If Black Mirror and Shark Tank had a baby and dropped it into India’s IT sector, it might look a lot like what’s happening at TCS right now. Welcome to Layoffland, where you can be a senior developer one day, and a former employee with no laptop access the next.
This week, Chennai witnessed an epic showdown outside TCS’s tech park, not between coders and bugs — but coders and their own employer.
Led by the feisty Forum for IT Employees (FITE), hundreds of software engineers marched in protest, chanting things like:
“Ctrl+Alt+Resist!”
“System Down? So Are Our Jobs!”
Their grievance? Allegedly arbitrary and massive layoffs across departments, all under the pretext of “business realignment.” The realignment, apparently, doesn’t include people with bills, mortgages, or hopes.
“I gave TCS 7 years of my life. They gave me a goodbye email and revoked my VPN,” said one employee who’d just cleared last month’s performance review.
FITE isn’t pulling punches. “This is mass termination by stealth,” their spokesperson shouted through a megaphone. “And we won’t let billion-dollar companies treat tech workers like disposable devices.”
Meanwhile, TCS HQ is doing what all giant corporations do during PR crises — say a lot, mean nothing, and hope LinkedIn stops talking about it.
“We’re just aligning talent with client needs,” their official statement read, which roughly translates to: “You’re no longer the talent we need, sorry.”
Inside sources claim over 2,000 employees may be affected, mostly mid-level staff. Some weren’t even informed directly. “My office swipe failed. I thought it was a glitch. Turns out the real bug was HR,” said another angry employee.
Social media exploded with sarcasm, sympathy, and satire. A trending meme features a TCS ID card with “Best Before 2025” printed across it. Even rival tech workers joined the online fray, welcoming TCS alumni with open arms and job referrals.
Legal experts suggest this could backfire on the company. If enough noise reaches the labour commissioner’s desk, TCS might have to code their way out of a courtroom.
For now, FITE says this is just the beginning. “TCS wanted silence. What they got is a movement.”
