Regarding Diversity

The workplace was never intended to mirror the U.N. or to introduce us to the intricacies of the caste system. As a professional, I do, however, expect to find people working alongside of me competent in two areas: one - that for which they were hired (be it BA, DBA, or data entry), and two - English. Not one or the other, - BOTH! A modicum of familiarity with the local culture and customs would be nice, but let's be realistic, and not set our goals too high (although, I thought that a morning shower and a fresh shirt every now and then was not unreasonable unless you're French, but I've been proven wrong there too).

Yet, it's becoming increasingly common to see IT shops where, an otherwise small ethnic or cultural minority is predominant. Generally, those tend to be Indian/Pakistani shops, but those are not the only possibilities. The question is, "Why?"

Why would a company located in LA, Chicago or NYC have a primarily Indian or Chinese or Russian IT organization? Yeah, yeah, yeah, the reality of it is, there's only one reason - $. Immigrants (even the qualified ones) are considerably cheaper than their American counterparts. Well, almost. Not all immigrants, but the reasonably new ones. But the low price tag comes with strings attached.

Communication skills. "I speak Anglis goodly" will pass at a local 7-Eleven, but not when you're trying to set up a server or determine software requirements. And at this point, I really don't give a shit that Rajesh has an MS in CS (sorry Dr. Seuss) and is a regular wunderkind when it comes to Oracle. If he answers "yes" to my "how" question, we're done. Unfortunately, Rajesh will frequently answer "yes" to any question because disagreeing with his superior or even simply an older man is considered impolite in his end of the world. And that is a problem.

Fragmented cliquish culture. It won't come as a surprise that an outsider (a regular American Joe or another immigrant, but from a different part of the world) will be uncomfortable, and frequently, ineffective in such a setting.

Low technical skills. Not always, but not infrequently either. (Of course when I don't understand three quarters of what Rajesh is saying, perhaps I'm not the best guy to judge his technical skills.) But chances are, Rajesh was recommended and hired by his manager, Sandeep, who, in spite of all indications to the contrary, has full faith that Rajesh will pick up that ETL stuff one of these days (while catching up on the news at Bangalore). Meanwhile, Joe (or Stan) will pick up the slack. (And Joe is getting more and more pissed.)

High turnover. It couldn't be any other way. Joe will leave because it'll become unbearable to work there. And Rajesh will eventually leave too, because he'll either pick up some English and get a better paying job, or he'll go back to Bangalore.

The issues mentioned above lead directly to low quality of the product. Any one of them taken by itself would have a negative impact on the quality, however, when combined it might prove to be lethal. But that, of course, in the long term. Meanwhile, the CIO is saving a few bucks, and Rajesh can cook a mean curry.