I can go on writing about the downsides without any effort. I had to think hard to find the pros :) But I would want to make it civilized unlike the company I am working for.
1) Very bad middle management. I don't know why they act like that, but Project Managers are hated across teams. Maybe they have too much pressure at hand from senior management and not enough resources and are forced to act like dictators. Or a plausible theory is that, while the senior management wants to appear employee friendly, they are really pushing middle level managers to act their original and true intentions.
2) To explain the point further, employees are pushed to their maximum limits. There is a sort of feeling that people have to work 24 hours a day if customer demands that. In many teams, no one goes home before 8.30 or so, because the demands are unrealistic.
3) Bad bad workplace for women. If you are a woman and you are considering working for Sasken, I have a free advice. Don't come here. I myself am a woman and I will tell you why. Yes this company will give you an extended maternity leave without pay for 9 months, that's true, but it doesn't care a bit about the safety of women employees forced to stay late at night. The company policy says you can book cabs for going home after 10 (not after 9.00) and you HAVE TO BOOK BEFORE 7.00 pm. Situations are not uncommon when an employee will be asked to stay back at 8.30 p.m because of immediate customer demand but then she cannot book a cab as the cab HR guy would have gone home long before then. I myself have travelled back home on autorickshaw many times after 9.30 pm. If you are scared to travel on Inner Ring road stretch between ejipura and domlur at night in an autorickshaw or on an own two-wheeler, don't apply to Sasken ever. People have brought this up, but generally HR gives some standard half-baked replies. Even if they allow emergency cab booking after 10.00 for people who had to stay late unplanned because of inadvertent situations, it is fine. But those who are not blind and are simply acting as if they can't see, we cannot do anything. Management discourages use of late-night company cabs (costs money yaar), but it does not discourage late-night working. I even know of a Project Manager who suggested to a girl to buy a two-wheeler so that she can work late without worries of how to reach home!!!!
4) There was a stupid policy of discrimination amongst employees called Fast Tracker policy in which those engineers who studied in IITs, NITs or BITS were given arbitrarily high salaries and quick promotions regardless of whether they were doing anything extra compared to their teammates from other engineering colleges. It was like a reservation policy for IITians. Also, some freshers were arbitrarily made fast trackers based on their first 6 month performance. Some freshers never got a chance to prove themselves in first 6 months as they were allotted junk work or their managers didn't want them to be promoted as fast trackers fearing retributions from their other team mates. I don't know who hatched this policy, hats off to the guy as he succeeded in team-unbuilding of the best type :) Thankfully it is not followed anymore.
5) A feeling that people should be willing to work for lesser salary.
6) Sometimes they arbitrarily put freshers or good people to projects not matching their skill sets. Sometimes they hire the best guys and put them in pure manual testing of phones !
7) Bonds that come into existence without the knowledge of employee. HR puts unnecessary roadblocks in front of people who want to leave (a sort of forcefully retaining people to control attrition). Also fresher bond of 2 lakhs for 2 years. During recession freshers were paid less salary but they were not allowed to leave once market picked up.
8) Policies are always under review. It's a 'Policy First' company now rather than 'People First' as they claim
9) Last, but the biggest issue - no growth opportunities. The company itself is stagnant and has not grown in past 5 years much , so promotions and personal growth opportunities are very limited.