A popular Consultancy name in country, and specifically in Dubai. They are into the business of staffing (supply staff to different clients) for more than 75 years, and to my surprise they own the title of best place to work for last 3 years. But I actually went to their office only after resigning. Staff has to work on client side. When enquired about the offer, friends suggested that it is good to start. As the person from the consultancy who was constantly in touch belongs from my home town, I believed him. I was given no time to think and flight tickets were booked by them the very day when they received the visa. I started the next day.
After landing here, I came to know that I trusted wrong person. They did not give me initial accommodation, and was left on my own. They brought me here on clerk visa and assured me that once I provide them my attested degree certificate, they will change the visa, which was never done. Even the medical insurance was not what they informed me over the call. No medical card. The medical insurance was treatment at their clinic located far from where I lived, next to their accommodation facility (which was again for non IT staff). Apart from all this, they also took my passport (which is usual with many companies here), and did not process the payroll when I went for approved vacation. They also deducted half of the flight ticket price which was huge, as they booked it on very short notice. All this I experienced in first few weeks. After first three months when I asked to change the client, they kept it pushing till I submitted the resignation last month. After my last working day, I had to wait for more than 20+ days without any allowance to get the final settlement and get my visa cancelled.
Only good point with consultancy was they paid me salary on time, which is again not usual with many consultancies here.
Now Client was again very popular in the country. They are known across the globe for building the tallest tower, because of which I did not think much for accepting the offer. After joining, I was excited for my project work as the team was very cooperative. All my excitement turned into pain in few days. Manager threatened to terminate the contract if the pace of delivery remain unchanged. I was shocked. I never heard anything like that before. It was not even few weeks (within a month) so that I could digest something like that. One has to understand the business, existing setup, their processes, tools and technologies are similar not the same, so it takes some time for one to get accustomed. After knowing that manager is not happy with the work, I stretched till late in evenings and worked on weekend to complete first assignment. And after that few more unrealistic deadlines, without any word of encouragement/ motivation. I noticed that managers threaten in public to contractors about their termination if they don't perform. This atmosphere was completely disgusting and I informed my consultancy that I would not like to work here. I was informed that no projects were available with other clients at that moment (they never found any other opportunity). They kept rotating the contracts of consultants by every 3 months, and usually the consultant would not know till the last moment whether the contract would be extended. Consultants who worked even for more than 2 years were kept on 3 or 6 months rolling contracts. They thought this is the way they could get the work done, by threatening and humiliating. I don't know to which management schools these guys went. There will be no planning. All the projects will be running parallel and eventually they end up with never ending scope and new deadlines every now and then. Ultimately no project is complete and successful in the defined timeframe.
I decided that it is not the place for me, and I can't waste my time here. When I was looking for the opportunity, I got the invitation to join one of the old mentor/ manager with whom I worked in my previous organization. That's time to call it an end!
In last few months, I got opportunity to work on mobile and back end ETL. Also developed applications integrating BI with Microsoft office. That's a learning and I take it back with me.
That's unfortunate for me to have such an experience, but I did not find the rules in the country very friendly for employee. Stuff such as holding the passports of employees so that one cannot escape from company or country, submitting the passport to employer for visa cancellation, etc. I find against ones freedom and liberty being from a democratic country. Thought we save decent margin of money by working here, but at the cost of ones freedom and liberty, I think I am better back home.
Good bye, dear consultancy, company and country. Thanks for this experience that made me know the value of freedom and liberty in my very democratic country.
No comments:
Post a Comment