'We Want Hike!': HCL Employees Chant As CEO C Vijayakumar Takes Stage At Chennai Event | VIDEO

A video from HCL's 50th anniversary celebrations in Chennai has sparked widespread discussion online after employees turned a festive event into an impromptu appeal for salary hikes.The viral clip captures the moment HCL Technologies CEO C Vijayakumar walked onto the stage to greet employees during the company's golden jubilee celebrations. Instead of simply cheering, a section of the audience broke into loud chants of "We want hike," catching many by surprise and creating one of the event's most talked-about moments.The footage is from one of the concerts organised by the HCL Group across multiple cities to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The Chennai edition featured a special gathering for employees, including a live performance by singer

Anirudh Ravichander.The video opens with a giant image of C Vijayakumar displayed on a large LED screen before the CEO walks onstage to acknowledge the crowd. Within moments, employees begin chanting, "We want hike," with the slogan growing louder as Vijayakumar smiles, waves to the audience and proceeds with the programme without reacting to the demand.The clip was first shared on X, where a user captioned it, "When the CEO of HCL came on stage, employees started chanting, 'We want a hike!'" Since then, it has been widely circulated across social media platforms, attracting thousands of reactions.Many users viewed the incident as a rare instance of employees publicly voicing their expectations directly to the company's top leadership. Others described it as an "honest employee moment," saying the chants reflected workplace frustrations in a humorous yet candid manner.

The Chennai celebration was part of a series of events organised by HCL to mark five decades of the company's journey. Besides employee interactions, the festivities included concerts in several cities, with Anirudh Ravichander's performance emerging as one of the biggest attractions for employees attending the Chennai event.C Vijayakumar has been the Chief Executive Officer of HCL since 2016 and assumed the additional role of Managing Director in 2021. An alumnus of PSG College of Technology in Tamil Nadu with a degree in electrical and electronics engineering, he joined HCL in 1994 as a senior engineer and rose through the ranks over the next three decades.Although the celebrations were intended to commemorate HCL's 50-year milestone, it was the employees' spontaneous demand for a pay hike that ultimately stole the spotlight and became the defining viral moment from the event.