This Is How Cognizant Is Forcefully Firing Benched Employees During Coronavirus Pandemic (Evidence)

Leading IT services provider Cognizant is still firing benched employees amidst coronavirus outbreak. The worst part of this firing is that, the employees are not being provided a second chance, and forcefully they are being fired.

This is how they are doing it.

Cognizant Is Firing Benched Employees: The Modus Operandi

We have received information from several Cognizant employees, regarding their firing. These employees were on the bench, and without providing any second chance or assistance, they are being indiscriminately terminated from their jobs.

Their modus operandi of firing benched employees is simple, and yet cruel.

First of all, once any project goes away, or if there is an employee who is under-performing, they are moved to the bench, which is also known as Practice Deployment Pool or Corporate Deployment Pool within the company.

Then, they are provided 35 days to find a project and/or upskill themselves.

A grace period of 5-10 days is provided, and after that, they are terminated.

Now, here is the problem: Nowhere in the World can an employee upskill themselves to a new technology within 35-45 days, and ‘search’ a new project. 

Unless the management and the team is supporting them, there is no way they can do it.

And once this grace period ends, they are asked to leave which is unfair and no ethical.

It seems that Cognizant management is using this pandemic as an excuse to reduce their workforce in an ‘inhumane’ way.

In one such email, the Cognizant employees said, “In this tough situation, these companies are behaving badly and have become inhuman.”

Here is the screenshot of the letter sent by Cognizant management to such benched employees.

Reports About Cognizant Firing Benched Employees

Certainly this is not the first time this has happened, and Cognizant has been firing benched employees ever since the coronavirus pandemic started.

On June 8th, we reported how Cognizant is forcing benched employees to quit, even as the nation was reeling under the pandemic. 

There are around 18,000 employees underthe bench in Cognizant, and we feared that the same treatment will be meted out to every one of them.

Severa such cases erupted in Chennai, even as employee unions tried to stop this practice.

However, Cognizant has labeled this modus operandi of firing benched employees as ‘Performance Management’.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.