BANGALORE, INDIA: As pundits around the world talk of "green shoots" and a W-shaped recovery, a software engineer with a Bangalore-based IT firm is looking at her own personal economic indicator to find out if the gloom has evaporated.

"We used to get an official e-mail every year on Dec. 24 asking us to choose from various New Year gift options - from iPods to DVD players to microwave ovens," she said. "The practice stopped in 2008."

If she gets such a mail this year, she will know things are getting better.

Young Indian technology professionals and call-centre employees, once pampered as they guided India Inc to the pinnacle of global outsourcing, are keeping their fingers crossed for a better 2010.

"When we see an increase in the number of projects, that means a positive outlook," said an employee in the Bangalore office of software company Ariba Inc. "Managers have been telling us that the scenario is improving."

Until last year, Indian IT firms such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies and Wipro Ltd maintained a flamboyant work culture to lure new talent as well as retain old hands.

International assignments, regular team outings, monthly incentives, free movie tickets and even dating allowances were commonly on offer.

But Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy, which shook the world economy, changed it all.

Since then, companies have resorted to severe cost cuts to overcome the slowdown, removing much of the glamour from the workplace.

"No, the management has become old, no allowance for dating. We cannot encourage these kind of things," Infosys chief financial officer V. Balakrishnan said on a lighter note at the Reuters India Investment Summit in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Employees at a reputed IT firm in the southern Indian city of Chennai just have to look at the ceilings in their office to feel the heat of the economic downturn - whirring fans have replaced air conditioners.

But things might be looking up as economies limp towards a possible recovery.

"After the quarterly results, managers have slowly started taking people out for lunches," an employee with Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp said. "There is a slight change in outlook."

"We may announce a wage increase in the course of the quarter... but it won't be in line with the heady days of the past," Suresh Vaswani, joint chief executive of Wipro's information technology business, said at the Reuters India Investment Summit.

But most importantly for the workers, the job situation at Indian IT firms seems to have improved, and many feel the downturn has taught them one of life's lessons.

"People who were ready to settle for low salaries have started bargaining now," said Swagata Ghosh, a consultant with a Bangalore-based human resources firm. "Also, those who clung on to their jobs in the recession have now started looking out."

But Ghosh said she had noticed a change in perceptions.

"People are more optimistic about their future right now, but they no more take things for granted. They have become very cautious, spending-wise or otherwise."

If employees are cautious, so are their employers and the flamboyant ways of the past are unlikely to return as spending discipline becomes the new buzzword.

In Bangalore, where companies typically provide transportation for employees to get to the workplace, some IT firms have replaced cars with buses. The use of the Internet, printers and photocopy machines is strictly monitored.

"At least people are not worrying about their jobs now," said an employee with AOL India. "But salaries have not gone up, and obviously there is still a clampdown on any sort of extra expenditure."