Misuse of Pandemic#Ram Agarwal & Associates - Team Rama.

Sharing 6 months experience of mine (mostly in UAE). There are couple of points which I could have written in a sensible and a professional manner but I don’t think that this organisation deserves that, so I am intentionally writing bare facts with details:
The most important thing is cheating, they cheated me and I think others as well. By committing yearly 20% deduction due to corona, they deducted 45% in Q1 (April-June) and 35 % in Q2 (July - September) due to cash flow issues but they laid off me and may be other employees before normal cycle starts i.e. October. So I worked for them in 60% salary that too overseas deployment. Although I will take legal action against the organisation citing cheating, non-compliance of the offer letter etc. will see what happens. I hope I will get the justice.
Following further:
HR Policy:
1. My official joining date was 1st Feb 2020 i.e. Saturday, I was about to join on the same day but one day prior I got a call from HR that on 1st Feb budget will be announced and everyone will be busy there, so you can join by 3rd Feb. I never saw this type of mind-set just to save the salary of two days, I don’t see any other logic to postpone the joining date.

2. On the joining, HR asked me to submit an original document like mark sheet, birth certificate etc. Don’t know the logic behind that but I guess they know that they will going to humiliate/harass the employees that can be one of the reason. Even I heard that they ask for bond, not to me, in this era so you can understand the level of insecurity.

Further, HR informed me that salary for the first 3 months will be given by 15th of the following month rather than 7th, , no logic behind that too, like we gonna run away by taking their salaries after 7th.
Salary, Allowances, and other Perks:
3. At the time of the interview, Partner told me that we usually pay 90 AED per day as an allowance and stay will be arranged by them.
I was about to leave by 9th of Feb and till 8th of Feb no one informed me the exact allowance policy, in the evening I got to know that total allowance will be AED 3500 including stay and in UAE average bachelor stay costs around 1300 – 1500 AED that too sharing. Being at a manager position I was expecting a separate room (costs around 2000-2500 AED). I have to manage that also.
4. Every month I used to get the allowance from the UAE deployed personal but that too I have to ask at least 4-5 times and usually got somewhere around 15th of the month. You can imagine how one can survive a half a month in a city like UAE, thanks to my cousin, he used to help me for a short time.

5. At the time of fixing the allowance for UAE, it was informed to me that taxi fare will be reimbursed on an actual basis (that’s a different story that a Manager level employee has to take approval for a taxi even) and it was somewhere around 450 AED from February till June which I got somewhere in August that too after more than 10 follow-ups.

6. Now the story of Corona-virus begins, March 22 or 23, the lockdown was announced in India and I was in UAE only and this time we got only 60% of the salary due to corona, you can imagine the financial position of the organization since lockdown was announced only in the last week of the month. This doesn’t stop here, we got 50% of the March’s pending salary in June end and the remaining 50% in July.

7. Now let's talk Insurance, the company doesn’t have taken Insurance of mine, you can imagine I have been in Dubai for almost 6 months without Insurance that too in Corona Pandemic When I enquired about it I got to know that they forgot due to some internal misunderstanding and now Insurance could not be taken since Indian Companies Insurance is not valid after immigration and UAE insurance is not for Visit Visa holders. I was Shocked!
8. Now let’s talk about salary deduction, we got only 60% for April and May month and we have been informed that this was not a deduction just a deferment, same is mentioned in salary slip, so we were fine with that assuming that we will get it later.

Now the day comes 10th June 2020, we got an email from HR that salary deduction is 45 % from April to June month and 35 % for July to September, emphasizing 20% deduction on CTC. I was shocked again! I was in Dubai, I can’t even manage my EMI’s (My Bank didn’t accept moratorium for June-August period) in that, I requested them a couple of times that apportion the difference consistently over the year so that we can manage our expenditure but no one listened to me. I even told them how you can apply the same level of policy to employees based out of India and UAE since you are benefitting more from UAE clients but no one listened to me.

I even spoke with the partner and he told me that due to cash flow issues we have decided to deduct 45% and 35% but yearly its 20% only so at the time of Full & Final Payment I asked them to pay the differential salary but they didn’t. They actually cheated me.
Work Culture:
9. Now let’s talk about work culture, I have experience of handling Internal Audits, due diligence, IFC etc. but they gave me the first assignment that too was SOP, the other two were Division of Books Accounts and ESR. I was happy that I got an opportunity to work for different types of assignments I had given my best efforts and delivered quality output and the client was very happy with that. Thereafter they gave me ESR (Economic Substance Regulation, newly introduced in UAE), so you can imagine where IA and ESR.

10. Initially when we had a conference call pertains to ESR where couple of junior colleagues were also available, on one particular topic my partner said “Tu jis school me padta he na uska Princpal hu me” and I was thinking like because of me and my friends Vice-Principal took a leave of around 9 months, one can validate the facts from my school. Further you can imagine the maturity level if a partner is using these types of phrases.

As per him I don’t know anything and even told me what Big-4 guys do, he is a Chartered of 2008 and I even worked for the Chartereds of 1990 to 1995 and got positive feedback from them also (check my LinkedIn).

11. Resignation: Because of all this mess I finally resigned on 23rd June 2020 (last date of ESR filling in UAE was 30th June). Next day early morning I got a call from Partner and he asked me the reason of putting papers I explained him and he agreed that there were some issues from their side and asked me to think about my resignation, I didn’t express him clearly my willingness to continue but the was the discussion was done I was an impression that things are sorted and there is no need to send a formal resignation withdrawal mail.

12. I was in an impression that my job is safe but in mid of July, I enquired with the HR about balance March month’s salary so she told me that it was held due to resignation and I was shocked, I got my June month’s salary on due date so thought my resignation withdrawal was accepted. So I explained HR that I already had a discussion with (KB) and she told me to drop a formal resignation withdrawal email, I did that too on same day but after few days I got an email that my resignation is accepted and will let you know the last working day, shocked again!

They used me till the time their assignment was going on in UAE after that tata-bye bye.

Have you ever seen the policy where firm is withholding yr previous month’s salary because of resignation. Withholding of prospective month’s salary is the industry practice but previous months, I don’t know which dictionary they refer.

13. I forgot to write one more thing, they do tell their employees to write positive reviews about the organization on public domain and do the rigorous follow up for the same if you will not do, they will take strict action. So the positive reviews written here might be…..you got it I think.

They will do the marketing to that extent like attractive web pages, LinkedIn, client testimonial videos etc. and like others I also trapped in the same. No doubt like all consulting firm this organisation is also very professional in delivering quality stuff to the client but from job perspective it’s a waste.

14. From data security perspective also this organisation is not good. Believe me they are using pirated Windows, Microsoft office, Antivirus etc and simultaneously marketing ITGC audit, you can imagine.

15. I served 2 yrs in one of Big-4 and 2.5 yrs (one of the renowned consulting firm), so I don’t think that my expectation was out of the Universe.
One point I wanted to conclude is that this firm is not for those who have previously worked in very organized or systematic companies rather this organization fits for fresher or passive nature person with no expectation because this a hard-core desi firm. Even with one of the new joinee (junior of mine) they have reduced the salary by giving excuse of work quality like which professional organisation does that, only desi firm do.
After seeing this post HR may give justification or will say that all are false allegations but believe me I am not that much creative to visualize vague points to this extent.
It is the first time I am writing a review over my +5 yrs career because I never felt that but this time I just want that people should think twice/thrice before joining.