Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
It’s 11 at night in Bangalore, India’s tech capital, but Gaytri, a software developer at a top-tier IT services firm, is still glued to her laptop.
“I logged in at 10 in the morning. I won’t be logging out before 1 a.m.,” she tells this reporter, eyes still fixed on her screen.
Interestingly, she seems less bothered by her own brutal work schedule. What really troubles her is that her husband — also an IT worker — hasn’t returned from the office, even though it’s almost midnight.
Despite working from the comfort of her home, Gaytri, who spoke with Nearshore Americas on the condition of anonymity, clocks close to 90 hours a week, Monday through Friday. That’s nearly double the legal limit.
Overtime is an open secret in India’s IT sector — something everyone knows, but no one cares about. Hardly any IT executive wants to talk about it on record.
Rahul Parab is the CEO of Appzia Technolgies, a Pune-based IT firm.
A survey by Blind, a community app for tech professionals, found that more than 70% of Indian IT workers cross the legal 48-hour weekly limit. Shockingly, 25% of them work over 70 hours a week.
The rot runs deep — even in foreign tech giants. The same survey reveals Indian employees at Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, ServiceNow, VMware, and Adobe are also grinding long hours.
“The pressure isn’t direct — it’s indirect,” says Rahul Parab, CEO of Appzia Technologies, a software firm based in the Northwestern city of Pune.
A recent Mahindra University study exposed the root of the issue. It said that IT companies often use vague terms like “flexible working hours” or “performance-based requirements” in job contracts.
These unclear phrases leave room for interpretation—and usually mean employees are expected to work beyond official hours, especially when deadlines loom.
Cheap Contracts; Not for Workers of Course
The problem intensifies when Indian IT firms bag U.S. contracts by promising fast delivery at low cost. The result is employees work longer, for less, Parab added.
“No one dares say no,” said Rajesh, an IT worker in Bangalore. “Because once a year, your hours are tracked. Work less, and you’re labeled a poor performer.”
That label lands you on the “bench” — an industry jargon for being without an assignment. And everyone knows, the longer you sit on the bench, the closer you are to the exit door.
The ongoing wave of layoffs has only made things worse. With fear hanging in the air, overtime has become a silent compulsion.
Parab adds that remote workers are hit hardest.
“Most often, a manager in India monitors these remote employees. Every morning, they report in. But then, they’re also pulled into client meetings late in the evening. By the time they act on the meeting’s instructions, it’s deep into the night.”
Uday Kanth is the CEO of Flyers Soft.
Lack of skills also plays a role, says Uday Kanth, CEO of Flyers Soft, an IT product company based in the southern city of Chennai.
“If a skilled worker gets the task, he’ll wrap it up faster. Unskilled workers need more time—and end up working overtime,” he clarified.
At Flyers Soft, only those juggling multiple projects put in extra hours — and they’re paid incentives, he added.
“We also play shuttle every evening for an hour. That’s our way of staying fit.”
Flyers Soft, with 150 employees and offices in Delaware as well as Dubai, serves major clients like the University of Chicago and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Kanth admits that overtime is common in IT services companies, adding that it is largely driven by client pressure.
A few weeks ago, Infosys started emailing remote employees, urging them not to exceed 9.15 hours of work per day. The emails came with a friendly reminder: take care of your health. Most of these employees are on a hybrid schedule, reporting to the office just 10 days a month.
But online, the reaction was far from grateful.
Across social media, software professionals questioned the company’s true intent.
“Employees don’t trust management anymore,” said Rahul Das, a workers’ representative, during a recent debate on NDTV. “It feels less like concern — and more like performance surveillance.”
The statement captured a larger truth. Mistrust runs deep in India’s IT corridors. On forums like Reddit, tech workers routinely unload their frustration at the industry’s “always-on” work culture that keeps them chained to their screens — long past sunset.
“It all started during the pandemic,” one Reddit user wrote. “Now, it’s just normal.”
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.