“Are you comfortable making phone calls late every night?” A technician who returned to India from the US was shocked to see this question while applying online
A techie who recently returned to India from the US shares his experience adjusting to Indian work culture and highlights a surprising question on the online application form. taken to RedditTechnicians say there are all the other standard questions on the application form, but one question is wedged squarely between the salary expectations and notice period questions. This is a required checkbox field, which means applicants cannot skip the question; they must “check” or “cross” it.The question is: Are you satisfied with late night phone calls every day?The technician said the question didn’t provide any context or nuance. This is just a question of right and wrong.“In the US tech industry, your nights are your own. Of course, crunch time happens occasionally. But the expectation of logging back in every night after dinner to catch up with the US time zone leads to huge burnout. Here, Indian tech companies use it as a pre-filter to weed out anyone who wants a normal personal life,” the techie wrote.“I love the energy of Bengaluru’s tech scene. The drive and ambition of the city is incredible. But seeing this question become an official requirement on a job portal gave me pause. It was my first wake-up call about the difference in work-life balance between the US and India. In the US, employers expect boundaries. In the Indian corporate world, giving up those boundaries feels like the price of admission,” writes the techie, seeking advice from other NRIs returning to India.Reactions to the Reddit post generally agreed that this is an Indian setup and that Indian companies in the US also expect their employees to be on call 24X7. Some Reddit users pointed out that companies around the world work in the US time zone, which is why only US companies have evening hours.The technologist said it was understandable to have time in the evenings to coordinate across time zones, but it was surprising to think of it as a mandatory check-box requirement during the application phase rather than as flexible, on-demand collaboration.
