Yesterday my glorious employers felt it was important to have a two hour training on cultural awareness for the incoming replacements that we need to train and ship our jobs off to India. Needless to say the atmosphere in the room was invigorating, everyone exciting for the up coming weeks where our replacements come to us in waves and we start to realize that yes, indeed, we are losing our jobs.
The replacement company has a local office in AZ, and they had their HR manager come to speak to us about the working culture in India and other things we should be aware of as to not offend our guests while they are with us. The first hour of the training we learned the following:
1) The HR person, Bridget, has been with the company for 2 years. Since she was 16 she’s worked in American based companies (join the club, Bridget, most of the people in the room has been working since 16) and now had to immerse herself into a predominantly India working environment. It was a culture shock for her.
2) She is the HR person for 2000 employees and has 2 managers that report to her. She also has 2 bosses herself, one in NJ and one in India that she reports to.
3) The company we are selling out to, essentially, is taking over the world. There was a 3 minute video about everything this company has a piece of and it went like this: wake up to an alarm clock made by The Company, have a cup of tea in the morning that is owned by The Company, receive a phone call on a cell phone manufactured in part by The Company, get in your car made by The Company, drive over a bridge using The Company’s steel, at work using technologies supported/made by The Company, after work go to dinner at a luxury restaurant owned by The Company, charge said luxury dinner on a credit card supported by The Company’s financial section, get home and turn on the lights in your house using The Company’s electric, and finally go to bed setting your alarm clock that was made by The Company.
4) There was a brief snippet regarding some of the Indian culture. We learned that there is 26 regional languages spoken in India, the national language is Hindi, and English is the most common language. Bridget also told a lovely long story about how the weddings can last anywhere for 3-10 days, pending on the family, customs, blah, blah, blah…. She had one of her 2000 employees to come to her regarding his PTO as he was going to go back to India for his wedding and wasn’t sure how much time he had. We learned that for the first 5 years of employment the company gives 10 days of PTO and 15 days for 6 years on. Well, Mr. Groom only had 5 days of PTO, so he had to alter his 10day wedding to fit his 5 days of PTO. And she said to us, “Can you imagine having to cut your wedding short? No full celebrations, skimping out of festivities and not taking a honeymoon???” First off, I know about the lengthy wedding, but what does that have to do with me training my replacement??? NOTHING!! Bridget also explained to us, after the wedding shock, about the various climates in India (north is cold and skiing, south is hot, hot, hot).
5) Bridget also informed us that at her past job she has befriended an Indian. WATCH OUT!! That’s something totally unheard of.
6) Bridget has never been to India. When she started with the company, two years ago, the company offered to send her to India, but she had a baby and her son wasn’t “one years old’ yet, and she passed.
7) Bridget is from Chicago.
8) The biggest shock that Bridget got from working at The Company, is that they have rely more on email the verbal communication. In the past, with her American companies, 2 rounds of emailing would result in a call to resolve. With the India based company, the emails will go on forever. The reason for this is time zone differences, according to Bridget. Uh….yeah, right. Something tells me there’s more going on then time zone with the long email chains, but what do I know, I’m an ignorant American that has never been subjected to other cultures.
Then we took a 5 minute break, before starting our second hour of training. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling more culturally aware by the second. Also, I should note that the “local Indian in the house” who was there to help Bridget and answer questions, got up and LEFT around the marriage talk. He never came back.
Hour numero dos I learned:
1) The Indians that Bridget has been previously working with were Americanized. SHOCK!! With The Company, Bridget realized that fact after being in an environment where 95% of the staff is Indian, and works in the traditional Indian style. So far, all I’ve gotten on the “traditional Indian style” is that they email. A lot.
2) We (the bad Americans losing our jobs) need to look at the people we are training as individuals, not as the culture as a whole. It’s about the individual and seeing the person as an individual. Because when Bridget was applying/interviewing for her HR job (where she has 2000 employees and 2 managers report to her), the company saw her as in individual, and decided to hire locally instead of bringing someone in off shore. They saw her potential. You could tell she was very proud of this.
