Holy shit. This is extremely scary.

Thanks for sharing.

Corporate Strategist

Yes, true here no rights and trade union in IT industry

Network Analyst

Always happens.  Always get it in writing or it's just bs to keep you there.

Software Lead

Nobody even bothers to know thier rights as employess due to the state of poor law enforment, slow courts, and sometimes influential upper management in companies/ startups.  I was the second eng...

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Nobody even bothers to know thier rights as employess due to the state of poor law enforment, slow courts, and sometimes influential upper management in companies/ startups.

I was the second engineer at a crypto wallet startup that shut down early this year. The founder had promised to issue shares that’d be 1%-2% of company. I trusted the guys and never asked for a share certificate. BIG MISTAKE.

When we got a pre-seed check they refused to give me anything above 0.2% and tried to settle with a little more money. I resigned the same day.

Indian employees have no right!

Indian employees have no right!- Grapevine

Corporations are loyal to no one.

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

Hey Hackers, whats been your experience with Indian companies when it comes to responsible disclosures?

Mine: found a RCE and mailed a tech startup, said they will pay. its been qn yeqr since waiting for that amount to land in my account!!!! Indian companies are the worst. no ethics

Responsible security disclosures

Systems Architect

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Instead of giving out the severance, they’re asking for resignation. 

And what’s worst is if you don’t resign they won’t give you experience letter and full and final settlement.

My friend who works at Classplus has been asked to resign

Founder

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

I'm seeing so many posts where startup employees are cribbing about things like layoffs, work culture etc etc. Doesn't seem like they have perspective on everything it takes to build a startup. I've built a failed startup myself and have immense respect for founders who are grinding it out there in such difficult recessionary circumstances. 

And then you have so many of the engineers and PMs cribbing about basics without talking about important things like learning growth, building for the future etc. Why such myopia? I work at a big tech and envy the speed at which startups move, the big responsibility everyone gets to handle, the fast career growth. All these things are being cribbed about. They crib about founders wanting more. Their job is to ensure success, not to give lifetime jobs to entitled people. They have more headaches you can imagine. In my small startup I had a million headaches. I can only imagine how hard it must be to run larger ships. Is everyone joining a startup these days looking for a get rich quick scheme?

Why are startup folks so entitled?

If you can’t run a business that lets people have a normal life then you’re the one who thinks they’re entitled to employees. 
 Businesses must take risk, employees don’t. Stop your whining that people won’t support shitty business plans

Software Engineer

Growth Manager

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

I am a 6 yrs experienced Software developer and part of a mid-stage startup. This is my third job; I have been working here for 3 years. I was involved here as one of the core engineers at the start in developing the overall platform, After that, my growth as an engineer stagnated for 2 years . 

Constant importance and priority are given to business requirements and hacky work getting pushed to production in the name of fast iterations and business impact every week. 

My engineering manager lacks proper engineering skills and doesn't respect engineers even after their impact on the company and constantly keeps saying the engineering team doesn't contribute to the revenue of the company despite us pushing work that improves business positively. 

Last year around November, around 80% of the engineering team was subtly suggested to start looking out for work (basically a soft layoff) because management was too scared of a social media backlash

Due to all this,2 years' worth of technical debt has accumulated on the overall codebase and apart from giving justification for every code improvement that we try to make there, we still have to work on business/product requirements. 

My growth as an engineer has stopped and I am worried about missing out on the latest developments in the tech industry, especially with AI in the picture, and want to make my skillset somewhat AI-proof. I have come back to hands-on coding this year , so that's a positive start. I am considering taking a 3-4 month break after resigning from my company to study, develop side projects, develop a portfolio etc

Has anyone else been in this boat ? How did you come out strong?

Side Effects of working at startups

We already have many platforms which do the same thing but their major problem is wrong/fake data. So one more similar platform is not going to change anything.

It would be revolutionary, if you guys could come up with a way to verify the salaries.

Otherwise it's just adding more noise to the already existing junk data. 

Requesting everyone to please suggest ideas for the same.

"Salaries on Grapevine" is useless unless we have a way to verify the data

Senior Software Engineer

2022 has been the year of ESOP value destruction. Lets collect some real instances here. This silent but deadly phenomenon is hardly reported in mainstream media.

ESOP value obliterated

Business Analyst

Looking for insights into the interview for quite senior AI position at Krutrim. Has anyone gone through the loops yet, would appreciate some insights. 
They are claiming that they will match any salary, I am doubtful they will match US Salary in India, but I am very excited by the work they are doing, so willing to give it a shot.

