US techie is seeking help to deal with Indian co-workers, names a quality they lack

There is no person in this world who does not have a problem with at least one of their colleagues. From personal to professional, they do end up crossing one boundary or another that pushes you off into the pissed-off zone. But when you add into this mix a cultural difference, it creates a fire that can not be put out completely.

Now, in a viral Reddit post an American techie has asked for "help with understanding Indian colleagues ." He shared that he works in tech in the US and two years ago his company of 600 acquired an Indian company of 400. Since then, he has struggled to understand why the Indian colleagues, even one with positions above him, are only delivering on an operational task-based capacity when their roles are not.

He shared how during weekly meetings, the American department head asks for ideas and suggestions from the Indian team to improve plans and strategies but they only reply along the lines of "I agree" or "ok" which leaves the American team to fend for themselves. Considering the small team of 9 out of which 4 are from the US the burden on them gets increased. “Please help me understand the work culture in India to maybe shed light on how things are the way they are. Our department head is also getting frustrated,” he concluded in the post.

Social media to the rescue
In his viral Reddit post, many people offered their advice to solve the situation. One person shared how in India team effort is more common than individualism, which means that people will work in teams and since job hopping is a common factor, individuals are not too motivated to show cause.

"I can only offer my personal experience working with teammates in India. Team effort is much more common than individualism. Every simple discussion always seems to involve 6 to 12 teammates joining in and listening in the background and if your lucky the most senior individual will give you a tad bit of feedback. Job hopping seems very common so individuals don't necessarily get very secure and forthcoming with their opinions I find it a lot more effective just to share tasks (not too long term) and skills/tools and periodically check-up. I find the skill level is pretty good in India, just not the entrepreneurship or initiative," they wrote.

Another added how Indian workers are trained to be deferential to authority to an extent where they will not say anything to prevent being perceived in a negative way by the hierarchy. " That includes saying that they don't understand the task, or they don't have the skills or resources, or they think you are wrong, or they're going to miss a deadline, or volunteering that they have an idea that might be better than yours, etc."
The person added that in order to deal with this, they eliminated the option of not participating by swapping questions such as "any ideas" with "give me three ideas."

Many people also added that workers in technology fields in India are junior coders with little experience and they are only looking to amp up their resume. So they usually direct the creative tasks to the US team and execution tasks to the Indian one.