Tutors BPO:  Sacked via email
By Arjun Acharya

(Arjun reports on the early days of Tutors Worldwide when a few managers behaved like principals dealing with unruly students, rather than inspiring leaders dealing with fellow professionals)

The Chennai-based Tutors Worldwide is a rapidly expanding firm that specializes in e-learning resources for American universities. So far, they have managed to remain ahead of their competitors and attract a workforce of professional educators to cater to their clients’ needs. However, the then CEO seemed to have developed the unfortunate habit of ‘firing’ employees when he wanted them to conform to a particular company policy. It was not an uncommon experience at the company for an employee to come in to work to find an email sitting in her inbox telling her that she is out of a job! After a show of repentance and going down on her knees, she is then reinstated at her position.

Circa 2002, the CEO ‘fired’ two employees as a 'warning' so that they would conform to company timings. There was some recalcitrance from many employees when they were asked to come in on weekends; only a small, unsatisfactory sum of extra payment was offered as compensation. The manager even went to the extent of telling the security guards that Sunil, one of those who had been fired, was not to be allowed onto the premises. However, after a written apology from Sunil, he was rehired with no questions asked.

Soon after the episode, a more deep-rooted problem raised its head. While the employees had been promised a raise after six months of joining, this had not materialized. Sara and Nirmala, both equally qualified, had joined the firm within months of each other, and neither had received the proffered raise. When Nirmala wrote to her manager after ten months of employment to inquire about the raise, she was sacked via email without receiving a response to her query or being given any chance of a dialogue. Following the incident the rest of the team, including Sara, remained at the firm for several months without receiving any salary hikes.

At this point Mita, the project head at Sara’s team, decided to intervene on the team’s behalf when they were asked to work seven days a week without adequate compensation. She was summarily dismissed by the management, who stated that she was creating disharmony at the workplace by encouraging her team members to protest against company policies. The whole team (six tutors) resigned following Mita’s firing. Sara, feeling that she should continue to work during her one-month notice period, went back to the office the next day only to find that she was no longer allowed on the premises! The company threatened to sue the entire team but could not stop them from leaving.

(Names have been changed at the request of those interviewed for this snippet)