Techie shares suprising question a Bengaluru company asked on job application form. (Photo: AI)
A techie who recently returned to India from the US shared the experience of adjusting to India’s work culture and highlighted a surprising question on an online application form. Taking to Reddit, the techie said the application form had all other standard questions but there was one that was tucked right between the salary expectations and notice period question. It was a mandatory checkbox field, which means the applicant can’t skip the question; they have to either ‘tick’ or ‘cross’ it.The question is: Are you comfortable with daily late evening calls?The techie said the question offered no context and no nuance; it was just a yes-no question.”In the US tech industry, your evenings belong to you. Sure, the occasional crunch time happens. But a daily expectation to log back in after dinner to catch up with US time zones causes massive burnout. Here, Indian tech companies use it as an upfront filter to weed out anyone who wants a normal personal life,” the techie wrote.”I love the energy of the Bengaluru tech scene. The drive and ambition in this city are incredible. But seeing that question as a formal requirement on a job portal made me pause. It is my first major wake-up call regarding 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,” the techie wrote, seeking advice from other NRIs moving back to India.The reactions to the Reddit post were overall unanimous that this is an Indian setup, and Indian companies in the US also want their employees to be available 24X7. Some Redditors pointed out that companies across the world work in the US timezone, and that’s why only those in America have their evenings to them.The techie said some evening availability to coordinate across time zones is understandable but treating this as a mandatory check-box requirement right at the application phase instead of considering it as a flexible, as-needed collaboration is surprising.
