“I Was Forced to Resign in 15 Minutes,” TCS Fresher Alleges as Layoff Policy Sparks Anger
“I Was Forced to Resign in 15 Minutes,” TCS Fresher Alleges as Layoff Policy Sparks Anger
A TCS fresher claims he was given a stark choice, resign immediately or be terminated—amid growing concerns that the IT giant’s revised bench policy is leading to quiet layoffs beyond official figures.
Allegations of abrupt and coercive exits are emerging from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) just as the company announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide. In a viral Reddit post titled “TCS firing freshers?”, a recent hire claimed he was forced to resign within minutes, suggesting that the IT major’s reported layoff numbers could be far lower than the real figure.
The post alleged that trainees in Ahmedabad and Pune, some on the bench for just four to five weeks, were summoned by HR and told to choose between resigning immediately or being terminated with a “negative release letter” and no severance. The fresher said he was instructed to switch off his phone before the meeting, given 15 minutes to decide, and denied the chance to call his family. “I chose the safer option,” he wrote, explaining that resignation came with three months’ pay and no official black mark.
Despite being assigned to an active project, the fresher claimed HR insisted he cite “personal reasons” for leaving. “Why did they even hire me?” he recalled thinking. According to the post, four other freshers resigned under similar circumstances and were left in tears, with HR allegedly not permitting them to leave the room until they complied.
The incident followed TCS’s revision of its bench policy, cutting the permissible period without a client project from 90 days to 35 days annually. This shift, employees say, transfers responsibility to workers to secure projects and allows the company to avoid recording forced resignations as layoffs.
While TCS officially maintains that only 2% of its global workforce—about 12,000 people—will be affected, the fresher claimed the true number could be closer to 80,000. Mid-management employees have also accused the company of pressuring those on the bench to quit, warning of blacklisting and withheld payments if they refused.
For many, the claims cast doubt on the transparency of India’s largest IT services company at a time when the industry faces slowing growth and mounting job insecurity.
