[spike021]

we were acquired and part of our org moved into cisco HQ.

the entire floor were Indian other than our org, and over time our org was filled out with incoming transfers and new hires.

i'll never forget some irony in that one of the engineering leaders brought us together for a mini townhall once and praised our "diversity" but by then the percentage of people in the room were basically the same as you described, including said leader. even our twice a week catered lunches were almost always indian.

just an interesting experience being part of cisco for a couple of years.

[carabiner]

I was a contractor at Cisco as the only non-indian in my group. But, I think the entire floor (100+ people) was Indian except for me. I'd always heard of "toxic work environments" but was pretty dismissive, until working at Cisco. I never knew people could bring high school bullying, manipulation into a supposed professional workplace.

[hirako2000]

Diversity is the term to disguise cheaper labor. Call it women, ethnic minorities, trans, neuro divergent, on wheelchair, or those having criminal records.

It's a brilliant slogan, not just because virtue signalling, but because it spawns cross cultural factions, all selfishly united to defend it. At no further brainwashing cost to you.

You dare to attack it? You are out. Pack your stuff, and your shame.

Consolation? It would at least provide opportunities to those who always suffered injustice. Yet many who claim their right to a seat don't bother with competence.

It works, because the goal isn't more talents, we never lacked them: it's to pressure the overall labor cost.

[danw1979]

I can think of at least one fairly large “cultural faction” in the US that doesn’t like DEI

[hirako2000]

One faction, whether we adhere to its other political views or not, hating DEI doesn't disprove the mechanism. The other factions still defend it selfishly. That's exactly why it holds.

[anal_reactor]

This is so obvious now that you point it out I'm embarrassed not to have noticed it.

By the way, I was wondering if learning Hindi would be the winning strategy here. Be the only white guy speaking Hindi, instant hire.

[hirako2000]

Don't be embarrassed. Most don't see it, because the moral framing blocks economic analysis.

As for learning Hindi, it may help. But don't make the mistake of confusing cultural diversity with competence uniqueness. One expands the number or silos in the labor pool. The other justifies better pay.

[anal_reactor]

My thinking was, the goal of "diversity" is to have people reject their cultural backgrounds and form a shapeless blob that absorbs commands more easily and resists less. Basically "divide and conquer" applied to workplace.

[hirako2000]

Dividing implies having to preserve, if not reinforce differences.

Of course those difference aren't meant to object the dominant force. They are meant to counter act each others.

I see more push for integration than assimilation in the workplace.

[pixelatedindex]

lol that depends. If they are mostly from South India, learning Hindi might not move the needle as much. Might want to pick up some Kannada, Telugu and/or Tamil. Would be pretty cool for trying, and it’ll probably make your outlook favorable

[Conscat]

In the bay area, I've met relatively few NRIs who don't know Hindi well, even if it's not their first language. Most of them that I've met are not even Kannadiga, Mallu, Telugu, or especially not Tamil. Sample size of at least several dozen.

[hirako2000]

The irony is ethnic Indians in the U.S barely speak any of those.

[Conscat]

Studying Hindi has felt very rewarding to me, and it impresses people disproportionately to my actual skill, but I don't feel it has affected my ability to communicate with coworkers whatsoever.

[dinkumthinkum]

No. Very large numbers of Indians, particularly ones in the US do not even really speak Hindi or use it much. It is more common for them to speak their local languages and good luck learning all of those. Also, the culture is such that I think they would just have a good laugh as they click delete on your resume or whatever.

[intended]

Maybe America should export US labour and safety standards.

Outsourcers don’t just compete on price, they compete on hours worked, and support given.

You do it in outsourcing contracts to a degree, just go further - holidays available, work hours, firing procedures, support and health services.

I do know that FDA inspectors travel to factories around the world to ensure they are compliant.

You’d remove the incentive to undercharge based on sweat shop practices, and then it’s only a cost of living arbitrage.

At that point you could set up in a lower CoL region in America over outsourcing.

I’m probably missing some incentives but I think this would work, and it’s an easy political sell.

[simonra]

Please don't export US labour and safety standards. The amount of paid time off is hard to argue is not unethical, the conflation of vacation time and sick time clearly is unethical, the amount of parental leave (especially maternity) is a crime against humanity. The firing procedures are also something you'd expect to read about in a history book besides a picture of a child visibly yearning for the coal mines, contracts with a mutual resignation period giving both parties adequate time to transition is a bare minimum. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Please please America spend serious efforts developing your labour standards to a humane level instead of exporting them.

[intended]

Ah yes. Missed that part.

Factory Safety standards I would make an argument for, you should see some of the things I see in developed nations.

