“What’s my pursuit of happiness?”: Confession of an IT Employee.

I always tried to answer the question when I will be happy?  Finally, I admit I don’t have an answer to this question. I come from a small town. The day I started my career I believed my life is going to change. Then, I thought working in the IT industry was a passport to prosperity. I have seen and heard a lot of success stories. People who started their career in small IT companies moved up their career ladder and became successful. They got a chance to travel abroad and bought big apartments. Life looks very happy for them. After some time, I realized the number of people who attain success in the IT industry is a small percentage. The long working hours and the stress came with the endless deadlines hurt people from within.

The lifestyle they enjoy from their spending is accompanied by a heavy financial burden. There are a lot of stories everyone hears about the EMI evil. Few people only know how to handle this evil. We always wanted to exhibit our happiness and how we are enjoying within these four walls of IT companies. When someone sees from outside the tall buildings and glittering glasses look very beautiful but we are not. Maybe few will not accept this statement. We don’t have any freedom to choose our life. These words sound little exaggerated. People say if you are not happy in your job always find another job. No one is forcing you to stay here. There are a lot of opportunities outside. It is not true for everyone. Spending more than 10 years in one technology and suddenly if we find ourselves redundant where do we go? What kind of opportunities will we have?

Companies are blaming us for not improving our skill set. They wanted us to be like machines updating ourselves constantly, say, every 6 months. Often, they forget we are human beings. They believe we don’t have any emotions. When we tried to raise our voice, they immediately want to throw us out. We are all just numbers for them. They are most worried about their quarterly earnings. They never think we all have families.  We believe one day we will affricate for our efforts.  We all believe when we start doing the job without asking any questions and surrender our rights a bright future is possible. The attitude of a manager is never going to change. They want to exploit in every possible way. We think we don’t have any power over them. We have no rights.  Our bosses have collective unions and they are fighting for every right. Most of their concerns are over increased profits and exploiting us. Still, we are afraid to raise our voices. We are not ready to fight. Not believing in our collective bargaining.  In the pages of history, there are a lot of examples of how workers won their rights because of their collective bargaining.

Finally, I understand when I will be happy, the day I start fighting for my rights. People only understand when we start to raise our voices and use our collective bargaining.  There is no distinction between us. We are the ones who created all the wealth in the world. We are not just numbers. We are all human beings. We have families. We have emotions. Our sons and daughters are waiting for us every day when we get home late. When will we stop getting scary about our family happiness for them. When will we start taking care of our health?  When we start questioning their rules, we will know our power. I truly believe work brings meaning to our lives but not the work we are doing to increase their wealth.

Ravikumar. (Member, NDLF IT Employees Wing).