Former US Merchant Marine Captain John Conrad, CEO of GCaptain, shared his experience of working in India and with Indians and said that hardworking Indians or visa holders are not the problem. He said that there is no doubt that Indians are hardworking, but after spending some time in India he realized why Indians are so hardworking – because they do not want to return to India. Conrad said that this is not culture but cultural migration and that if he had ever been told he had two choices: work 18 hours a day or move back to the Bronx, he would have worked 18 hours a day.But if he were given two choices: to go back to the Bronx or to go to India where he worked for two years, he would choose to go back to the Bronx, he said.Comparing red tape between the US and India, Conrad said paperwork in the US appears to be an easier task than the Indian bureaucracy.Sharing his experience of working in the oil and gas sector around the world and in both the US and India, Conrad said that getting permits to do the simplest work in the US is a nightmare, but this nightmare is nothing compared to India.And thus, he concluded that Indians, accustomed to such lengthy processes and paperwork, are better at grinding.
Indian vs American
Conrad said, “The average American thinks navigating government websites and IRS forms is torture. Compared to India, it’s child’s play. And here’s the point: The more punitive the process, the more HR nonsense at the top, the greater the edge for India’s H-1B visa holders.”“Americans quit before they’ve even spent eight hours on mind-numbing nonsense paperwork and HR training. Indians fill out every form without blinking an eye.”“When Americans get stuck in bureaucratic death traps, we call HR or tech support (often a call center in India) and get angry. Indians trade notes with each other and look for loopholes.”“The real problem is not the visa holders. The problem is that the system rewards them for making our bureaucracy worse, not better. The bureaucracy becomes an artificial moat, and those who have mastered it have every incentive to deepen it.”Conrad’s conclusion was that Americans are not lazy or incompetent, but they are unwilling to do boring paperwork that means nothing.“So the next time an Amazon or Google executive claims they can’t find Americans capable of working, ask the real question: Are Americans unable to do real work? Or simply unwilling to do paperwork that was never needed? Are Americans lazy or do we have a low tolerance for useless paperwork?” The CEO said.
