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India being a Low Trust Society is largely being l...
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n
India being a Low Trust Society is largely being left out of remote work revolution - Thoughts ?
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c
I don't think India is a Low Trust society. Else we won't be having Indians as CEOs for non-indian giants like Google, Microsoft, etc. But, the problem is: Most of the companies that offer Remote opportunities are US Based. As we, Indians, have huge time difference with US, those companies do not prefer to employ us, since communication is the key in Remote roles. Just a thought! 🙂
n
[Via Kunal Shah] Unfortunately, in this country, people are low on the trust factor and that is the reason it takes years for a person, company or a brand to earn consumer trust. For India, our default setting is distrust. Our distrust levels are so high that we empty the petrol tank before sending off our cars for servicing.
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Clarification. I am not talking about specific individuals. I am talking about India as a society.
The behavior of a group can seperate from behavior of individuals.
*can be
c
Individuals make a society. Moreover, there are Indian companies which offer Remote roles.
If we still believe that India is on Low Trust side, it will never come out.. People will still be emptying their petrol tanks before giving their cars for servicing and next generation follows... It never ends. It is us, the people of India, should start bringing change. We have to trust each other.. If we don't trust each other, why would an outsider trust us. 🙂
n
Agree and that is the aspiration. My point if from perspective of current reality and how it may/may effect the future. Wanted to put out the thought and know if others have felt this way while bidding for remote work.
And if yes what are some counter measures one can take to mitigate this perception.
a
I don't think India is any different than any other country. The problem is we have a scarcity of resources that results in Scarcity mindset of the people. Like any other country, we are going through a phase, as our economy getting better, people's habits and attitudes will change.
s
Anecdote time! At an interview, ca 2014, I asked about the possibility of going remote. The hiring manager needed help(!) to understand 'remote work'. She then responds with something along the lines of 'Why would we want a remote employee when we have "hundreds" of candidates eager to join us as "normal employees". Another time, a very prominent Bangalore-based startup turned me down saying, they were in super early stages and they need everyone to be in office for "max productivity".
n
@shy-easter-1444 did you a get a sense of distrust ?
s
Absolutely, yes! The entire conversation reeked of distrust. They clearly believe that 'remote employees' are inferior because we dont put in enough hours/effort (of course we must be slacking off, since we 'work from home'
n
Do you think it was anything India specific or was it their general disdain towards remote work.
a
Low Trust or Distrust is a defensive mechanism. It is not a cause but a consequence. A consequence of having a lack of better systems, processes, and infrastructure. We need to create better tools and systems to solve this problem. Kunal Shah is building CRED to create better experience for middle class people by creating a strong trust between consumers and brands.
@numerous-balloon-67401 Most of the Indian companies don't know enough about Remote work to have a disdain for it. It is strange to them. They will consider it once they realise that it is a better option. This will only happen when existing remote players are successful.
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n
Well that should not matter as long as foreign companies hire enough remote talent in India.
And they don't perceive someone from India as not worthy of their trust.
c
@numerous-balloon-67401 I don't think it's specific to India. It's something related to Remote work. In fact, I was interviewed for a Netherlands based company, just 15 days ago. They are ready for me working remote from India. I missed by a whisker, that's a different story 😃 If Indians are people of Low Trust, the companies shouldn't hire them, even as In-house employees 🙂
n
That is good to know. Seems like "India being a Low Trust Society" does not matter when it comes to remote work.
May be remote work is an equalizer, a level playing field.
c
India is not a Low Trust Society 😃 India is us. We should have mutual trust.
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a
Yes, foreign companies are in a better to position to adapt to remote work. Even they are also trying to take it slow that's why they are hiring mostly in their time zone. As said I earlier it's not about lack of trust but a lack of proper systems. Companies that started as Remote First have better processes and systems so they can scale it better. Companies that are trying go/hire remote when they are big will face problems because their existing systems are geared towards office environment. It will take time and willingness of management to make that happen.
@colossal-intern-14351 What do they prefer more? Moving to Netherlands or working remote from India?
a
Can't comment on India being low trust, haven't dedicated time to this, but here's a thought: remote is just catching up in the developed world. US still only has 3% of the working population working remotely. When remote becomes more acceptable everywhere, don't you believe India will be more open to it?
c
@able-train-80742 They prefer me travelling to Netherlands, considering communication will be easier. But it's not a compulsion. They are open for both.
a
Cool. That's good to know. Can I DM you for more info?
@able-salesmen-17286 You are right. Remote work is pretty new. IMO, more and more upcoming startups will adapt to this.
p
@able-train-80742 I also think that for most companies and people, remote is a new thing, and anything new has a prospect of failure especially if there is another model which exists and works, even if inefficiently
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One of the companies I had worked in the past was very reluctant to hire me remotely (I do hardware dev) and all their existing team was on site in the US. After 2 years, that entire company was remote, including the existing employees, and they were so convinced with remote, that their hiring became "remote-first". So maybe things will change over time as people are exposed to remote
c
Sure @able-train-80742
s
@numerous-balloon-67401 why are you associating yourself with india as a society? Be a global citizen and reap the benefits - anyone can sit and complain OR look at the positive Gig booming economy and be a part of it; I have enough internal data to show India is one of the top countries leading in Gig economy on both Upwork and Fiverr
n
I am not, it was just a thought which I wanted to share in the community. Glad that there is no sich bias against India.
Would be great if you can share the data though .
s
it's internal dude, I work for upwork as one of my clients - check publicly available data and upwork articles
n
ok
s
If your positioning, branding , testimonials/reviews are on point - no one questions remote - has been my experience - focus on improving those and run away from naysayers
n
Sounds good.
THanks for the advice
p
@numerous-balloon-67401 even in terms of data, I think the india trust situation looks pretty good. Please do checkout the page on Trust in our world in data here https://ourworldindata.org/trust and Trust Barometer https://www.edelman.com/trustbarometer
I dont think we can simply India is a "Low Trust Society". A lot depends on how you are gauging it and how you are comparing it, plus where the country stands right now.
if you look closer at the graphs for Trust plotted againg GDP per capital, you can see India does way way better compared to other countries, and considering GDP per capita would increase, that trust would also increase (and maybe india still stays an outlier in the good terms)
n
Very interesting
thanks for sharing this
p
(on a side note I would recommend everyone to read "Factfullness" by Hans Rosling (same people behind our world in data). I have always been an optimistic and that book and the data on the site, gives me actual numbers to share the optimism
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here is the ted talk on the same topic if anyone is interested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w▾

s
@colossal-intern-14351
They prefer me travelling to Netherlands
I had the exact same experience with a Denmark-based startup. They would rather sponsor a Visa than let me work remotely 🤷🏽‍♂️
a
After working for 2 and half years in Elastic.co. I can vouch that people in India don’t understand Remote work. There are two faces to this problem. 1. Because the employer feels that the developer would not comply to rules, data requirements and chill out.. 2. Employee thinking that employer is not giving WFH. Someone should start a trusted convo to start doing this. At my prev. workplaces, My manager is always ok for me to take WFH even though I never took. On the contrary he used to call the someother people who took WFH..to check whether they are really working
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