In the good old days, “government service” meant everybody in the service of the government, from the boss babu to the head clerk to the peon. But in new fangled industries, in the era of “outsourcing”, some of those traditional constructs disappear as specialistation kicks in.
So, a worker who cleans the glass facade of a building housing information technology offices in Bangalore is a cleaner, not an IT worker?
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Also read: They also serve who hang and swerve and swab
Tags: Churumuri, Karantaka Photo News, KPN, Photography, Sans Serif
18 May 2010 at 7:16 pm
IT industry in India exists due to the poverty level lifestyles of the building labourers, drivers, office boys, cooks, cleaners, low level government workers and domestic servants.
The only thing we offer is low quality maintenance software contracts possible due to the above.
So cleaner is cleaner in India. He enables the IT worker is able to operate on lower wages and offer the Indian sweat shops the ability to get the low end work contracts.
18 May 2010 at 8:34 pm
Rightly said,
IT employees are glorified coolies or daily wage workers. One look at compensation models which includes various components and derives directly from how many hours or work done and utlisation of individuals is an example.
Once the cost difference bridges between us and rest of the world It will be fun.
regards,
deepak
18 May 2010 at 9:41 pm
I bet big talkers on this forum like AG are mousy, meek, anonymous software fellows working as a cog in the big machine that is IT – either in India or Amrika. Boss, I know it’s frustrating but try building some self-esteem.
19 May 2010 at 4:16 am
Boss Poli Huduga,
I bet you are wrong :)
19 May 2010 at 5:30 am
overall “windows” do provide jobs to a lot of people!
19 May 2010 at 7:22 am
Great!
The worker must be from TN or Bihar definitely not from Karnataka!
19 May 2010 at 12:34 pm
We filed 40 patents in telecom domain in our Indian unit of a well known american based product development IT company. Having worked both in the US and Indian offices of my firm I do not find much of a difference between those two. I am still wondering whether I am a coolie. Wage slave no doubt but who isn’t.
19 May 2010 at 1:46 pm
@Kitapati,
I guess the patent lawyers of your company have become a lil more wealthy ;)
BTW what building is this? Not quite sure about the non aligned columns also …
19 May 2010 at 3:59 pm
I am more worried about the health and safely of the window cleaner. Do they have enough cover in case of a fall?
19 May 2010 at 4:42 pm
@div ,
Madam -if your husband is working In “windows” you will surely get a job.
the same applies to all windowed murthy angadis with couples visas, promotions and so on. yes it’s easy.
@dharma
how dare you say we are less adventurous.
20 May 2010 at 3:06 am
Kitapati,
You are not the coolie, the guy cleaning your office windows, the office boy who does all the dirty work etc. are the coolies. You have an India office, because these guys work for coolie wages.
20 May 2010 at 9:24 am
Sir..IT is just hyped up field. India works out very cheap for american companies. Cheap coolies/lots and lots of software engineers every nuke and corner. IITs/REC pass outs are waste bodies (idiots) who never go into research and invent something in India rather they fly to US/UK to work as coolies in IT companies.
My advice to all PUC pass out students: DON’T COME TO IT. IT IS COOLIE WORK LIKE ROBOTS.
20 May 2010 at 11:55 am
IT Coolie
It looks like you were nuked in English!
20 May 2010 at 2:49 pm
A Para Techie
20 May 2010 at 4:38 pm
Eh! The fave sport of IT Bashing is in full swing!
What’s it about IT that attracts such heart-burn and ridicule? Fancy cars? Fancier homes? That perceived superiority complex of ITians? Or the deluge of outsiders?
If we get back some amount of perspective, it is not difficult to see that
- It is just like any other sector in its heyday ( I would think Manufacturing, Textiles etc also had a similar sunshine times. Auto is another one which seem to be getting back its sunshine days).
- Thus it has generated great buzz, lot of primary jobs, good salaries (cost arbitrage) and a secondary economy centred around it.
- Nothing more, nothing less. It could be some other sector sooner or later.
ITians talk a lot about 80-20 rule in their work-life (part of the jargon/officialese). I would say that rule applies to the work content too. About 80% of the work is drudgery that doesn’t really require Comp. Sci / Electronics/ E&C specialization. Any decent bloke with a decent hang of logic and a good grounding in a comp. language/script would do. While the other 20% of the jobs/work is what is again jargonised as ‘moving up the value-chain’ thing. They are indeed challenging and need great deal of skills apart from a comp. language – eg. Embedded Systems. In such cases it’s not the cost-arbitrage alone that plays the role. The skills do matter and sometimes there can be a genuine lack of it in countries that outsource those jobs to Indian companies.
So overall it’s just another sector I would think – neither meant to be hyped nor unnecessarily ridiculed.
20 May 2010 at 8:44 pm
AG,
“So cleaner is cleaner in India.” what are they called elsewhere?
21 May 2010 at 10:41 pm
Attitude of Rich and Middle class in this country is disgusting.
IT and Non IT.
Period.
25 May 2010 at 4:59 pm
what Abhi says is exactly correct .I do not know about rich but middle class!they divide people as IT and non IT .They always look down people with non It background and humiliate them .I suffered a lot by being a M.Sc in Food science.just becuase of this many students want to go with trend and wont recognise their ability .By this basic science and reaserach field is suffering.China is giving more importance towards R&D so you can see chinese products everywhere in the world.I live in UAE even hereevery product is dominated by china commodites it ranges from nokia mobiles to 1 ruppe ballon,We have many lessons to learn from china.Lets become owners not sofesticated collies.