IT employees must refrain from extreme steps: TITA

Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) carried out a ‘Candle Light Rally’ at Cyber Towers on Friday and paid homage to the techie Gopalkrishna Guruprasad who committed suicide following depression over IT layoffs.

Gopalkrishna, a software employee, killed self worrying over job security in Pune. Responding to the call given by TITA, many IT employees and others joined the rally and paid tributes to the victim. Participants in the rally expressed their grief and sorrow over the incident and called in avoidable.

TITA Global President Sundeep Kumar Makthala in his statement said that techies must not resort to such extreme steps since there were other alternatives for them if not just IT jobs. He appealed the IT companies to handle the layoff issue in a way that it should not send someone into depression and hopelessness. He condemned the recent incident of forcing a Tech Mahindra employee to resign by HR on telephone call.

Makthala said, “While IT companies need to handle the issue sensitively, the employees must not be disheartened with the situation since there are other options based on technology, entrepreneurship and startups in IT sector.” He said that TITA initiative of Telangana Innovation and Incubation Centre (TIIC) is the best example of IT startup support system that fine tuning the IT entrepreneurs in the state and training many young professionals.

Appealing IT professionals to think beyond jobs, Makthala said that TITA wanted to start an awareness program across IT sector in Telangana to educate the professionals about IT layoffs and way forward. Top notch IT professionals, entrepreneurs and startup founders would be part of the awareness program that would for two to three months, he added. He said that TITA has been advocating for a rational solution to the layoff and cost cutting measures by the IT companies and encouraging professionals to improve their skill set to match the requirements of other domains in the industry.

He said that TITA would continue to strive for educating professionals and contribute for the IT sector in future with all possible solutions and resources it has.
TITA Spokesperson Venkat Vanam, Kiran Jetty, Shankar, Kirthan, Bhargavi, and IT employees from different companies participated in the rally.