Posted on 07/17/2005 by An Indian
Viewed: 786 times
Here's my boss from hell story. I am from India and my boss from hell is also from India.
This is a high-tech company in the silicon valley where you find scores of Indian/Chinese peons, many Indian bosses and everyone else.
I took this job before I got my MBA from a top-5 business school. It was really an attractive offer and the boss-from-hell had a smiling face at that time. She did tell me that she expected me to let her know within a couple of days about my decision. After the interview I called her back and told her I would join. Now during the interview I had made it very clear that I would not be able to start before the middle of July. For one, this new job is 2000 miles away from where we lived and we had to sell off our home. All the devils in the interview said they had no problems.
Ohmigosh! As soon as I sent my acceptance, this woman calls me and asks me to join in June! I was stunned. We haggled a bit and because I didn't want to screw any initial impression, I agreed to join the company toward the end of June.
So I signed a contract with a realtor, had my stuff packed and moved and I flew in here. And I was all set to start my new job, excited and nervous.
Believe it or not, this Indian b*tch never welcomed me into her team. She did not even meet me practically for the whole of the first day. This is a high-tech company and everywhere that I have worked, I always had my manager welcome me, introduce me around and even on most occassions take me out for lunch. No such thing here.
So far that I have worked in this firm, my boss has met me for max 40 minutes (in 3 weeks??). She doesn't even introduce me to anyone and she expects me to meet people on my own and read her mind.
Finally, she has no heart - I told her once that I would be coming in late since my 1 year old is sick. She says that she would make an exception for me but in future she would not like this practice ("So what does your wife do?").
I have lived in the U.S. for 18 years, I am an U.S. citizen and never ever has anyone talked to me like that.
Nearly all Indian bosses I have seen in this high-tech firm are like her, slave-drivers, who have zillions of H1B minions working for them round the clock and who tremble in fear as they have no permanent residency and the company is sponsoring their paperwork. Of course a big part of this company's R&D is outsourced to China and India where there are more hapless morons waiting to work for peanuts.
Bottom line - avoid bosses from India - PERIOD! I am an Indian but I have no qualms in saying 200 years of British servitude and one of the worst bureaucracies have bred a sinister work and cultural ethos. Stay away! That's my advice, since GWB won't stop these morons from coming on H1Bs.
POST A COMMENTcorporateSlave(07/18/2005)
You know...this is not the first time I have heard this but I hadn't thought about it from the perspective you bring in your story. I have heard a few times that people from India who work in the United States as citizens have trouble working for an Indian boss. It's as if that boss trys doubly hard to "put them in their place" and show his/her authority just because their employee is Indian. It is sad that this type of thing goes on. And yes, I wholeheartedly agree that H1B visas are allowing companies to sh*t on workers because a) they know they can get cheap slave labor and can threaten their citizen workers and b) they have those H1B workers by the balls and can treat them how they please. Ridiculous. A little over 3 years to go till GWB is out!
Mrs C(07/20/2005)
You sound like a very intelligent person who should not be putting up with this treatment. Any company would be lucky to have you.
HappyAtLast(07/25/2005)
Ignorance has no racial boundries! I had a boss that never worked a full 40-hour work week, but gave me a "verbal warning" because I had to take a day off due to a family matter. The reason she wrote me up? She had to work an hour over her usual quitting time because of my absence! Like my "handle", I'm no longer working for her, having found a much better work situation.
Keachie (07/17/2005)
Right on! Some of my worst bosses were just like me-white, of northern European ancestry, educated in eastern liberal arts schools, etc. It's as if they're saying, "since you're like me, you should already know what a jerk I am"!
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