Satyam’s new owner Tech Mahindra has found a new way of minimizing its employee costs by shifting a quarter of its staff to a virtual pool program which gives the employees a sabbatical 'to pursue other interests' with the opportunity to come back depending on the business demand. The pool constitutes of about 14,000 associates, who were on the bench for the last three months. Satyam management says that the virtual pool staff would continue to be a part of the company and draw about 40% of their current salary, medical insurance and provident fund for a period of four to six months. However, most employees affected by this development see this as another way of asking them to leave the company, and are unhappy about the opaque criteria on which they were classified. A few employees retaliated that a much stronger move in line with the public sector units would have saved the employees. This has left the employees shocked and jittery about their future.