BOND: A Psychological Barrier

For me, an employment bond is simply an instrument devised to exert psychological pressure on the employees so that the attrition level gets reduced. This has been reiterated by many participants. An apt metaphor for this would be “digging one’s own grave” which is the title of one of the participant’s posting. When campus placements began in my engineering college in mid 2005, the early recruiters were the software giants like Infosys, TCS, Satyam, Wipro, Accenture, Patni etc. I clearly remember students opting out of some processes because of the BOND issue. MBT (Now Tech Mahindra) was offering a fat package but at the same time had a bond period of 2 years. When someone already has plans for higher studies why would he join a company in such circumstances? The additional pay would definitely get mitigated incase one breaks the bond. Gone are the days when higher studies were encouraged by companies. Also when one gets the liberty of joining a company which is not offering an initial high package, then he will never into an agreement which will bind him for 2-3 years. Any company by including a bond in their recruitment process actually loses out on talent. Many people join such companies because they have no other option. Are they the right employees for the organization? Phew!! The HR head only knows…

My cousin sister, Priyanka Mohanty, worked for Satyam Computers, Hyderabad. She joined it in 2005 October and had a bond period of 2 years. She had her ambitions of higher studies and got through MICA, Ahmedabad in 2007. She had to join the institute in May, 2007. But her bond period was getting over only in October. She was in a fix. She took leave and attended the orientation for 15 days. But what next? If she leaves Satyam before October, then she would have to pay Rs. 2, 00,000. Incidentally she caught dengue in June and was admitted in a hospital. Her colleagues including the head HR and her PM came to know about this. They even came to meet her. She took advantage of this and went on extending her medical leave although she was fit and fine in 15 days. She then resigned in September, served a notice period of 1 month and by end of October completed got relieved. This was also the end of the bond period. Though the company did not give her an experience letter, she saved herself of the 2 lakh rupees. The moral of the story is that it is not impossible to escape from the limitations imposed by a mere piece of paper.

The above story had another dimension too. Priyanka was mentally prepared for the legal proceedings had she broken the bond. She knew that she was not in a disadvantage because of the fact that employment bonds in India are invalid legally. This proves that a bond is nothing more than a mental barrier. Many employees do not ant to undertake the legal hassles that follow. Yes we do have to bear the legal expenses but it would be next to impossible for a company to win this legal battle if at al it happens. That is the reason why many companies do not enforce this even after an employee violates the clauses involved. They either hold back his relieving/experience letter or cut a substantial amount from his final settlement dues. Drawing an analogy from the Lawyer versus manager debate, even this story had two perspectives. She could have thought like a lawyer and resigned immediately thinking that Satyam would anyways lose out on the issue. But she thought more like a manager and played the waiting game taking some wise steps and timed her steps accordingly. At the end she was a winner. Her salary slips were enough to prove her work experience. Thus instead of succumbing to the fear of an employment bond, one should tackle it and will surely find ways to overcome it.