Any inputs are appreciated 🙏🏼

Krutrim Interview exp anyone?

AI Engineer

Be it about investors, co-founders, hires, freelancers, family, or yourself

Founders, what will you never share publicly about your startup?

I am so frustrated by observing how some Indian startup founders have been mistreating employees. This is happening literally in all the startups and corporates.

Many of us invest their precious time and money obtaining degrees, only to become corporate employees.

India won the WC on Saturday night, and since then, I have seen numerous rant posts from people complaining that they missed this moment because they were overworked.

The rate of employee exploitation is alarmingly high, as founders often believe they have alot of options and are driven by their greed for money.

Look at the plight of startups, the top management says they do not have money so they lay off the whole departments without any prior notice. Yet they spend so lavishly on showing investors or on their socials how cool they all are.

We are bloody engineers, not their family bound slaves.
Why do we suffer ? 

I believe it is high time that we establish a union for employees working in the IT industry.
This exploitative culture needs to come to an end.

A Union of-by-for White Collar Employees

Product Manager

I’ve been out of this game for a while so pardon my ignorance. What are you folks asking for as stock compensation these days?

My understanding is that if you’re being paid ₹100 as base pay, a ₹10-20 variable and ₹100 as ESOPs that vest over 4-5 years in equal parts is fair game. And you should continue to get at least ₹100 fresh grants each year if you’re a high performer. 

How did it go for your negotiation? 

And how did you ensure you actually get value for ESOPS? 

Most startup ESOPs are 100% bullshit and you may not get a rupee even after a decade of working.

How should you negotiate stock compensation ?

Let's talk about being highly underpaid. It's a reality many of us face, yet it's often shrouded in silence. Whether you're in a corporate job, a creative field, or any profession, feeling undervalued and underpaid can be demoralizing and unjust. It's not just about the numbers on our paycheck; it's about the recognition of our worth, our skills, and our contributions.

Too often, we find ourselves in situations where our hard work and dedication are not adequately compensated. We put in long hours, go above and beyond our job descriptions, and yet, when it comes time to discuss salaries, we're met with excuses or paltry raises that barely keep pace with inflation. It's a cycle that perpetuates feelings of frustration, resentment, and even imposter syndrome.

But here's the thing: We don't have to accept being undervalued. We can speak up, advocate for ourselves, and demand fair compensation for our efforts. It might be uncomfortable, and it might require us to challenge the status quo, but it's essential for our well-being and the integrity of our professions.

Employers need to recognize the importance of fairly compensating their employees. It's not just about the bottom line; it's about fostering a culture of respect, appreciation, and mutual benefit. When employees feel valued and adequately compensated, they're more engaged, productive, and loyal.

So, if you're feeling highly underpaid, know that you're not alone. It's a widespread issue that deserves attention and action. Whether it's through salary negotiations, seeking out better opportunities, or advocating for change within our organizations, let's stand together and demand the compensation we deserve. Because when we value ourselves, others will too.

Are you getting underpaid?! I know it sucks🤦🏻

1. Most of the time it sucks because you're comparing and that'll always take your joy. In some cases, you're not underpaid but someone else is overpaid. 
 2. When you don't have a job, you'll appreciate being a bit underpaid too. 
 3. Not all people can take the risk of standing against the organizations. 
 4. Indian labour laws suck and that's why the culture of fair compensation is just a joke. 
 P.s.: Everyone should know their 'market' value and they should always aim for the highest of the range.

Analyst

Got to know through my network that Brainly india has asked the entire team from their MD to all junior folks to go. Reason - sudden change in strategy.. they didn’t let the product even launch.. the team was in full swing prepping.. impacted folks 30+ or around that number.. within 6 months of hiring everyone.. while in the interviews they promised 5 years runway.. long term strategy for india.. ceo didn’t even apologise.. they come hire Indians and let go at the drop of a hat.. the employment contract said that either party have to give 3 months notice to resign.. so that’s what they did they are giving 3 months pay not in one go but month on month and after that nothing. No severance pay, no bonus paid to eligible employees, no help in finding jobs , no mental health support, medical finishes in 3 months.. in this time when hiring is on global freeze they have treated Indians like puppets come hire and fire when you want, they have money in bank account a runway for 18-24 months.. still they couldn’t hold on to india team.. heartless way of dealing with junior folks how will we find jobs

Brainly India - entire team laid off

Truths about ESOP 101 

After working in multiple fast growth startup’s and having been part of multiple buybacks as well as being in the startup ecosystem for a decade I want to put to bear my pov about creating wealth through ESOP. 

