US techie still can't crack Indian work culture after two years, says getting input from desi colleagues is like 'pulling teeth'

A U.S.-based technology professional recently took to the subreddit ‘Work’ to express a growing concern: the lack of active participation and input from Indian colleagues in their engineering team. Sharing their experience candidly, the employee, who works for a tech company in the United States, described a two-year struggle to understand the dynamics of working with their counterparts in India after their firm—comprising 600 employees—acquired a 400-member Indian company.

According to the post, despite clear expectations that their roles involve more than just operational tasks, several Indian team members—some of whom are in leadership positions—have consistently contributed only at a task-execution level. The engineering team, which consists of just nine people, meets weekly to brainstorm and collaborate. Yet, the commenter noted that the team’s department head often faces immense difficulty encouraging input from the Indian side, including from their own managers.

"Our engineering team is small, only 9 of us and during our weekly team meetings, our department head repeatedly asks for anyone from India to speak up and provide input is like pulling teeth, including their direct manager ..." he complained.

The frustration stems from repeated efforts by the U.S. teammates and leadership to foster idea-sharing and strategic collaboration. Despite frequent open invitations for suggestions, improvements, or feedback, the responses from the Indian colleagues reportedly remain limited to passive affirmations like “I agree” or a simple “okay.” As a result, the responsibility for ideation, innovation, and strategic contributions has disproportionately fallen on the shoulders of the U.S.-based members—only four in total.

The U.S. employee emphasized that this lack of engagement is not due to a lack of intelligence or capability. Rather, they expressed a sincere desire to understand whether cultural factors might be influencing such behaviors. Could it be that traditional Indian corporate hierarchies, where speaking up to superiors or challenging decisions is culturally discouraged, are affecting participation? Or perhaps prior work environments focused heavily on instruction-following rather than open collaboration?

In their post, the individual reached out to the broader online community for insights, hoping to gain a better understanding of Indian workplace culture and how it may be impacting their international team’s performance. They admitted that the situation was becoming increasingly stressful, not just for themselves but for the department head as well, who is growing frustrated with the lopsided contributions.

Netizens React

One commenter noted that in India, teamwork often overshadows individual initiative, with group discussions being common and decisions typically deferred to the most senior person present. They suggested that frequent job changes in the Indian tech industry may also discourage employees from taking risks or voicing strong opinions.

Another commenter was less forgiving, stating that after a merger experience of their own, they found many Indian developers to be underqualified for their titles. While acknowledging a few competent individuals, they claimed the overall skill level was below expectations and showed little improvement over time.

Together, the original post and the ensuing conversation highlighted not only a cultural communication gap but also the challenges of integrating international teams with differing expectations, levels of assertiveness, and workplace norms.

This post underlines the challenges many global organizations face in integrating teams across different cultures. While technology connects people across borders, real collaboration often demands deeper cross-cultural understanding, empathy, and tailored leadership approaches to bridge divides in communication styles and workplace expectations.