I’m an Indian IT manager working for a US-based global organisation with clients in cross-cultural teams, and most of the challenges we face can be traced back to culture. A common mistake we make is not putting ourselves in client’s shoes to understand the problems they’re facing from a different perspective. We always look from our perspective. The other main challenge is the communication gap; a major gap we face these days. For instance, if we provided them with regular updates, this would reduce escalations, but we don’t.
In India, our work culture means that we don’t want to give negative feedback. We want the feedback to always be presented as positive, positive, positive; but that’s not realistic or possible.
For example, I had a situation recently where the process one of our clients applied was not correct. When I raised this to my boss, he told me I, “should respect the client and not give any negative feedback.” Adding that we should, “pay respect to the client in this way because they are the money makers and we are getting our salaries from them.”
This makes no sense in terms of productivity and efficiency, but it happens all the time and it’s cultural. If a person (whether or not they’re a client) is incorrect, I think we should be able to go ahead and provide honest feedback to them, including if that means telling them what they are doing is incorrect, so they can rectify it. But we can’t. That’s what it’s like here.
These patterns are deeply engrained in our culture. I was working in a large Indian IT company in around 2014 for a US client as a service desk technician. My US client asked for my feedback as to whether he was doing his job correctly or not, but my Indian boss told me not to give negative feedback because they were our clients, the source of our money, and – specifically – my salary! The client was ready to accept honest feedback, good or bad, and was specifically asking for this, but I was not able to provide it.
Problems happen when clients don’t get negative feedback, and things go haywire. It’s put down to a communication gap, and we get an escalation, but if we could give negative feedback, that would reduce the number of escalations. Here, what happens is we are not supposed to give any negative feedback, because we’re the service provider and they are providing the salary. Personally, I don’t think this should not be the case nowadays. It’s time to change this.
Recently, we had an incident in production. There was no communication with the client for 4 or 5 hours while we tried to resolve it internally. If something’s happening, it makes sense to tell the client immediately what’s happening, but we don’t. This is why communication is the biggest gap based on my experience over the last 10-11 years.
This happens in both large and small organisations in India. I’ve not worked in small organisations but I have many friends who do, and they when we get together they tell me this happens there too.
The communication gap is exacerbated by the high work pressure here. To be very frank, in Western culture people keep to office hours. If you work 8am-5pm, you’re working 8am-5pm, but here if your work is not done, you need to carry on working till it’s done. That should not be the case, because we should have a work-life balance too. But here, the work-life balance often gets missed. Then, when you don’t get a proper work-life balance, the attrition level goes up. You blame the organisation, then you go to your senior manager and complain that your work-life balance is getting hampered, that you’re not able to find time for your family, and then they end up getting your resignation.
I would say in Western cultures, what I’ve noticed is eight hours means eight hours, even when you have something urgent. But here it gets a different reaction.
What’s also needed is more real servant leadership. I have worked with several managers where I had bad days and they’ve helped me to come up with a learning curve, and I have delivered great results for that organisation. But again, I have also worked with some managers who ruined my (working) life. If you’re not performing, they tell you that you need to work more. Extra hours today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, which puts a lot of mental pressure to you as an employee.
Rather than just working longer and harder, it would be great to look at things like training, drawing lessons from mistakes made instead of being scared to make, or admit to, mistakes. It’s not realistic. Being the boss should not be about having a stick in your hand saying, “you should not do it like this.” There are different ways to get better results.
In general, I’d say 60% of senior managers in India play the ‘stick in hand’ role, while 40% are approachable. It’s a question of luck as to which one you get! As an example of a bad boss, I was working with an India-based client, and for the whole month, work had not been going well. I was very scared of that particular manager scolding me. Then I changed projects within the same organisation, I had a very good manager who was supportive and provided training. He used to sit beside me and observe calls, and he even bought me lunch! There are good and bad people, and good and bad bosses.
Now, as a manager myself, I would want all Indian managers to be mentors, not bosses. If, for example, I was handling a team of 15, I would be their friend, not just their manager. I would give them leeway. If they want to take leave, I would validate first whether the leave request was valid or not. If okay, they could take the day off. I wouldn’t immediately reject the request. These are the kind of things that lead to a toxic environment. That’s one thing I would like to change.
So, if someone starts work at 8am, and they know they’re unwell with a fever from the night before, instead of needing to come to the office, let their manager see the condition they’re in so they can be let go for the day. These kinds of small things add up and create a toxic environment. If we improve these kind of things, this can build a better working environment.
I’ve seen situations where people lie, where they say they’re not well, and then they’re in town roaming around with their friends. That happens sometimes, but it’s toxic when employees lying is the default explanation.
Giving negative feedback in public is a big one. Say we have 15 members on a call and the manager gives negative feedback in front of so many people. That also makes a toxic environment. If a manager doesn’t like someone, or what they’re saying, or the person doesn’t know something, the manager should speak to them personally, or take them to a room and give that feedback in private; not in front of everyone.
Westerners sometimes ask me in private why it is that they have 6 people on a call and only 1 – usually the boss – speaks. I would say this is down to culture, and hierarchy. So say, for example, an employee’s on a call and speaks, and he’s not aware of one particular metric, and the client asks him about that metric, and he gives a wrong answer, the boss is going to cover that at the time. But then the boss will have to explain the situation to the leadership team.
Why did his team member speak up If he’s not aware of that particular metric? It’s not okay to say you don’t know something – it creates problems. That’s why the default in India is to say nothing. I think this isn’t helpful, because if I’m making mistakes, I should admit to my mistakes.
Having open discussions about these cultural differences would help, but it doesn’t normally happen here.
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