Going back many years, I had never actually worked with someone from India but I read about how information services were being outourced to companies in India where they could get an Indian engineer for a fraction of the cost of one in the US. I’ve always felt a little threatened by offshoring, regardless of the country where the jobs are going.
A few weeks ago, I started working (from home) for a software company where the majority of employees either live in India or immigrated from India. I’ve never felt more welcome. Everyone I’ve met so far have been very helpful and friendly. My boss immigrated from India about a decade ago. He still has his accent but it’s not near as pronounced as with my co-workers who live in India.
I did a little research on this and what I found matches my experience. Indians, in general, prefer to work in groups while Americans usually prefer to work independently. It’s a simple culteral difference. Getting an American to jump on a Teams call can sometimes be like pulling teeth but not so with my Indian co-workers. Indians tend to put a higher priority on teamwork, in my not-so-humble opinion.
I thrive when I work in a group setting. Whether it’s in the office where eveyone’s wearing earphones or working from home, I hate work settings that discourage collaboration. The Indians I work with thrive on collaboration. The good news is, so do I! I prefer to work in a group setting and this can indeed be achieved when people work from home like all of us do.
At my previous employer, where everyone on my team either lived in the US or EU, everyone pretty much kept to himself and asking questions was frowned upon. At my new place of employment, it’s a 180 -degree difference and I couldn’t be happier.