Guilty as Charged

[floopilot]

Cliques always disturb me but I've come to accept them as a part of natural human social interaction. But something has been bothering me for a while now and I thought putting it in words should clear up some of my confusion. A big confession up front though: much as I hate to admit it, I have realized a long while ago that I'm no saint and am as

Comments

[trupti]

Hmm, I've actually had a different experience at work. We've got many temps/contractors too, and I see them around on a daily basis. I guess I've not noticed a divide or awkwardness when I socialize with them. In fact, most of the Indians are pretty chatty and always eager to know where I'm from, how long I've been here etc.

Just the other day, my colleague was telling me about her encounter with a new employee who had just joined as a contractor. My colleague is the reserved kind, and doesn't feel comfortable revealing a lot about herself in the first 30 seconds of small talk. Anyway, she met the new Indian lady in the ladies room. My colleague is Indian as well, and the first minute of conversation went something like this --

New Lady: [Big smile] Hi!
Colleague: Hi there, I haven't seen you around before. Did you join recently?
New Lady: Yeah, just been a week. I'm working with team blah blah. What about you, how long have you been working here?
Colleague: Oh, I'm with team blah blah for so many years blah blah. How do you like it here?
New Lady: It's been good so far. It's nice to see so many friendly faces around. So, are you single?
Colleague: Huh!? Ahem .... No ...
New Lady: Oh, cool! Do you have a boyfriend then? I'm married and have a 4 year old kid.
Colleague: Oh, ok. Yeah, I'm married too.
New Lady: Oh! Wow, you have a husband! You look so young, I would never have guessed ... Any kids?
Colleague: Huh! Umm ... no, no kids yet.

... And you get the drift. :-)

[what_a_fool]

It's not about not interacting with other Indian colleagues who are from coming from India temporarily.

But mostly when the parent company has outsourced to an Indian company, especially if it's the mundane tasks, the feeling is that they are some kind doing lower-grade work where the parent company retains the superior work here.

But the core "issue" is not about this particular example.
If you extend it, I am sure you can relate it to some other experience in your life. At some point or other we find ourselves in the "inferior" or "superior" end of the spectrum.

The "issue" is - are we really superior/inferior?