> Please please America spend serious efforts developing your labour standards to a humane level instead of exporting them.

This is possibly the critical weakness in the idea. Maybe EU labour standards?

[suddenlybananas]

That's essentially colonialism. You can't go into other countries and change their labour laws, it's a violation of their sovereignty. Obviously there's a huge problem with uneven development across the world that makes outsourcing possible and difficult for workers in the developed world, but I'm not sure such a solution would be politically feasible.

[intended]

Eh? That’s such a stretched definition of colonialism that it ceases to have meaning.

Firstly, This is how things are being done now - post colonialism. America has many laws and drives to avoid labour from sweatshops. This was a whole thing, it may not have been the most effective, but it was a political force that drove change.

Foxconn factories having workers commit suicide and place safety nets around buildings was a huge issue for Apple, and it resulted in changes to working conditions.

And as I mentioned before, the FDA inspects factories around the world to ensure that something sold within America that has the FDA approved label actually meets standards.

The idea is feasible I just don’t know how effective it will be. Political will can be found in America, and this affects only foreign outsourcing while supporting American workers. You don’t need political will in other nations.

On top of that, it moves competition away from a race to the bottom, which reinforces worker rights. If worker rights in India and America are at parity, then the attractiveness to move to America changes as well. America will remain attractive because of standard of living.

It’s an issue for outsourcing, and firms that buy outsourced services, but not that much of an issue.

One issue is that worker rights in America are kind of a low bar.

[suddenlybananas]

>You don’t need political will in other nations.

Yes you do if you want to change their labour laws.

[intended]

> Yes you do if you want to change their labour laws.

You aren't changing the labour laws in their nations.

If firms want to trade with American firms, then they have to have certain work norms that they abide by in their contracts/.

[hirako2000]

Abolishing restricted borders, collectively would push the logic to its final destination. Such sweat shops exist because humans are confined.

Cross border inspectors is mostly PR theater. Even if it was feasible, local verticals spill into others, so it would always be lower costs in less developed/regulated nations.

[riedel]

The way you can phrase it: you may jsut get people that are happy to do a good job for the pay they get. In many areas your typical white/cis/hetero/neurotypical male is not present, because you cannot get the maximum reward for their well-trained ego. I think diversity/pay is pretty munch confounded for plausible reasons.

[hirako2000]

That's saying the white/cis/hetero male is absent because ego demands more reward. Exactly. Diversity fills that gap at lower cost. That's my point, or a counter?

The scheme's motive is the overall effect. Lower wages. It doesn't care about white hetero, or black trans who happen to participate in paralympics.

[shell0x]

[flagged]

[truncate]

Or maybe you just aren't that good of an engineer (or whatever profession you are into) and find the easiest group to blame on your failures. I found that people who often are quick to judge and group of people in one bucket based on their color/ethnicity/gender/... are often not that bright people and like to focus on directing it on others. Somewhat like MAGA.

[nixass]

> Somewhat like MAGA.

Wow this escalated quickly. What OP is saying is not anecdotal but true to every major US tech company. You can cope all you want, won't make a difference

[i67vw3]

The reason is basically that you are "required" to hire other "Indians".

If you get a job at a good company on your own merit, you immediately start getting calls to "refer" your college friends, family, people from your region/state.

Refer here means refer it to HR and make some "setting" that you are guranteed to be hired based on your "reference". Naturally reference would mean that considering you are an employee you would know about open positions and may refer the position to your friend, who would later on get the job on his own merit considering that he is skilled for the position along with required experience.

But the case for Indian employees is that a reference entails to scam the company itself, by letting a less skilled person into the company by making a "setting" with HR etc, who may themselves be from the same region/state.

And if you try to be morally upright person to deny such a scammy "reference", you would then get to listen verbal abuses from your friends and even from your own family members. To deny such a reference leads to straight up "banishment".

Tip:- Among 100 Indians if you see, only 1 or 2 are actually good at their job (or by morality).

[mavelikara]

Polydactyly can be treated surgically! /s

Jokes aside, if in 15 years you have worked with only few good Indian engineers, you probably have not yet worked at places with high talent density. I could understand if you had said you have (a) worked with many low quality engineers from India, or (b) worked with far more low quality engineers from India than high quality ones. But if, in absolute numbers, you haven't come across many good engineers from India, I can only infer than you probably haven't worked with very good engineers across the board.

[keithxm23]

Gotta love the covert racism here.

[boelboel]

Where's the covert it's open racism

[ponector]

The best thing in such companies like Cisco is discrimination by caste within Indian workers.

[jakeydus]

Yes what the fuck is this entire thread