BOND WITH HR TO TIDE OVER THE BOND

Couple of things which come to my mind after reading all these bond practices by companies is that invariably everyone charges more or less the same if an employee leaves the organization. It is invariably in the range of 1,00,000 to 2,00,000 and usually for fresh engineering graduates who almost everywhere undergo an initial training period. Is the training costs same for all these companies? To me it seems an unreasonable amount. The company should give a breakup of the costs incurred and accordingly charge money if it has to. This could make some sense, but its a difficult job and in implementing it the company will again add many other costs.

Another thing is, the time period for which these bonds are signed. If you were trained for 2 months and then you have worked efficiently and contributed for 20 months in the organization then are you liable to pay the bond price if you leave (in case bond is of 24 months). I believe that in today's competitive and fast changing times, 2 years is a little more time for a bond period. But looking at the other side from a company's point of view, it makes some sense as they spend a lot of resources in hiring which they do not want to do every now and then.

Overall, I feel that even if you have a bond, it should be reasonable enough in the amount it quotes and it should be shorter. The time should actually depend upon how productive the employee had been. I myself had to pay such a bond when I left my previous employer to join XIMB. My bond was for 2 years and 50,000 Rs. I had been working for 19 months before I called it quits. But I was in good terms with my Manager and the HR so I could convince them to reduce the bond money as per the time I am yet to serve in the two year bond. This effectively means, that if 24 months amounts to 50,000 Rs then 5 months (19 months already worked) amounts to how much? I paid that much. Its not the case with everyone. My other friends/colleagues in the same organization who resigned to join other B-Schools had to pay the full amount even though they also had worked for 20-21 months. Some were lucky enough like me to get some deal out and others were the luckiest as theirs was waived off fully. What I learnt was that it was completely in the hands of the HR to waive off the bond. Also, if a person is going for higher studies, companies usually give these kinds of waivers as the person is not going to compete with them by joining a competitor right away.

There are also cases where people have just left without informing anyone. In that case they don't get the experience certificate but they don't have to pay the sum also. Usually if fresh graduates do so it doesn't affect the company much to file court cases against them but if its a key person then the company may take this step.