Cultural favouritism in the workplace

Question

This is in relation to the software industry in Australia.

I am noticing a repeated and consistent attitude stemming from Indians towards those of non-Indian background in the industry.

Examples:

• Favoritism in hiring
• Not helping non Indian background developers from Indian senior engineers

It is simply so obvious and I can't believe this is happening and how they are getting away with it. I work in a large firm and the team managers are showing favoritism in hiring practices. I've never seen an Indian manager hire a non-Indian developer and their teams are pretty much 99% Indian. Other managers have mixed teams.

When I ask an Indian business analyst or more experienced developer for help I am given a usual answer of "figure it out yourself, I'm busy" (in a professional manner of course) but if an Indian developer asks the same thing they drop everything and happily spend upwards of 20-30 minutes explaining things to them. I see this happen literally every day.

I have seen this happen in a few businesses I've worked in.

My question is really how do I navigate such a workplace?

Specifically, are there tips on how to still remain productive despite now being adversely affected? Is it worth complaining to management about?

Disclaimer: Leaving this workplace is very difficult as most industries have been taken over by them and they only hire each other. This is a European company so it is still very mixed but still plagued with this issue.

Answer 1

This is tough.

It seems that favoritism in general isn't a new phenomena. According to Forbes:

A survey conducted by Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business found that 92% of senior business executives have seen favoritism at play in employee promotions, including at their own companies (84%). About a quarter of the polled execs admitted to practicing favoritism themselves.

So this seems to be the nature of the beast. So then the question remains, how do you navigate it?

Again Forbes talks about cliques as well in another article:

According to a new CareerBuilder survey, 43% of workers say their office is populated by cliques—which are tightly knit groups of co-workers who socialize in and outside the office, and often exclude others.

Also form the article:

“Cliques tend to lack diversity,” she says. “Another disadvantage is being branded and known for your friends, not for who you are.”

This part is the interesting part. There's a few suggestions to try and "break in".

--Do your best not to be intimidated by a clique, says Elster. “Most cliques have little institutional power; their members are not in a position to promote you or give you a raise.”

--If a clique targets you -- if they taunt you or turn their backs on you or gossip about you – do your best not to react.

--Divide and conquer, Crowley says. Try to form positive connections with each clique member separate from the group setting.

I would suggest understanding the fundamental truths about the world.

The World Only Cares About What It Can Get from You

I would suggest becoming very good at what you do. Study outside of work, use your weekends and get better. At some point, you will be indispensable and then, they will not have a choice but to engage because they NEED you. Is it fluffy and ideal? No it isn't. But neither is the situation. You can complain or feel like a victim or you can take action and learn from it. I know this may not be what you want as an answer. But no other answer provided has even attempted to provide a rational solution.

Answer 2

You live with it, you excel, or you leave.

As a minority within a minority, I've had this issue to various degrees in almost every place I've worked, it's not confined to Indians. I've overcome it by proactively training myself to be self-reliant, self-educating and self-confident. These are useful and necessary skills to acquire if you want to get ahead.

In such situations you cannot cruise through, it's not enough to be as good as the people with the advantages, you need to be better.

Answer 3

One can be the "unfavorite" for many reasons.

For me, my disabilities have been an obstacle, for others it could be race, gender, political affiliation, marital status, et cetera.

You need to assess the situation and see if it rises to the point of being untenable. If so, you need to move on. If not, you need to be better than everyone else to be treated as an equal. You may never be accepted, but you can at least be respected.

I've had to overcome quite a bit just to get a modicum of respect here and there. Don't let it distract you because your skill and knowledge are always yours. Press on, if you're not valued where you are, go to a place where you will be.

Answer 4

This is simple. You just show up everytime someone starts explaining something to an Indian co-worker. Make sure you're including yourself in their events and becoming friends with them.

A potentially sad, but accurate consequence of these actions is that your new friends will stop seeing you as white. You'll still be white to them, but you'll be their white friend. Eventually they'll stop associating you with as many of the negative stereotypes around your background. In a sense, you might become "One of the good ones".

You just gotta kill 'em with friendship.

Also this process takes a while so you'll probably need to be able to figure a lot of stuff out yourself. That's just how it goes.

I also want to point out that this behavior probably isn't racism or intentional favoritism. They're probably just more familiar with their Indian co-workers. I can't really say why they would be more familiar with them because there's an entire host of reasons this could be the case. They're probably not looking to mentor Indians either if they're telling you to "self-sufficient off". The mentorship probably just happens.

Answer 5

As a person from a minority background, working in Australia I have seen this first hand as well. It might be commonly observed with people from the background you mentioned but I have seen it with many nationalities just to varying degrees.

What I do when I am looking for a job is I observe the makeup of the development team/ company in the office / on linkedin. If there is a majority of any ethnicity/nationality I tend to avoid the workplace just to be on the safe side. For me this is the first indicator for more trouble to come.

Answer 6

Specifically, are there tips on how to still remain productive despite now being adversely affected? Is it worth complaining to management about?

In your question you describe a generalized observation about your particular workplace. Your perspective is that managers and coworkers are actively playing favorites only to a certain group of people and excluding you from that. The question is what exactly about this situation harmed you? Are you unable to get answers? Unable to get help? Ruining your career? Or are you just concerned you won't get a fair career?

I would first investigate what is it that is adversely harming you? Then from there figure out what you can do about it. If you cannot get help, talk to a manager. Tell them you feel others are getting help with similar questions while you are not. Maybe there is a language or culture barrier of some sort that you're not seeing yet.

Answer 7

Racism = reverse racism (no such thing)

Favouritism != racism (at least not necessarily)

If you're negatively impacted, you're within your right to complain to management.

Keep in mind, should the offender deduct or learn it was you, your relationship will be worse but they'll be more careful in showing you.

Unfortunately it is hard to overcome favouritism and even harder to "reform" actual racists.