Bond or Bondage ??

Though i have never had an opportunity to sign a bond till date, i would like to share some of the experiences of people who are suffering bondage after signing a bond. About a month back, when we were returning back to campus from Chennai, we met a group of three girls who were carrying an unusually large amount of baggage and a television ! (For those who are not aware, all the people below poverty line in Tamil Nadu have been given free television sets !!) On further conversation, we found that they belonged to Chennai but were working for a top notch IT firm posted at Bhubaneshwar. For quite a long time, they kept cribbing about the location where they were posted and how life had become miserable for them after coming here. Over the entire conversation, they kept telling that if they did not get a transfer to Chennai, they would put their papers on August 1st this year. Their cribbing included the food, transport, accomodation, weather, entertainment, and nearly every single thing which could be cribbed about. I became rather inquisitive to know, what was holding them back here, Why dont they quit their job and go back home, rather than sitting and cribbing about everything here. There came the reply, they were held back by their BOND. If they quit their job, then they would have to pay a huge amount and their bond(age) ends on 1st August. So, if the company didnt give them a transfer then, they would quit immediately.

This made me think of the Bond's in another direction. The same bonds on the pretext of recovering money spent during training is being used as a tool to keep the employees bound to the company; at least in the short run. On talking to some more people in the industry regarding this, i came across an interesting piece of information. Irevna have found an innovative way to hold back their employees. They don't get money from the employees to hold on to them longer; they give money to the employees under the disguise of Joining Bonus. The people who receive join in bonus have to serve a minimum period of six months, failing which they had to pay up double the join in bonus.

So, are the employees actually signing a Bond, or a Bondage which is keeping them tied to a particular organization ? Comments welcome.