TCS Layoffs: Ghosted by HR, hunted by algorithms

TCS’s layoffs didn’t stem from incompetence, but by misfit in the age of Gen-AI and rapid digital transformation.

The announcement of TCS, once considered as the lodestar of job stability, laying off nearly 12,000 mid- and senior-level employees, constituting about 2% of its global workforce, has sent shockwaves across the IT sector, but was not surprising ever since it started parrotting what McKinsey rainmakers have been promoting: The future of work would be a hybrid of AI and humans.

The abrupt downsizing marks a generational reckoning for a corporate behemoth that symbolised long-term career and dependability. It also brought out in the open the silent easing-off of mid- and senior-level folks across many industries. This is no ordinary restructuring. The domain expertise and competencies of veteran professionals with over 15 years of experience are now deemed redundant because of AI and agile business models.

Is India Inc witnessing an unsettling phenomenon of the erosion of mid-career security and the dismantling of conventional corporate hierarchies that once promised a linear climb to leadership?

When algorithmic efficiency outpaces accumulated wisdom, employees above 40 face a peculiar professional limbo. Those who lost jobs now find themselves ghosted in interviews or told they are “over-qualified.” Their experiences; rich in stakeholder governance, cross-functional execution, and crisis management, are set aside by HR with domain alignment and talent replacement for youthful cost efficiency.

Some term it a systemic faultline. The conventional narrative of staircase and linear career growth is passe; it’s now a latticework of lateral moves, domain shifts, and reinvention. What’s unravelling is an exposé of rigid and outdated HR policies, not an indictment of individual capability. Most legacy organisations still insist on vertical expertise as the career growth plan, effectively eliminating lateral entry.

This “credentialism” crushes mobility for those who have proven skills across governance, budgeting, execution, and policy integration. A telecom veteran with vast project management expertise is rarely considered for logistics or energy leadership roles, despite overlapping regulatory and infrastructure paradigms. The result? A reservoir of underutilised excellence. TCS’s layoffs didn’t stem from incompetence, but by misfit in the age of Gen-AI and rapid digital transformation.

The notion of long tenure in a sector guarantees upward mobility is outdated. Today’s economy rewards adaptability, lucid narratives, and demonstrable multi-sector value. Job seekers must recalibrate their lens and not cling to designations. The key is to acquire transferable assets like negotiation skills, resilience, systems thinking, and stakeholder orchestration.

Take the case of a former PMO in infrastructure projects who repositioned himself as a compliance consultant for ESG-aligned green energy ventures. This isn’t resume puffery, but narrative precision that a professional CV writer modified to  suit diverse audiences. This paradigm shift is being played out in Indian boardrooms and LinkedIn posts alike.

In the digital era, unemployment isn’t merely economic, but profoundly psychological too. Jobseekers are trapped in a cycle of hyperactivity and anxiety: attending every webinar, binge-learning online courses, and doomscrolling job portals. Yet, the frenetic pace yields diminishing returns.

A CEO likened it to “career cardio” – constant motion, but little forward movement. The antidote lies in focus.

The metaphor of the “career stool” is instructive – Identify three core strengths, deepen them through industry-agnostic learning, and align them with sunrise sectors. Whether it's policy analytics, digital governance, or sustainability consulting, focussed positioning trumps scattershot applications.

Cognitive psychology warns of “probability distortion”, where fear exaggerates risk. Yet empirical data contradicts the doomsday narrative. NASSCOM’s mid-career transition survey had indicated that 62% of professionals aged 40–50 who actively reskilled and networked landed equivalent or better roles within 18 months. Many entered allied sectors through bridge roles, contractual stints, or consulting assignments.

The odds, then, are not impossible; they are imperfect but manageable. What is required is a deliberate reframing of expectations and a recognition that the “corporate cathedral” has been replaced by a “career bazaar.”

The Skilling 2.0 Imperative

To reverse this trend of wasting a colossal leadership-ready talent, systemic intervention is essential:

1. PPP for reskilling initiatives: Government schemes like Skill India must be readjusted for professionals aged 40+, not just youth. Sector-specific transition bootcamps in logistics, digital health, urban mobility, and cleantech can harness existing expertise.

2. Cross-sector migration pathways: Programmes enabling transitions from telecom to fintech, or from infrastructure to renewable energy, should be institutionalised through NASSCOM, CII, and IIT-IIM alumni networks.

3. Mentorship and placement platforms: Dedicated platforms for mid-career professionals, supported by corporates, should focus on strategic placements, fractional CXO roles, and board readiness programmes.

TCS, to its credit, has initiated severance benefits, extended insurance, outplacement support, and retraining for impacted employees. But isolated efforts are not enough; a nationwide mid-career strategy is critical.

At an individual level, displaced professionals must undertake a three-pronged reset:

* Disaggregate identity from titles: “You are not your last job role.”

* Measure progress quarterly: Micro-goals are more actionable than long-term ambitions.

* Create accountability ecosystems: Peer networking, small-group coaching, or curated Telegram circles can replace isolating job searches with collective momentum.

On their part, employers must rethink hiring models. Domain rigidity must give way to adaptive competence. HR should recognise cross-sector capabilities, while policy makers must extend Employment Linked Incentives to companies that reskill and hire 40+ talent.

The corporate ladder just got turned into a jungle gym, one that’s wobbly, weird, and eerily non-linear. TCS layoffs aren’t pink slips, but neon signs flashing: “Adapt or Evaporate.” The new playbook? Forget tenure, flaunt agility. The old titans are now the new outliers: ghosted, overqualified, and algorithmically outpaced. But hey, this isn’t a dead end; it’s a detour into reinvention. In this ‘career bazaar,’ wisdom must cosplay as relevance. As one executive quipped, “If you're over 40 and still static, you're basically office furniture.”