Like it or not, but, the IT job market in India is seemingly crashing. In fact, it's been on the verge of a catastrophic breakdown for quite some time now, with big-ticket companies looking to both hand over pink slips to incumbent employees as well as hire less talent. Nearly 2 lakh jobs are said to be at stake. The fact that a number of these pink slips are apparently being handed over to employees on short notice catching them completely off-guard makes matters worse.

In one such incidence, a Bengaluru-based Tech Mahindra employee was reportedly asked - or rather instructed - to hang his boots as part of the company's restructuring plans. He was literally instructed by an HR manager to put in his papers the next morning or else face the axe. Now on a regular day, and inside an IT company, one would expect an employee to be given a fair amount of time to look for alternatives. Only, this wasn't the case at Tech Mahindra. To further cement the unfair treatment meted out to him, the employee managed to record his conversation with the HR and then went on to upload the same on Soundcloud.

"Cost optimisation is happening at the company and your name is part of that list. If you can put in papers we will be treating it as a normal exit with June 15 as last working day, if not, we will be sending you a termination letter," the HR executive is heard saying in the 6:45-minute long audio clip.

When the employee dares to reason, the HR is heard re-instating what is supposedly a fact at Tech Mahindra, that the company reserves all rights to let the associates go whenever it wants, with the basic salary. The same is mentioned in the offer letter that the employees are asked to sign at the time of joining.

While the report that cites the said case "could not independently verify the authenticity or timeline of the recording," it's no secret that lay-offs are happening across the board as far as the IT industry is concerned. The number of layoffs this year is set to be twice that of last year, with inability to adapt to new technologies, inadequate growth, rise in costs (and subsequent fall in profits) and the use of automation tools which reduce the number of employees needed the main reasons behind the same.

Seven of the biggest IT firms in the country are (already) in the process of laying off more than 56,000 engineers. This number is only set to grow as companies have been unable to deal with newly elected US President Donald Trump's nationalist-protectionist policies.

Also Read: IT job market crashes: Nearly 2 lakh jobs at stake at Infosys, Cognizant and others