I’ve worked in the Indian IT industry for 10 years, for clients and managers from different countries. It’s been a real adventure to work, learn, and grow with people from different cultures and backgrounds. Today, I’m sharing some of my experiences working with clients and managers from the US, UK and India, and the lessons I’ve learned.
In the initial days of my career, I got to work for an American client that’s a big name in the American Utilities business, providing IT support from India. The projects followed a waterfall model, and everybody had strict timelines with little to no flexibility.
The Indian managers working under American bosses used to closely monitor our work, our timeouts, our lunch breaks, basically everything. They then reported their observations to HR without our knowledge.
We not allowed to access anything other than work on our office laptops and it was a highly monitored, closed environment with a complete lack of trust.
Working in environments like these, which are common in India, stifle creativity. We’re highly trained and our clients would get much better results if we were asked to solve problems instead of just being told to follow instructions (whether they make sense to us, or not). On top of this, a lack of job security is the worst thing, as it creates an environment of fear. The employer can fire people when they want. I have seen colleagues being fired for no reason other than that the project they were working on had finished.
This isn’t just one or two employees here or there; I remember a time when they let 250 people go without a second thought for their circumstances. Some of them were sole bread winners, supporting multi-generational families. A few months later, I was given my ‘notice to apply for resignation.’ However, I was already looking for a new job to get out of the toxic work environment. I resigned.
We’re highly trained and our clients would get much better results if we were asked to solve problems instead of just being told to follow instructions (whether they make sense to us, or not). On top of this, a lack of job security is the worst thing, as it creates an environment of fear.
Next, I joined an Indian start-up which had a British client. The brief was to operate as a self-managing team operating out of an office in India, with British managers based in London. It was a small office, but people were smart and friendly. I was so relieved to join this new organization. I always looked forward to coming to the office. Mondays were not boring anymore. I loved how the British managers were very punctual.
I loved how the British managers were very punctual. They never told us to stay late to finish work. They focused on building relationships, good communication, and creating an open work environment.
They trusted us, and this reflected in our work. The team was productive, and the client was so happy with our performance. I made some strong relationships within the team and our client in London, and I am still in touch with many of these people to this day.
I later moved on and I’m currently working for a large Fortune 500 organization in their Indian offices. Although it’s an American company, the work culture is the opposite to what I had previously experienced, thankfully. It’s open, relaxed, positive, employee-centric.
My experiences are echoed in those of my friends and colleagues who also work in Indian IT. The big differentiator when looking for a job is no longer just pay or perks, it’s culture.
Companies gain their reputation based on their culture; what people in the know say it’s like to work there. Companies get a bad reputation when they exploit their employees, pay below the market rate and force employees to work in a toxic environment to make their client happy.
When companies are able to build a reputation for valuing their employees, treating them with respect and caring about their personal and professional growth, they win in terms of attraction and retention. There’s certainly a big culture gap between different companies in India. Whether American, British or Indian, companies that focus on building a great culture will win the Indian IT talent war.
Comments