Victor Feinman

I couldn’t have said it better myself. From the mouth of my friend, Rizwan:

OMG.

i don’t ever use little acronyms like OMG, LOL, BRB, etc. [haha] but OMG today was something else. today was my tipping point, the proverbial last straw. unfortunately, i don’t have some big retaliation planned, so all i can do is log on to Blogger and bitch and moan about it for a bit.

there is this idea here in India - indeed, anywhere in the world where South Asians reside - this notion, this concept, that someone who is being asked for help or advice or guidance or direction cannot do two things:

a) say “No,” and
b) do what we have been referring to as “overstepping one’s boundaries.”
and let me tell you how FRUSTRATING this has become. i was talking to one of my co-trainees and friends, Eagle Eye Ryan, just an hour ago about this cultural nuance. and my concern is not whether we will be able to deal with it over the next 6 to 8 months, because we will handle it. after all, we really don’t have a choice. my concern is whether we will have to deal with these frustrations once we return to the States.

now i’m not calling them incompetencies. to do so would only prove me ignorant and narrow-minded. i recognize this clash of approaches to doing business as rooted in cultural differences, not in a measurement of one’s intelligence and aptitude. believe me, the Indians working here - whether trainees or otherwise - are plenty capable of doing our jobs stateside without breaking a sweat in terms of intelligence required. our instructor today, i must say, demonstrated this with ease.

perhaps an illustration would be helpful. on Monday, a handful of people went to Mysore to take care of their Foreigners’ Registration. they were told to bring one copy of their offer letters and their passports. but upon returning, they informed us that only after they got to the office were they told they had to have 3 copies of their offer letters!

well, at least the rest of us now knew. so that same afternoon, about 30 of us [not including me, which is what makes my frustration peculiar - i wasn’t directly affected by anything, yet i still feel strongly about it] were called out and told to be ready Tuesday morning at 10 am to go to the commissioner in Mysore to take care of the same registration.

Tuesday morning everyone shows up and the whole thing is canceled because of some unforeseen event - an emergency or something. OK, fine, no problem. this kind of stuff happens all the time. later that afternoon everyone is told that not only do they need 3 copies of their offer letters and their passports, they also need EIGHT MORE copies of their passport photos. we came with 15, and with all the forms we’ve filled out over the past week, most, if not all of us, have none left. when we submitted our initial Foreigners’ Registration paperwork, we attached SIX photos per person - and now they want another EIGHT?!

well, we asked, how will we get this new development taken care of?

no worries, they said. the photographer will be here today at the end of training to take your pictures.

sure enough, the photographer showed up. so great. we got our pictures taken. now let’s just hope that there are no more unexpected twists in this ever-thickening plot.

—

today a lady comes in at the end of our training and tells us that because the Tuesday trip had been canceled, it has been rescheduled for tomorrow Thursday morning at 10 am.

well, we ask, we had pictures taken yesterday. we need to have those for tomorrow. where can we get those from?

her: i don’t know. i’m not in charge of that.

us: well, who is in charge?

her: [mumbles some name - the mike she was using was a little fuzzy and we were having a hard time understanding everything she was saying]

us: um, OK fine. where is [mumblemumble]’s office located?

her: go to HR.

us: OK, where is HR?

her: this wing, 2nd floor.

us - or at least me: [exasperated sigh] OK great, thanks.

—

it was apparent she wanted to help us - but she didn’t want to say, “hey, i don’t know the answer but i’ll find out for you.” no. her answer was, “hey, i don’t know, but why don’t YOU go find out what’s up.”

this marks a radically different approach to doing business here in India. back in the States, if someone had asked me a question i didn’t know the answer to, my response would have been - and mind you, it’s because this is what i’ve been taught my entire life - “you know, i’m not gonna lie. i don’t know. but i’ll tell you what: i’m gonna find out and get back to you.” that’s the idea of hospitality, of going one step further than necessary to make the customer or client happy. that’s what we’ve been taught to do. the Indian model, in stark contrast, is - “i know what i do. if you ask me about something that falls outside what i know, i can tell you straightaway who you need to go talk to. but i will not go out of my way to find out for you.”

again, i can’t chalk this up to a lack of hospitality or desire to please the customer. however, it is representative of the cultural norm here that to go out of one’s way to find an answer or to help someone out indicates that one is overstepping one’s boundaries, because there is someone else who is more qualified to answer a question or to provide help or guidance.

so my concern here is not whether what comes off to us as disorganization and a very compartmentalized approach to doing business will be a problem while we are here in India. because it most definitely will be a constant source of frustration, and again, we won’t really have a choice but to deal with it. but remember, the company is primarily an Indian-based company [although we’re working to change that image]. therefore, has this notion of compartmentalization pervaded the corporate culture? better yet, does the company make a distinction between corporate culture and geographical or regional culture? i think that in some respects, it does. and i hope that in this sense that i’ve been discussing, there is a distinction made as well. because to go back to the States and find that everyone stateside has this same mentality will be enormously frustrating. business simply cannot be done - or at least done as well as it potentially could be - with such a mindset and approach to doing business.

i emailed a colleague who works in the Atlanta office at the end of training today asking him if things back home are the same as they are here [he went through this India training one year ago]. hopefully when i check my email tomorrow i’ll have an answer. until then, here’s to hoping - perhaps fruitlessly - that things will indeed get better.