Comments | london1967: Indian handbook

london1967

Indian handbook

Jan 16, 2009 16:41

This memo was sent to the Indian staff travelling to the the UK, following reports of some "incidents".

1. The UK office is less hierarchical than in India and every member of staff is expected to be treated politely & equally.

2. The UK culture encourages people to question politely when you don't understand. People from the UK will get frustrated ( Read more... )

india, work

Comments 29

(The comment has been removed)

london1967 January 16 2009, 23:52:20 UTC

I was surprised that I wasn't given a list of dos and don'ts before my trip to India.

Who knows what terrible faux pas I might have committed!

lvmybehrs January 16 2009, 20:56:50 UTC

No. 2 is real important. There is a Nepalese (sp?) Contractor I have to deal with. And the first project he was assigned that we worked on together was a nightmare. And it was a politically sensitive rush assignment. I would put things in email and discuss with him on the phone and he would say okay...and would not produce what I wanted on some mapping assignments. It was FRUSTRATING!

I am surprised though how bold your company is to distribute a memo like this. But I too feel it’s important to understand the environment one is working in.

After all, it would not be polite for me not to look you in the eye and instead be transfixed on your basket each time we were to interact in and out of the office. ;-)

I

london1967 January 17 2009, 00:00:12 UTC

I had very similar experiences with some colleagues.
And at first I couldn't understand why it was happening.

From what I saw at the office in India, no. 1 is also an important point to remind staff of!

And as for your last point, I'm sure we could negotiate some more hands-on approach! ;-) LOL!

lvmybehrs January 17 2009, 01:20:39 UTC

Oh my. And my hands are indeed soft to the touch. Or can be a rough as you'd like them to be.

Have a nice weekend handsome.

london1967 January 17 2009, 09:48:16 UTC

Thank you! And you too, Klaus!

*hugs*

le_lapin January 16 2009, 21:28:39 UTC

I could say a lot about the 6 and how it is applied here.

london1967 January 17 2009, 00:00:56 UTC

I guess not in a good way?

le_lapin January 17 2009, 05:26:07 UTC

No, much to the shame of people from my country who barely apologize before switching to French. The contractual language is English here for this project though but...
I guess part of this comes from the fact that languages at large are poorly taught back home added to the natural lack of respect. This contrasts very much with our colleagues from Finland (not so much with our other colleagues from Germany whom I expected to be more considerate in that regard though they're definitely not as bad as we are).

london1967 January 17 2009, 10:16:41 UTC

That's bad, especially as it sounds like it's a real melting pot.

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multicultural offices redbearmark January 16 2009, 22:51:22 UTC

we have many challenges at the USPS. We have a large group of Filipinos and they are always talking Tagalog.
We have a group of hearing impaired and they use ASL (American Sign language)

the first can be rude, the second is endlessly visual and interesting (it is a handly language - you can talk across a crowded room and be heard LOL)

an interesting memo - it shows that things are different in other lands that you just take for granted.

Re: multicultural offices london1967 January 17 2009, 00:02:56 UTC

Yes the cultural differences are quite amazing.

Even within Europe (for instance no. 3 wouldn't certainly apply to Italy or Spain).

Re: multicultural offices redbearmark January 18 2009, 02:56:35 UTC

now that I am older and do man watch more, does that make me European too?

Re: multicultural offices london1967 January 18 2009, 22:10:15 UTC

Oh yes, we'll give you an honorary citizenship (you pick the country!)

gorkabear January 16 2009, 23:01:58 UTC

#6 is just offensive.
In my year there in the UK we had that discussion with some English colleagues. One of my answers was that we would discuss in english in front of them when they would use a simpler english for our less-fluent colleagues and didn't use english as an arm to ridiculize us.
Phew

lvmybehrs January 16 2009, 23:38:28 UTC

we would discuss in english in front of them when they would use a simpler english for our less-fluent colleagues and didn't use english as an arm to ridiculize us.

That's sad if that is the case. I know I speak english to my co-workers who are less fluent. If they don't understand I try to explain differently but i am by all means not doing it to ridicule them. If all else fails I speak Spanish.

gorkabear January 17 2009, 11:21:17 UTC

Well, in the end it's an attittude some monolingual speakers have against people with different (and usually "considered inferior" languages).

English speakers are very arrogant. Likewise French and Spanish speakers.

lvmybehrs January 20 2009, 18:31:19 UTC

I know this of the French. I certainly would hope the Spanish bears wouldn't criticize me and my non-Castilian Spanish. ;-)

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