Like any other randomised event, ESOP also follows Pareto principle which means a very small number of people within the company ever make sizable wealth that they elevate to the top 0.1% of the country. 

The Pareto also applies with companies; significantly small minority of companies in India have employee friendly policies which enables an employee to create wealth. 

Most startup’s have dark patterns within their esop policy which either locks you in for insufferable durations or forces you to pay exorbitant taxes to gain the right to exercise your esops when you are leaving the company. 

Survivorship bias plays a huge role in enabling the narrative that esop is a great wealth generating tool leading to rude awakening for an employee after they join a company. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t make wealth, it just means don’t get carried away by narratives and take preventable errors in your career. 

Always talk to multiple people in startup’s and ask relevant questions to understand esop policies better. 

Like everything else optimising only for esop for wealth creation will mostly not result in it.

Unmasking ESOP wealth!

Consultant

Sorry for the long post :(

I'm a 2021 graduate from a tier 3 college. I was working at a small startup based in Bengaluru that is into SAAS. The headcount is less than 20 and a completely remote job.

I don't have any notice period. I was told that I can leave the company whenever I want without any prior notice. And it's not mentioned anywhere in the contract. I had a promotion due in September 2022 in which the new agreement was supposed to be implemented where I had to serve a 90 day notice period and salary hike of 15% of my current CTC.

But the promotion was put on hold till now. I asked them multiple times but I was told that it's on hold indefinitely due to "shortage of funds".

On December 31st I sent a resignation letter as it will be my last working day. Even though it was a very short notice, I completed all the documentation about the things I worked on. Anyone who can understand English can deploy the entire product. And moreover everyone had worked on the product and almost everyone had a good understanding of the product. 

Sometime in 2021, I received a bonus of 62k which was sent to my personal bank account (the company itself didn't have a corporate account back then). Since the company didn't provide me any work laptop, I was told casually that I can use the bonus to purchase a new laptop or keep it to myself.

I made a mistake of now waiting to get the December month salary before resigning. Now he's telling me that the bonus he sent is for the company laptop and it will be adjusted as my December month salary. When I asked about the purpose of the bonus was not to get the company laptop but to keep it myself, he's refusing to accept it. (Almost everyone in the company uses their personal laptop).

And coincidentally there was a service outage as the company uses free services wherever available (for example, oracle cloud free tier, free version of slack, GitHub and lot more). Continued in comments....

My company is threatening me

I don't know why everyone is making a big deal out of layoffs. Even the ones who laid off are not that concerned than the ones who comment.

Laid off employees literally get free money upwards of 10 lakhs in many cases of senior developers who are laid off from top tech startups. Companies pay severance equal to 3-6 months salary of laid off employees. Some even offer other benefits as well.

I personally know a couple of Devs who got around ~9-10L in severance pay. So, yeah if there are layoffs happening in funded tech startups or leading tech companies, considering their pay range, laid off employees get handsome severance pay including employee benefits

Layoffs a big deal? Positive side of layoffs

Hope you get laid-off & get a good severance package! Will see how your job search goes.

Engineering Manager

Product Designer

If he gives me ESOPs worth the CEO's shares then sure I would have an entrepreneurial mindset.

According to him we shouldn't care about money

Putting Zypp Electric in Never Apply list

I work for a fairly popular and large Indian startup and I'm at a considerably senior position. As seen recently also with a lot of startups, my company is creating hurdles in my exit. I've resigned from the company but the company has a policy that allows them to accept or reject resignations at will. They are not accepting my resignation and are threatening me with frivolous law suits. I'm scared and not sure about how true their threats are. 

Can someone please give references of good lawyers experienced in HR practices, service and employment cases etc.? Will be grateful.

HELP!! My company is not letting me leave!

Quite a large number of people were asked to resign gradually over the 3 weeks.

The impacted personnel include SEs,Some PMs, and EMs too.

Looks like a massive downsizing. Around 30 percent of the folks seem affected, but I'm not sure on that number.

No severance. A month of notice.

Layoffs at Practo

I have for the past couple of months gone through really pathetic and exploitative behaviour of the Indian companies (especially startups). 

> They ask to do extensive assignments, wasting a lot of time, just because they have an upper hand
> Then they completely ghost candidates with no response (most times) / delayed response

This is really pathetic. Lack of empathy just shows how immature and under-developed you are. If you ask someone to invest their time, you have the responsibility of timely and proper communication.

ALMOST ALL STARTUP HIRING MANAGERS AND HR TEAMS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS.

Indian employees have no right!

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