Parting With Tears

The axe is falling on so-called underperformers in corporate India. But are they being tarnished unfairly

Until last week, Shishir Dubey (not his real name), 25, an engineer from Bombay University was working at Mahindra British Telecom (MBT) as part of his information technology training. Wanting to capitalise on the software boom, he had enrolled at the Mahindra Institute of Software Education and Management (Misem) in September 2000 for a Rs 1.2 lakh year-long course in IT.

Six months later, as part of the on-job training, he had begun working with MBT. He was to get his first stipend from MBT on April 15 with a verbal assurance that he would be inducted in the company once his course ended later this month.

In April, Dubey was told that the payment would come six months later. But before that, last week, Dubey and and 300 others were retrenched by MBT. MBT clearly announced that 30 of these were being sacked for underperformance. And Dubey was one of them.

Today, a distraught Dubey says that he will continue there till he finishes his course and gets a certificate from the institute.

Meanwhile, he is doing the rounds of companies.