Feeling Stuck: How to Handle a 5-Year Promotion Stalemate and Employer Negligence?

Hi, I am working as a Senior Software Engineer. I am not getting any promotion or career growth in my present company and have discussed this multiple times with my Immediate Reporting Manager as part of every year's appraisal cycle. I feel like I have been cheated by this organization and that I have wasted my time for over 5 years without receiving any benefits, remaining on the same salary, and not having any onsite travel opportunities. I have reached out to my HR team and escalated the issue that my managers are lethargic in finding an onsite project for me even after my visa has been stamped. My manager is keeping me in my current assignments and not allowing me to move to onsite projects.

Handling Employer Negligence and Employee Cheating

How can this situation be handled when the employer is essentially cheating the employee in the following ways:

1. Retaining and harassing an employee without offering promotions or incremental salary raises.
2. Not providing the employee with exposure to other projects and multiple opportunities for their own benefit.
3. Even after escalating to the HR team, HR is not addressing the situation and is ignoring the employee's concerns, choosing to discuss with the same managers where the employee's efforts have seemingly gone to waste after more than a year of discussions.

Please advise.

Regards

Understanding Employee Attrition in the IT Sector

In the IT sector, employee attrition rates are among the highest. Despite this, it's puzzling why you remained with the same organization for five years without any career advancement. It seems your employers kept promising benefits, and you hoped that one day you would receive them. After five years, it appears that these promises were illusory.

The Importance of Timely Career Growth

Companies promote employees as a strategy to control attrition. The growth of a company should complement the growth of its employees; one should not grow at the expense of the other. In your case, it seems the organization realized you would stay regardless, or that your departure wouldn't significantly impact them. They found it sufficient to make promises, which you unfortunately took at face value.

Moving Forward: Exploring New Opportunities

The past cannot be changed, but you can start searching vigorously for a new job. Having completed over five years at the same company, you are eligible for gratuity. While this statutory benefit may not be substantial, it is still significant.

If your current organization attempts to retain you, consider negotiating for a backdated promotion letter and arrears. If they agree, that's great; if not, it may be time to say goodbye to your company.

Legal Considerations

Your situation does not fall under labor law provisions. Employee promotion is at the employer's discretion. It's possible your wages exceed the minimum wage, thus not falling under the Minimum Wages Act.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar