Racial Harassment at Concentrix

In my over 7 years of experience working in quite a few companies, I have never faced harassment and discrimination due to my race and identity. Until I joined Concentrix.

A trainer harassed me for over a month saying my English was not good enough for the job and the reason she said was that I am a south Indian and south Indians don't speak good English. 

She even advised me that I should learn to speak Hindi as it's the national language. It actually isn't and she had no business promoting Hindi in an English only workplace.

No action was taken on the trainer even after complaining to HR. Instead, I was targeted by her friends who ganged up on me to get back at me for complaining.

I was even harassed for being a south Indian who doesn't speak Hindi on my last day when I had gone to complete my exit formalities. Felt like the incident was orchestrated by people at Concentrix to teach me a lesson before leaving their office.

Full story :

In about 2 months of joining Concentrix, Mumbai, I received an email from a trainer informing that I have to attend a training session with her and that it was about communication skills.

The training sessions was through Teams and during my office hours. Let's keep the trainer's name as "X".

In my first training session with Ms. X, she went on about how communication skills are important in customer support and how she thinks my communication skills aren't good enough for the job.

FYI, the final round of interview for this job was Versant test which gauges communication skills. Find my scores below.

The training session lasted for about an hour and on the 3rd session Ms. X was asked if I was a south Indian for which I replied "Yes". From then, Ms. X started adding "Agent has MTI (Mother tongue influence)" in the training feedback.

On the other hand, I continued with my job peacefully and was making good sales and getting good feedbacks too.

After a couple more sessions where Ms. X went on and on about how I need to improve my communication skills to keep my job, I asked Ms. X why she wanted to know if I was a south Indian for which she answered "I already knew you were a south Indian from your name but I just wanted to confirm".

I realized that she started saying I have MTI only after asking if I was a south Indian. When asked her why she felt I had MTI, she said "You are a south Indian right? We all know that all south Indians have MTI".

So, Ms. X's assumption that my communication skills were not good stemmed from the fact that I was a south Indian.

I realized that the long sessions where Ms. X went on and on about my English not being good enough for the job was because I am a south Indian.

When confronted about her racism and hatred towards south Indians, she brought her manager on the call to evaluate me and he decided my English was good and that Ms. X's findings were biased.

Ms. X didn't even apologize and went on to say that since we are all in India and everyone should learn and speak Hindi as it's the national language. She had no business in promoting or asking me to learn Hindi as it's not needed for my job.

I complained to HR who took over a month and replied that they have taken an action on Ms.X but they wouldn't let me know what the action was.

Senior managers who were friends with Ms. X tried to talk me into withdrawing my complaint and I refused. They got upset and plotted to make me quit my job. More on this in other posts.

2nd Incident :

I resigned from my job due to continuous harassments and threats. I was told to submit my ID card and headset and to complete other exit formalities.

I was made to run from pillar to post for an hour and finally the HR pointed me to a guy and said he'll handle the exit formalities and left.

This guy who was talking to others in Hindi until then, started talking to me in Hindi right away. When I told him that I couldn't understand him as I didn't know Hindi, he snapped back and said "I don't know English". People around him laughed as if it was a joke and I had to call the HR back and handed over the headsets.

This entire incident seems to be orchestrated and the reason I believe is that people in Concentrix wanted to teach me a lesson for not knowing Hindi.

North Indians usually dislike south Indians because we don't speak Hindi and we are against it's imposition. More on this can be learnt from a google search for "Why north Indians hate south Indians"

Never expected to face such hatred towards south Indians and be harassed for it in a company that boasts of inclusion. The worst part was the inaction of the management even after my complaint.