Cognizant reviews

As mentioned before by somebody else in another review; the last couple of good reviews here on this site are obviously fake, written by the company themselves to counter all the bad reviews they were getting recently. Where do I even start with explaining about how bad this company is ? The project I am working on for more than 2 years now got taken over by Cognizant about 9 months ago and has been going downhill since then. Nobody is happy anymore and everybody wants to leave. All the work conditions we had with our previous vendors/temp agency (CPL and Manpower) have slowly deteriorated; first our complimentary lunches were taken from us and we were forced to sign a downgraded contract; then gradually everything else has been taken from us. Before Cognizant took over everybody had plenty of possibilities to grow inside the company: become a mentor or quality controller, trainer etc; there were many opportunities available inside the company but everything has been cut back and most of these positions were taken away from the employees by Cognizant. These people have now been put back on main operational duties with no hope for a more responsible role within the company. The annoying thing about this company is that instead of communicating with their employees, they keep forcing us to use their buggy apps and programs to do mandatory trainings, apply for holidays, keep track of sick days, access your timesheet and payslip etc. Almost on a weekly basis they roll out new apps you are forced to use but each one of them keeps failing every time since they are full of bugs. In general; communication within the company is done by apps, spreadsheet, email or messenger. You also don't feel comfortable walking into the HR office; it's clear they don't want to speak to you and their attitude seems to border almost on contempt for their employees. Lying- making fake promises- telling you what you want to hear just so that you go away and stop bothering them with questions. They also don't accept suggestions and good advice from their employees; they prefer you to put any advice that you might have in a spreadsheet so they can give it a quick glance or just delete it. Any questions you have about the project you are doing will not be appreciated- it's almost like a dictatorial regime. It's clear they don't like employee's suggestions and they especially don’t want to speak to you face-to-face. The meetings and presentations they have for their employees are very strange; it seems like a big sales-talk. They keep reading out pre-rehearsed sentences and having a sales pitch about how great the company is but when the employees ask valid and to-the-point questions about the work and the problems they are facing then they don't have a clue about what they are talking about. There seems to be a big gap in understanding between Cognizant and the people on the workfloor. Their standard response is 'we will look into it'. They keep telling people that there are many possibilities for promotions and advancements but these positions generally are available outside of Dublin, mostly in Poland or India, for which you have to apply through one of their apps, but within the Dublin office it's very hard. Only once a month or so another position becomes available but then everybody applies for it at the same time so you don't have much chance. The people who are new to the company and the country are mostly left in the dark and are not given much help regarding their new life in Ireland; it was well organized before with the previous vendors Manpower and CPL but now the newbies even have to take their holiday days to do things like opening a bank account or getting a PPS number; things which were much better organized with the previous vendors who just gave you time off for this. The worst thing of all is that while you still have 22 or so holiday days, the employees have been told they cannot take them whenever they want. Working capacity should be around 90 procent at all times; which means that if your team consists of 20 people then only 2 people at any given time can have time off. Cognizant claims that this rule isn’t etched in stone and the manager is flexible but almost everybody I know has problems getting even a single day off for say a doctor's appointment or parents coming over, even with 2 to 4 weeks notice. People have been forced to call in sick and lose several day's wages; ending up with a low salary each month. This even doesn't make sense given the work we do; it isn't costumer service and our work could easily be done the next day and stay in the queue for a day or even a week. To me this behaviour seems like an abuse of the power they think they have over their employees. My colleagues have had a request for a single day or afternoon off rejected because of this non-necessary policy. For me this is a good reason to look for another job where I do have the freedom to take up my holiday days. I could go on forever regarding this company but bottom line is; don't go working for this company unless you enjoy doing mind-numbing work with no prospect of advancing and personal growth. Don't believe the lies they tell you because it's all sales-talk. You could get a bonus and decent pay with hard work but you wouldn't get any satisfaction out of it except a reference to put on your CV. The fact that you are even denied to take your holidays should be a big no-no. There are plenty of companies in Dublin who would appreciate your talents and skills which shouldn't be wasted on a company like Cognizant. Thank you for reading my review.