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Burntout at mid-levels February 17, 2008
I am posting this query post the conference and I would request Mr. Subroto Bagchi and/or Mr. Jerry Rao to kindly respond. My query is regarding what can be done to tackle the issue of the increasing burntout rate of mid level IT industry workers. This trend has been increasingly evident in the recent couple of years where mid-level managers (from the offshore service sector) and junior staff from the BPO sectors, are choosing to move out of the IT industry, unable to find a decent work life balance. The nature of their work has become increasingly monotonous, due to the revenue generation pressures of the companies forcing the sales forces to sell a majority of staff augmentation kind of work vs. full life cycle projects. The leadership of most companies are more focused on numbers than paying attention to what this group of people are going through. For the most part, these people are high performers, who get paid high performances bonuses, which make it easy for management to not notice them too closely assuming that are happy as they are compensated well. There is virtually no one to coach/mentor these people. Most of these people, are people with a very middle class lifestsyle, so once their earnings reach a certain point, monetary compensation doesn’t charm them further. These people are looking for being able to make valuable contributions with their skillsets. Most of them, being in their 30s are starting families and the need for a balanced lifestyle is critical. (A recent study in Mumbai shows that 2 out of every 5 marriages in the last 5 years have ended in a divorce and life-work balance was indicated as a major contributor). The industry is losing this invaluable talent at a point where it needs them most. What in your opinion can be done at an industry level to control this attrition?