3) Then we touched on some cultural working styles that actually pertain to us, some Western way of thinking/working VS Indian way of thinking/working. Our concept of team work VS theirs (ours is still individual based, theirs is really more team based); our interaction with supervisors is more casual; they will not say no to a project or extra work; they tend to not be punctual; we see time as linear with deadlines, they see time as more fluid and aren’t deadline focused (unless informed of said deadline). While informing us of these facts, she interjected a couple of “to make a long story short” stories that were long, not short.
4) One of her 2000 employees came to her regarding a promotion. He was “really” stressed out about getting one. Really stressed out. She had a lunch with Indian co-worker and fellow American coworker, and she was talking to them about the stress this guy was under about not being promoted. The Indian said that promotion and title is very important in the Indian culture, and that it is more important that salary. She asked the Indian about people not happy with their salary and she was told that salaries are usually a done deal with minimal discussions, the title is more important. The fellow American then replied with “you can call me what you want, but you’ve gotta pay me” which was what Bridget was thinking but was beaten to the punch.
5) Long story short, long story short. Too many long story shorts to remember all of them.
6) The Indians coming here will adapt to our working styles, but we should be aware of where things might differ. See #3, that’s about as far as we got in the differs.
7) Its about the individual you are working with. See the individual.
8) Long story short.
9) They don’t want to disappoint us, or be a let down. They will do whatever we ask them to do, know questions asked. Well, I think that would be a little hard seeing that we are training them to take over our jobs- we aren’t really going to be working side by side on special projects.
10) Bridget does a news letter every two weeks for her 2000 employees and two managers. She likes to put fun little quizzes in there about American culture: TV, Music, Food, etc. Isn’t that great???
11) Bridget also does a news letter about US safety and security, for the Indians working here or that are going to work here. Time for more “long story shorts”.
12) In India, car seats for infants aren’t used. She was called one Saturday about a husband and wife where here and did some traveling. They went to the Hoover Dam- they got into a car accident. THE BABY FLEW OUT OF THE CAR AND INTO THE DAM AND DIED!!!! *insert loud audience gasp here* WTF??
13) Two individuals were arrested (one in AZ and the other in UT). Both were found innocent of their charges, however they were told they had to go back to India. Their charges had something to do with sexual abuse/assault with a minor. One guy apparently adjusted his pants in the toy section of WalMart, some girl saw it, told her mother he was doing more than that, a year plus later along with lots of money spent on legal fees the judge found him innocent because the video surveillance tape showed there was nothing funky going on. She didn’t mention what the other issue was about, but he too was innocent.
14) Another Saturday call where there was another car accident where three ladies were sitting in the back seat of a car and one needed neck surgery and another was pregnant and needed medical attention.
15) Then she tells us that she hopes we aren’t getting the wrong impression of these people, she hopes she isn’t conveying anything poorly. These are good people, with good hearts that love children (obviously referring back to the sexual assault/abuse with a minor arrest). They don’t want to disappoint us. Coming to America to work is a great honor for them.
At this point in time, there were only five minutes left, and at least 20 slides that we didn’t get to in the presentation. Bridget apologized for running out of time, but wanted to know if we had and questions. What question does one even ask?? We weren’t really told anything. I know how to act appropriately without intentionally offending. However, there might be subtle things, that I’m not aware of that is a big slap in the face and could get me into heaps of trouble. That’s what I need to know. Anyone who knows me knows I like to shock and offend, but this is one time where I need to suppress that urge.
After the meeting the entire team went running into our supervisor’s office to inform her how awful the training was. Then her boss came in to hear about it. Within an hour of the first ‘training’ being done, they cancelled the next 2 trainings. What was another shock was that one of the higher ups, that is heading this transition and training sat in the entire training and didn’t say a word; never interjected when things were getting way off topic, or not even covered at all. She did NOTHING. Pathetic. Simply pathetic.
I don’t know about you, but I feel more educated and accepting of the people coming in and taking my job.
Isn't that great??? The hearts say "Lamb" "Dazzle" "I heart EC" "Bite Me". The candy will be proudly displayed at my desk at work. And I have no intention of eating them.