Accenture

Besides being a global brand name, nothing great. As it has grown in size, so has employee dissatisfaction. While a person in Accenture UK works for 9 hours, in Accenture India employees are forced to work for a minimum of 10 hours daily (double standards).

They have thousands of policies and procedures to harass employees.

Accenture hires a lot of fresh, low-cost resources to keep costs low.

Your ordeal begins from the day you join.

They first hire people and then put them on the bench, saying that there are no openings for their skills. Then you might be asked to cross-skill to a different technology and start from scratch. The ordeal doesn't end here; now you may be asked to relocate to a different city.

I was surprised to see that they were hiring for the skills for which people were sitting on the bench!

There is hardly any coordination between HR and management.

You need a WBS (charge code) for anything and everything. You need a notepad, you need to fill a form, email that, get that approved, and what not.

HR The HR is only for namesake. Most of them sit in a different city. You might work in Noida, and your HR is in Bangalore. If you are lucky and they are in the same city, they seldom hear you. Even if you go to them with your grievances, don't expect them to help you because only God knows what they remain busy with.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE You are supposed to work over 10 hours a day, often extending your shift, working on weekends, and working from home. You don't get any comp-offs or overtime for that. They don't even allow documenting that in your yearly appraisals as that's illegal!

Hardly any good projects are left in Accenture. Most big projects have been lost to its competitors like Wipro, Infy, HCL, thanks to its inefficient sales teams and management.

Most managers are self-centered, only concerned about their promotions and hikes, while you work extra hours and do not only your work but your manager's work. It's the manager who ends up getting all the rewards and recognition.

Lots of internal politics.

The senior managers/DU leads talk big; however, there are no results.

Ever since Accenture has grown big, the policies have become worse and more and more employee-unfriendly. Even on the bench, you are supposed to do certifications and take sessions.

If you don't do that, you are threatened with poor ratings and being fired from the company.

Recently, a female employee complained of being harassed by her Team Lead and Manager. Instead of taking action against the culprits, the female employee was fired, and the Team Lead and Manager still roam around freely working for this great company!

Good, hardworking people hardly have a chance in such an unprofessional environment.

One of the AMs, despite being an excellent performer, has not been promoted in over 4+ years and has been shunted from Mumbai, NCR, and Bangalore.

APPRAISALS The appraisals are hardly based on merit/performance; they are based on managers' whims and fancies.

I have seen the most inefficient person getting promoted. When you ask them the reason, you are told about bell curves and policies (management ploy to confuse you).

Don't expect over 7-8% hikes. The variable performance amount you actually get is only 50% of what is mentioned in your offer letter, though.

Even the rewards and recognition are hardly given to the deserving candidates; they mostly go to the people who are loyal to the managers.

OVERALL Overall, a highly inefficient and unfriendly company to work for. In the name of cost-cutting, they end up making the company extremely unfriendly for its employees.

Employee satisfaction is lost in the maze of thousands of policies, procedures, and the red tape.

Make the company employee-friendly, the way it was 5-6 years ago.

Understand that employees are also human and treat them like one. While upper management enjoys its perks, the employees who actually work get ill-treated.