An Indian woman who recently moved from the US to Mumbai has shared her experience of working in America for nearly a decade, saying that “overwork” is not really limited to one country.
Recalling her experience, Parinaya shared that she would sometimes receive messages from her manager late in the evening. That wasn’t rare. She also argued that long working hours should not necessarily be viewed as a phenomenon specific to any particular country. “Overwork isn’t a country thing. It’s everywhere. In the clip, Parinaya also spoke about her experience as the only brown person on several work calls. “And being the only brown person on a lot of these calls, I did wonder sometimes if I was getting grilled a little harder than everyone else. However, she clarified that her comments were not intended to portray one country’s work culture as worse than another. “This isn’t about one country being worse. One user wrote, “I work in an American corp in Germany, and the hustle culture is real. Unrealistic goals, ambiguous expectations.. and the list goes on.
Parinaya, who worked as a consultant in the US for almost 9 years, said that the idea of a strict 5 pm logout time did not match her experience. “People assume US work culture clocks out at 5. “To be really honest, I used to get messages from my manager at 7 pm asking, ‘Why haven’t I replied to an email yet? I get paid for 9 hrs but my work never finishes at 5. Most of the days the whole 9 hrs are just gone taking multiple calls and I am forced to do the actual work after 5 pm.”
“The ‘log off at 5 pm in the US’ myth needs to die,” she said in a video shared on Instagram. I was a consultant for almost nine years, and that really never existed for me,” she said. That was normal,” she said. Different jobs, different companies, same pressure to always be on,” she said. She said that she sometimes wondered whether she was being scrutinised more closely than others. I can’t prove it, but I felt it,” she said. It’s about being honest that hustle culture doesn’t stop at any border,” she said.
“Dude you are an Indian. Literally Indians set the standard for working more in US. One thing common about Indians is working after hours and okay with not having a wlb.
I have worked in 6 companies already so far.
Also being brown is not a deterrent, again most companies in US have a lot of brown people,” said another.
