When start-up jobs leave techies, MNC joinees in lurch

Techie Ankita Mathur was on cloud nine a few years ago when she took the ‘bold’ decision of swapping a high-flying job with an IT services behemoth for a start-up. She was lured by the start-up momentum which was enticing every young professional into a working environment that was raring to go. Lucrative salaries, go-getter teams, a ‘carefree’ work culture, an innovative spirit and encouragement for risks were factors that were too attractive to ignore.

But what Mathur probably did not consider was the instability that almost every startup job carries along. “Every job in today’s era is uncertain. But in a startup, the uncertainty factor is much higher,” she says, adding that startups are indeed a big risk if you’re bound by daily financial requirements. “If you have loans and EMIs, housing rent, medical and educational expenditures, and other financial responsibilities, then maybe a startup is not the place to be,” says Mathur, who was recently let go from an e-commerce firm she joined four years ago.

Once known for a highly spirited work culture, startups today are gaining notoriety for ‘re-structuring’, drying up of funds, lean teams, corrected salaries and hire-and-fire policies. While those like Snapdeal, Craftsvilla, YepMe, PayU India were in the news earlier this year for reducing headcounts, there exist several others that have followed the same pathway due to funding woes, intense competition and other issues hindering their effective functioning.

Manjunath Bala, who was let go from a food tech start-up late last year, feels that offering career growth, awesome work environments, a revolutionary atmosphere is just one part of the story. “What is equally important is a stable paycheque at the month end and at least some hikes. At the end of the day, what any employee, be it in a startup or a conglomerate needs is salary. Before eventually firing me, I (like many others) was subject to a constant stream of the late pay-outs month on month with no explanation or apologies from the founders. When it came to work, we were expected to deliver on time, but the same was not delivered by the company in terms of our pay. We had to struggle even to get our relieving letter.”

Experts say like every industry, the start-up sector is also witnessing large-scale correction which is impacting employees.

Says HR expert K Vinod, “Like every sector having a set of pros and cons, so do startups. Honestly, startups are not the place for those looking for stability, structure, and the other perks that are doled out by corporates. Startups are well-known for exciting but chaotic work cultures, for undergoing sudden and drastic changes in their game-plans and delving into the unknown. Yes, some start-ups did at some point advertise attractive pay cheques and went about hiring in bulk. But it’s now correction time.”

According to Thiagarajan Rajagopalan, co-founder of Shorebird Technologies, employees in any organisation typically look for (financial and career) growth, a good office culture, stability and to be a part of creating something larger than themselves. “Startups always provide the last part, but sometimes lose sight of the first three.”

...& ANALYSIS

• Start-ups today are gaining notoriety for ‘re-structuring’, drying up of funds
   
• Lean teams, corrected salaries, hire-and-fire policies add to the woes