Is It Normal for Companies to Spy on Employees with Unverified Backgrounds? Seeking Advice on Escalation

Background and Employment Challenges

I am currently working in X foreign MNC. I joined there more than 4 months ago. Before that, I worked in Y MNC. Due to some family problems, I resigned and couldn't serve the notice period, leaving the job and returning to my hometown. I called my manager at Y MNC one day for experience and relieving documents, and he fired me over the phone while I was at home; the chapter ended there.

After that, I provided high-end training to some fresh resources at a small-scale organization for free. In return, the HR of the small-scale organization gave me certificates to help fill the employment gap. Now, in X MNC, my background was not cleared in pre-employment verification. However, due to my strong technical background, I got a project in X MNC. After I was allocated to the project, their screening agency contacted the small-scale organization where I gained experience, and they gave good comments about me. After completing 2 months with X MNC, I submitted my resignation, which they accepted. Recently, I learned that my project manager at X MNC doesn't want to issue a relieving letter to me. To block the relieving letter, they are planning to terminate me before the exit process for the initiated resignation.

Concerns Over Surveillance and Privacy Violations

During these events, they have done some unpleasant things to me. I overheard some of their conversations. I am sure my recruiter at X MNC provided my home laptop's IP address, where I received the offer letter, to my office personnel. In that company, all Gmail and Facebook are blocked. They also installed spyware on the company's machine where I'm currently working by emailing spyware attachments in the form of project documents or defect Excel sheets. I don't have an issue with this because it's the company's equipment. However, they hacked my personal laptop using the recruiter-provided IP address. They downloaded all my personal, sensitive, and confidential data to construct evidence for termination. They sent email spyware (keylogger or surveillance software) attachments in the form of job emails in PDF and DOC formats to my newly changed personal Gmail ID, which I put on my resume and was residing on my PC. This is, in fact, an employee monitoring or surveillance case. For me, it's like Wikipedia. I don't have evidence against them because they have done it from proxy servers. This is a clear violation of Section 66A of the IT Amendment Act. Up till now, charges for misrepresentation of facts against me have not been proved by them.

Seeking Advice on Escalation

If they don't provide me with a relieving letter, should I escalate such nefarious activities to the HEAD HR, or is it a common practice to do this to those whose backgrounds are not cleared?

Thanks and Regards,
Dnaneshwar

I didn't store any single personal confidential data on the company's computer. I didn't misuse company resources. They did it to my home PC. Also, nowadays, anti-spyware cannot detect spyware. You cannot see the computer's running processes. They run invisibly in the background.

"You cannot see running processes on a computer. They run invisibly in the background."

While in no way trying to disagree with this statement or find fault, the three-finger salute (Cmd+Alt+Del) or running the command netstat-an would bring out details which one could try to check out programs, listening ports, etc. I occasionally use https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 to probe my computer. I do not see much hope in legally taking it up since you too have a weak point of termination. Try to sit across with HR and sort out the issue while you can politely let them know you are aware of your personal PC being monitored, invaded, etc. Cybercrimes are difficult to prove, and when proxy servers are involved, it is almost impossible. Best of luck in sorting out this problem.

Addressing Concerns with MNC Employment

You may not like this. You have been working at X MNC for 4 months and didn't complete your notice period at Y MNC. You haven't mentioned how long you worked at Y MNC. How long were you there before resigning and leaving without completing the notice period?

And now you have resigned from X MNC as well? You mentioned, "I called my manager of Y MNC one day for experience and relieving documents...". What does 'one day' mean? When did this happen... shortly after returning to your hometown or later?

You provided high-end training to some new recruits at a small-scale organization for free and received an experience letter to fill the gap. This was in your interest. Do you think that MNCs should not protect their interests, as they see fit?

Have you considered the possibility that X and Y MNCs might suspect you of working as a spy for their competitors, leading them to install spyware on your computers to verify or gather evidence? Such incidents are not uncommon in the IT industry, whether they are detected or not.

"I didn't store any personal confidential data on the company's computer. I didn't misuse company resources. They accessed my home PC." That's your perspective. While you may be trustworthy, once doubt arises, companies tend to explore all possibilities, including home PCs. Some IT professionals, or perhaps "smart techies," with dubious intentions, may use personal computers for improper activities, aware that office devices can be monitored.

Essentially, your actions allowed mistrust to develop in the first place, so it's up to you to address it. I agree with Nathrao's recommendations in this matter.

All the best.

Regards,
TS

Approaching HR for Required Documents

You should make 2 to 3 more requests to your boss and HR for the required documents. In doing so, you may hear from them that company rules were not observed as warranted in your case. Politely mention the rule of law, explaining that there were circumstances that required you to leave suddenly to join another company. At the same time, you can also point out that the company is not observing the law, as you are highlighting in your post above.

Approach the HR manager over the phone and involve them in the conversation. Dedicate at least 4-6 weeks to this process seriously, and hopefully, good sense will prevail.

Thank you for your reply. I'm resolving my issue on my own. I agree with @TAJSATEESH.

Exit Clearance Process

Exit clearance for X MNC has started for me, and some of the clearances are completed, but some major ones are remaining. My boss is not releasing me from the project. I have requested through email to be released from the project citing health problems. To avoid termination, for the remaining days (around 10 plus days), I am planning to go to the company for swap in and swap out. I will be on the bench and not doing any work. In that case, what will happen? Will my salary get cut, or will I be treated as absconding? Please help.

@SASWATABANERJEE

Spyware Concerns

Sirji, according to you, there is no concept of spyware remote install. The fact is one can embed that program in JPEG, DOC, MP3, RAR, and ZIP files and send them as email attachments to the target. In Western countries, a lot of people, especially spouses, parents, and people in love relationships, do that on the target's PC and smartphones. They use licensed programs like Sniperspy, Winspy, etc. Many individuals upload remote files to free hosting sites like ripway.com and t35.com and ask the victim to download them. Once double-clicked, the program gets installed and runs in stealth mode, remaining undetectable in most cases. Some spyware easily bypasses Windows firewalls. If one's computer is running under Wi-Fi, one may access the PC remotely provided one of the ports is open.

As far as I'm concerned, a good psychiatrist will tell me whether I have any mental disorders: mood disorders (like bipolar, clinical depression) or personality disorders (like BPD, PPD, OCPD, NPD, etc.) or any childhood ADHD. He will tell me whether I have distorted thinking or if I'm gaslighting. Sorry if you get angry. Thanks for your suggestion.

Thanks and Regards,
Dnaneshwar

Frankly, neither I nor most on this forum really care for your psychiatric profile. We care about problems posted, solutions, and learning from the points posted. The rest is immaterial to me at least. I still don't believe most of what you wrote about the wrong things done by your company to you.

I don't know what your technical skills are. But I run an organization that is pretty strong on tech. So when I see a story listed that is technically impossible, I reply as such.

Whether people in Western countries use licensed or unlicensed spyware is immaterial to the post you have made. You put a lot of things that were about how they have invaded your PC. For one, I know very clearly, you cannot put spyware or any executable inside a PDF file. The embedded JavaScript to load a virus/spyware from Excel or Doc into the core operating system and make it invisible would be stopped by the basic security, and in fact, even macros are disabled by default. If you clicked on an executable and that installed the spyware, then why blame the other party?

I am glad you figured out how to settle your problems with the company. I hope it was through posts my colleagues in the forum made. But there was no point actually in putting in a lot of tech garbage (for most of us here who don't understand tech, it's Greek and Latin anyway). Just explaining the real problem would be enough.

So let's focus now on the solution. If there is something missing there, please state it, and members of the forum will suggest the relevant/possible solutions.