “Global Thought Leaders”), I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today (“Why is the VPN so slow?”) and tomorrow (“Another urgent requirement from the client!”),
It is a dream deeply rooted in the Indian dream (of a stable job, a good salary, and being able to attend weddings without checking emails).
I have a dream that one day this IT nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all employees, offshore or onshore, deserve 8 hours of sleep.”
I have a dream that one day on the Silicon Plateau of Bangalore, the sons and daughters of first-generation programmers and the sons and daughters of demanding American clients will be able to sit down together at the table of reasonable working hours, respecting each other’s holidays.
I have a dream that one day even the state of our demanding client, a state sweltering with the heat of last-minute changes, sweltering with the heat of unrealistic expectations, will be transformed into an oasis of clear communication and mutually respected time zones.
I have a dream that my four little personal goals (like hitting the gym, having dinner with family, reading a book, sleeping) will one day live in a company where they will not be judged by my availability status after 7 PM IST but by the quality of my deliverables during actual Indian working hours.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in the Management cabins, with their vicious focus on billing hours, with their leaders having lips dripping with the words of “resource optimization” and “maximizing productivity” — one day right there in those cabins, little freshers and little senior managers will be able to join hands with their US counterparts as sisters and brothers, building great products without sacrificing their sanity or dinner plans. (And maybe achieve true psychological safety!)
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every unnecessary meeting shall be cancelled, every micromanaging boss shall be made low, the rough requirement documents will be made clear, and the crooked reporting structures will be made straight; “and the glory of Logging Off On Time shall be revealed and all team members shall see it together.” (And the servers won’t crash overnight).
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to my ODC (or WFH desk) with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair (Monday morning blues) a stone of hope (a Friday evening log-off). With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of client escalations into a beautiful symphony of cross-cultural collaboration (that ends by 6 PM IST). With this faith, we will be able to code together, to test together, to attend stand-ups together (at a reasonable hour!), to complain about the traffic together, to stand up for our evenings together, knowing that we will be free (from work calls) one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of IT India’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, वर्क-लाइफ बैलेंस हमारा, हम बुलबुले है इसकी, ये गुलसिताँ हमारा! (Okay, maybe needs work, but you get the idea!)
From every office park side, let freedom ring!
And if IT India is to be a great place to build a career, this must become true. (And maybe fewer LinkedIn gurus telling us to wake up at 5 AM after a 2 AM call).
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious tech parks of Electronic City, Bangalore!
Let freedom ring from the mighty Hinjewadi hills of Pune!
Let freedom ring from the heightening towers of Cyber City, Gurgaon!
Let freedom ring from the Hitech City landscapes of Hyderabad!
Let freedom ring from the bustling IT corridors of Chennai!
But not only that:
Let common sense ring from the Bandra Kurla Complex of Mumbai!
Let reasonable deadlines ring from the Salt Lake Sector V of Kolkata!
Let appreciation (and maybe better increments) ring from every hill and molehill of Noida!
From every ODC cabin and WFH desk, let freedom ring!
And when this happens, भाइयों और बहनों, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every project and every team, from every MNC and every startup, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, InfoSick employees and TakeCare employees, Wipers and CogniMutant folks, startup warriors and captive center staff, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old IT spiritual – “Logged off at last! Logged off at last!
Thank Bhagwan/Allah/Waheguru Almighty, we are logged off at last!”
Disclaimer: This is a parody for comedic purposes and intends no disrespect whatsoever to the original ‘I Have a Dream’ speech or its profound historical significance. It’s satire aimed at the quirks of corporate life for most of the people working in the IT industry. I am a great admirer of Dr. Martin Luther King and his work.
Not to mention again – The views and opinions expressed in my posts & articles here are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of my employer, past or present.
