I never got in more trouble as a child than when I mentioned race. And though I've gone through a few periods of brief and mild bigotry I always overcame them, and several times I've had black friends and coworkers who told me in very direct terms that I was truly a decent person, that I didn't treat them poorly, nor overcompensate.
I never got in more trouble as a child than when I mentioned race. And though I've gone through a few periods of brief and mild bigotry I always overcame them, and several times I've had black friends and coworkers who told me in very direct terms that I was truly a decent person, that I didn't treat them poorly, nor overcompensate.
The one case I still have some trouble with is Indians. Dot, not feather. There are a lot of H1-Bs in software and a lot of the are really obnoxious and have a terrible work ethic, but that's culture. And before Microsoft added American Hygiene Expectations to new employee orientation in India, a lot of them thought showering more than weekly would make their skin come off, and the BO was enough to make your eyes water.
In 2020 I had an Indian coworker who was probably the worst in every way; he had no pride in his work, did the least he could get away with, did lousy work, and boasted about clearing tasks, however shabbily, was uncommunicative to the point that I had to escalate to management, something I really dislike doing. I struggled to see him as "a lousy coworker" and not as "an Indian." In the end, I wrote up the experience on Medium and made almost $3000 on that one article, buying a nice Moog with the money. I never mentioned his nationality but I didn't have to, so, of course, I got a few jabs of "racist" but for every one of those I had a dozen for whom the article was resonant af.
I did a great deal of international travel, mostly working with people, rather than as a tourist which makes quite a difference in how you get to know people. I never got sent to India, I was not the only traveler in the org. My "strong" people experience was elsewhere but I have developed an ability to tolerate horrible smells.
I worked with what were first wave H1-B workers in my industry and had a manager who led the way in hiring where most managers were a bit more reluctant. Her difficulty, which became mine as a mentor, was that she was able to hire software types, but we were hardware test and you had to understand electronic hardware to write software that did the job. It's a narrow niche field.
At the risk of sounding sexist, I found the women to be harder, conscientious workers. But as someone who has worked in strongly male dominated fields, electronic and mechanical, before diversity hiring became a thing, women entering those fields had to be damned good to overcome prejudices, in my observation.
Looking past tribes and viewing people as individuals has generally come easily for me, which might be the reason I seem to have been well received by people outside of my tribe. It's good that I've retired since I would probably find working with people who have a chip on their shoulder when it comes to intersectionality.
I needed to periodically remind myself that the two best managers I ever had in my 30+ years in IT were both Indian. But the work ethic thing I mentioned came through again and again. And not only in my experience; I took over a project in Windows Mobile at MS working under a manager who told me that what they had gotten from Tata after a year of paying six developers did not even show a window before it crashed and they still demanded to get paid. I did it to completion singlehandedly in four months.
He was pretty disgusted.
Agreed on the women being better workers.
After the dotcom crash when thousands of us were out of work I interviewed for a job paying half what I had been getting, a job I didn't want but out of desperation for the money, and the Indian interviewer was so condescending that I don't exaggerate to say he's lucky to be alive. I hear the same from many, many others.
This guy in 2020 was passionate in his mediocrity, I know no other way to describe it.
I never got in more trouble as a child than when I mentioned race. And though I've gone through a few periods of brief and mild bigotry I always overcame them, and several times I've had black friends and coworkers who told me in very direct terms that I was truly a decent person, that I didn't treat them poorly, nor overcompensate.
The one case I still have some trouble with is Indians. Dot, not feather. There are a lot of H1-Bs in software and a lot of the are really obnoxious and have a terrible work ethic, but that's culture. And before Microsoft added American Hygiene Expectations to new employee orientation in India, a lot of them thought showering more than weekly would make their skin come off, and the BO was enough to make your eyes water.
In 2020 I had an Indian coworker who was probably the worst in every way; he had no pride in his work, did the least he could get away with, did lousy work, and boasted about clearing tasks, however shabbily, was uncommunicative to the point that I had to escalate to management, something I really dislike doing. I struggled to see him as "a lousy coworker" and not as "an Indian." In the end, I wrote up the experience on Medium and made almost $3000 on that one article, buying a nice Moog with the money. I never mentioned his nationality but I didn't have to, so, of course, I got a few jabs of "racist" but for every one of those I had a dozen for whom the article was resonant af.
I did a great deal of international travel, mostly working with people, rather than as a tourist which makes quite a difference in how you get to know people. I never got sent to India, I was not the only traveler in the org. My "strong" people experience was elsewhere but I have developed an ability to tolerate horrible smells.
I worked with what were first wave H1-B workers in my industry and had a manager who led the way in hiring where most managers were a bit more reluctant. Her difficulty, which became mine as a mentor, was that she was able to hire software types, but we were hardware test and you had to understand electronic hardware to write software that did the job. It's a narrow niche field.
At the risk of sounding sexist, I found the women to be harder, conscientious workers. But as someone who has worked in strongly male dominated fields, electronic and mechanical, before diversity hiring became a thing, women entering those fields had to be damned good to overcome prejudices, in my observation.
Looking past tribes and viewing people as individuals has generally come easily for me, which might be the reason I seem to have been well received by people outside of my tribe. It's good that I've retired since I would probably find working with people who have a chip on their shoulder when it comes to intersectionality.
I needed to periodically remind myself that the two best managers I ever had in my 30+ years in IT were both Indian. But the work ethic thing I mentioned came through again and again. And not only in my experience; I took over a project in Windows Mobile at MS working under a manager who told me that what they had gotten from Tata after a year of paying six developers did not even show a window before it crashed and they still demanded to get paid. I did it to completion singlehandedly in four months.
He was pretty disgusted.
Agreed on the women being better workers.
After the dotcom crash when thousands of us were out of work I interviewed for a job paying half what I had been getting, a job I didn't want but out of desperation for the money, and the Indian interviewer was so condescending that I don't exaggerate to say he's lucky to be alive. I hear the same from many, many others.
This guy in 2020 was passionate in his mediocrity, I know no other way to describe it.