The us that refuses to acknowledge them
A computer engineer recently wrote an online post about the discrimination that graduates from Tier 2 colleges face from IIT alumni at the workplace. “Dear Tier 2/3 guys, if you want to live a respectful life, you have to move out of India,” he wrote. The engineer said that he had worked at an office with some IITians for two years, during which time they made him work extra, snubbed him at meetings and kept him out of all social events. They even tried to sabotage his career, he claimed.
The engineer solved the problem by leaving India to pursue a Master’s degree abroad. “Now I’m in the US for the past year, and the way I get treated is so different,” he wrote, and advised students of Tier 2 colleges to work hard, focus on research, get strong letters of recommendations and get out of the country. He said he had nothing against the IITians; his message wasn’t for them.
As expected, the post has sparked heated online debate. Regardless of who wins the argument, the fact that most workplaces are awash with biases cannot be ignored. IITians are certainly not the only ones with an affinity bias.
In case you’re not familiar with the term, an affinity bias is the tendency we have to favour or support those we share a background or culture with. They could be old classmates or fellow-members of a club. Or, individuals who practise the same faith or speak the same language as us. Our bias makes us feel most comfortable around those we perceive as being ‘just like us’ and reject those we see as different. We start making and showing our preferences in school itself and continue the practice through college. Just think back to the different cliques in your class, and you’ll know what I mean.
It becomes more marked in large workplaces. Employees form ‘ingroups’ based on commonalities. As they go up the ladder, executives may befriend new people with common passions or interests but most youngsters hang out with those they already know. That’s usually fellow students from their alma mater.
Having a special group to chill and bond with is great for employee morale. But the very formation of ‘ingroups’ means there are ‘outgroups’ we don’t identify with—and shun. There’s no reason for our behaviour. Having made no effort to know, leave alone understand, those we categorise as ‘other’, we know nothing about them. But that doesn’t stop us from clubbing them together in a faceless, homogenous group and branding them ‘all the same’.
Worse, we make no attempt to hide our feelings of superiority. In office and outside, we stick to our own group and ignore, interrupt or even talk over the others. Some of us go further and are openly hostile, behaving in an offensive ‘Us vs Them’ way.
Those, no doubt, are the folks the engineer is talking about. Little wonder that he felt isolated and marginalised.
But I’m not sure that leaving the country is the answer. The only way to fight bias is to call out the perpetrators and open their minds to working with new people. Because the more they do that, the less they’ll discriminate against the next ‘outsider’ they encounter. Maybe that could be a course at the IITs.
Shampa Dhar-Kamath
Delhi-based writer, editor and communication coach
shampadhar@gmail.com