Cognizant or the art of crushing people for the sake of the client's needs - Senior Process Executive Cognizant Employee Review

1.0
3 Sept 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Difficult to say. Our employments were transferred to Cognizant from two other vendors under a TUPE agreement. If you get new responsibilities, the job can get more interesting for some time, at least until Cognizant take them away from you.

Cons

As previously said, Cognizant took over the business under a TUPE agreement. Cognizant first presented themselves as a marvellous company, people focused and eager to make their employees happy. We were currently unhappy of our positions and I think most people wanted to believe in that bunch of corporate lies. Then things started going sideways. First thing, management has been focusing more on making their client happy than their own employees. Cognizant promised productivity increases that they almost didn't reach. To ensure that these objectives were met, productivity targets were increased by 10% from one day to another. This is a recent event but will most likely lead to less people getting performance bonuses. This obviously makes people angry but senior management didn't even care announcing this to operators but let team leaders - who didn't have any say in the decision - announce the news and take the heat. This kind of cowardly behaviour doesn't go unnoticed and the majority of the personnel doesn't trust senior management anymore. Second thing, a few people in every team had been given more responsibilities and were de facto promoted, to mentor and coach other operators to help them reach their productivity and quality targets. Last week, all these people were sacked and had to go back to basic operations duties. Some of them had been holding their position for as long as 2 years, even before Cognizant came into the picture. Again, communication of these news was delegated to team leaders while senior management could just sit back and relax. When interrogated about this event, senior management affirmed that "this is not demoting people" and looked surprised when told employees are looking for another job. This affirmation is an insult to all the personnel onsite. Operators are however not the only ones to suffer from Cognizant's actions. Team leader's bonuses conditions have been changed and are now based on criteria that are out of their hands like employee attrition and sick days. This decision is irresponsible and only increases dissatisfaction amongst managers, who should be inspiring beacons of motivation and corporate spirit. How can you expect to motivate people if you demotivate them and their managers? This comment only can't depict the whole reality of working at Cognizant but working there feels even worse than what I wrote above.

Explore other reviews about Cognizant

5.0
21 Jan 2026
Anonymous intern
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

good company to work for as an intern, I learned a lot and was able to really collaborate and work with everyone

Cons

It is remote so it is harder to reach out to toher

1.0
5 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A potential inroad into large client companies (Leave Cognizant ASAP) You aren't unemployed.

Cons

It's a body shop. Clients will view you accordingly. Contractors cannot be trusted with most tasks. You must be siloed (No room for growth) so you don't break anything. Your actual job is to fulfill gaps in the client's grunt work even if out of scope. If you don't, the hammer falls from client and Cognizant. Wages well below industry standards. 1% annual raises only exist because legally they must exist. Takes full advantage of H-1B slave system, where employees' families and homes will be thrown into a furnace if you aren't keeping Cognizant happy no matter what. Employees are complacent in their slavery. Management is just happy to get their extra crumbs and will reinforce the bad culture. C-suite is opaque. If you are familiar with India's caste system you will understand how "lessers" are treated. This also happens in a literal sense, you aren't totally safe just because you are the favored skin tone. Takes full advantage of modern white collar culture. "Your racist actions aren't actually racist if you aren't Caucasian." Expect the uphill battle to be even more steep if you're not Southeast Asian. You will hunt for your own work most of the time. Cognizant is not helpful in any regard. They exist to skim off the top and nothing else.

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