Satyamites, are you on a higher ground to condem Raju?

I'd received this email on Jan 17 from an old friend from college which says it was supposed to have been written by a female employee of Satyam. Don't know whether it's true or not, the mail has few truths which reflect facts about the IT & ITeS industry in India. I keep hearing similar such stories happening even at TCS (mostly).. I'm sure there' are many others! Please do read through.

It gives a nice perspective on gratitude, and how pathetic our own mindsets can become for once when we are seemingly condemning someone as if we stand on a higher ground! As the title speaks, the question it brings us to is: Satyamites, are you on a higher ground to condemn Raju? To generalize it further, the question facing you and me is this: "Employee, are you sincere enough to condemn your organizational practices?"
_____________________________________________________________

Written by a woman employee of Satyam..

At a time when almost 90% of my Satyam friends are cribbing about the fraud and betrayal by Ramalinga Raju, I have a slightly different opinion. It's bold of me to write this in black and white, but this comes straight from my heart and experience.

Let me start by quoting an example of 2006. Most of my friends were unemployed with 50-60% plus marks in B.Tech, with a degree from an average university and hunting madly for a job. Whether people accept it today or not, but the truth remains that Satyam was the ONLY saviour and the only mass recruiter who was ready to accept students who had back logs but had cleared them and also it did not put a very strict minimum marks criterion. And this was true not only for my small college at Lucknow, but also those across India. Satyam is the fourth largest in IT company in India. Looking at India's population, I really want to thank Raju for giving some 54000 Indians jobs atleast for all these years. He was the reason for the revival of confidence and the reason for the bread and butter for many a families.

Satyam training was renowned all over India. Their STC training centre created numerous love stories and unexpected rekindling of a youthful environment where girls and boys were more indepenent than their college days. I remember most of my Satyam friends felt that they made better friends at Satyam's three to six months training than those in the four years of B.Tech.

Unfortunately, people forget to thank God in sad times. I understand that what Raju did is deplorable and unpardonable. He should have treated business more formally and not dealt with it like a family affair. He should have been strict a couple of months or years before itself. Why did he hire so many non-potential candidates and keep them on bench? When were the managers and the team mates last told that if they don't work hard, they will lose their job? Business cannot be run lousily.

I have been staying with some 200 odd girls for the last 2 years and many of them are from Satyam. Moreover I network a lot and I have lots of male friends at Satyam. I have seen how people tail gate to Satyam, how they give their swipe cards to others to swipe it on their behalf , how female employees have gone home sharp at 6 am irrespective of when they landed at office, how employees sit at home for months at a stretch, prepare for all kind of post graduate entrance exams and still enjoy a full month's pay, how often they went for movies at local theatres at office hours, how often employees went to office just to sign on registers in the morning and at evening, how often they faked their certificates , how often they put unlimited fake medical and house rental bills.

How can we blame just one man when EACH AND EVERY person was disloyal ? How can we exclude auditors like PWC ? How can we exclude the Board of Directors who have washed their hands off so clean? How can we exclude banks who gave hefty loans without true verification? How can we exclude the Chief Minister of AP who allowed leniency for Raju's fellow businessman? How can we exclude managers who were never able to trace which bench employee under him had been away from office for how long ?

Yet how can people forget this is the same man whose ideas and potentials gave them an identity for the past several years? How many couples found the right match at an IT industry , courtesy Satyam and how many Andhra farmers benefited from their crores of investments in Satyam shares. How can people forget that Satyam launched its offices right at the doorsteps of a residential colony, where people can simply walk to work ?

The most gruesome experience that I can recollect was when a Satyam tag wearing person was waiting to attend an interview and I overheard him saying that he was in a business meeting at the My Home Satyam (Madhapur) officem when he was sitting right in front of me at a totally different company. When employees themselves show such a lousy attitude and don't care a damn for the brand that they carry around their neck, how can they expect others to care?

I am not saying that all Satyam employees are bad. I have known very dedicated people too, but my point is very clear, before pointing fingers at others, introspect .There are thousands of people who have completed certifications at the cost of Satyam, got trained at Satyam. Satyam made several freshers stand on their feet to get better jobs elsewhere across the globe and attain onsite exposure through Satyam.

What Raju did was to keep the business of Satyam going at any cost. I see a very smart man in him when he understood that he should rather accept his mistake than be caught by the USA laws . I see a selfish father in him too that he put a lot at stake for Maytas. However, he resigned with a lot of dignity and his letter of resignation shows humility. It takes a mammoth amount of courage to accept your mistake in public at a time when the media is ready to blow everything out of proportion. If humans dont make mistakes who else would ?

My last salute to this man is for creating such mass employment in India for 57k employees and 57k families when even opening a beetle (pan) shop in a lane in India is a challenge !! Thanks to him for creating income for all the thousands of families who benefited through food chains, the tiffin wallahs, the transport people and all those who made money by renting their houses.

I read he donated Rs 12,000 crores from his personal pocket to give the January salary of his Satyam employees. Today, Satyamites call Raju a FRAUD. The true and loyal Satyamites surely have all the reasons to say this word. But all the rest who sucked every rupee out of Satyam without doing any value addition need to understand - who was a bigger fraud?
_____________________________________________________________

Any Opinions, friends?