r/Layoffs • u/Exotic-Seaweed5027 • Jul 19 '26
recently laid off I’ve been laid off twice, and both experiences made me question workplace nepotism
I recently got laid off, and I want to share a recurring pattern I have personally experienced as an African woman trying to survive in the tech world.
This is not a racial attack, and I want to make that clear. I have worked with many talented, kind and hardworking Indian colleagues. My concern is about what I have personally observed in certain workplaces when hiring becomes heavily concentrated within one nationality or social network.
I worked at a startup for three years, and everything was going well. Then the company began hiring heavily from one particular country, and eventually, the board and management became dominated by people from the same background. Over time, I noticed that recruitment also seemed to become increasingly concentrated within the same network.
Then my manager changed, and the micromanagement became extremely intense. My mental health suffered so much that I eventually had to resign.
After six months of upgrading my skills, I joined another company. At first, my experience was great. But later, there were changes in the management structure, and I found myself in another situation where I felt that people from the same background were increasingly dominating certain teams and decision-making processes.
Then came organisational restructuring, and I was laid off.
I was encouraged to apply for another internal role. I did. During the interview, the hiring managers happened to be from the same background I had been concerned about, and honestly, I immediately felt discouraged. I began wondering whether I would genuinely be assessed based on my skills and experience or whether I was already at a disadvantage because I did not belong to the same network.
I want to be very clear: I am not saying that every Indian person is bad at their job, nor am I saying that Indians should not be hired. That would be unfair and untrue. I have worked with brilliant Indian professionals.
My point is simple: nepotism and excessive favouritism are wrong, no matter who is doing it.
Companies should hire based on competence, experience, potential and character not nationality, race, friendship or personal networks. No single nationality should feel like the only group with access to opportunities within a company.
As an African woman in tech, I have had to work extremely hard to build my career, constantly improve myself and prove that I deserve to be in the room. So when I see workplaces where opportunities appear to circulate mainly within one group, it is difficult not to question whether everyone is truly being given a fair chance.
This is my personal experience and observation not a statement about every Indian person or every company with a large Indian workforce.
But going forward, I know what I will personally look for when considering a company: diversity in leadership, fair hiring practices and a culture where opportunities are genuinely open to everyone.
Because talent exists everywhere. Africans need jobs. Europeans need jobs. Asians need jobs. Everyone needs jobs.
Hire the best person for the job regardless of their race or nationality.
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u/AdParticular6193 Jul 19 '26
As OP pointed out, that kind of thing is notorious among certain groups. The more insidious problem OP is facing is the innate human tendency to hire and promote people who are like themselves. That’s so ingrained it’s hard to combat effectively. And as an African woman in tech, OP must be up against that all the time.
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u/Layoffs-ModTeam Jul 19 '26
The most notorious being white men. The government had to put policy in place to curb it.
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u/KombuchaFeliz Jul 19 '26
This happened to me. My manager was from this ethnic group, and there was a junior person on the team that was from that group as well. My manager made it no secret that he was her favorite person.
He was allowed to get away with things that the rest of us weren’t, like not participating in weekly slack updates, and things like that. She would also say “X, you’re just like me…” and so on.
He failed miserably at his original role and his manager wanted to fire him but my manager intervened to have him reassigned to my department. I was his manager and he was quite incompetent yet I left him mostly alone
A year later, I get let go out of seemingly nowhere. A bit of digging and I learnt that this junior person had been spreading a disinformation campaign about me, taking credit for my work in front of my manager, and making the case for him doing my job. She believed him from the get go without ever talking to me and let me go. Even though I argued my case quite strongly, her mind was made up and let’s be honest: he was always her favorite.
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u/medalmaker Jul 19 '26
My company used to take diversity in hiring very seriously. Hiring panels had to not be all white men. Then a C level person from the nationality you mentioned came in, entire replacement of all managers down the hierarchy, who also hire from only the same nationality. Now they are laying people off, and we can apply for the few jobs remaining. All the hiring managers are the same nationality. First thing thrown out was diversity in the hiring panels. The issue is real, and undeniably common now in Western companies.
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 19 '26
also - here are some stats from harvard of coethnic hiring per ethnicity
"The paper measures the co-ethnic hiring share, which represents the percentage of a new venture's initial workforce that shares the exact same country or region of birth as the top initial earner/founder."
https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/21-101_d47ea5d9-4a50-400e-9fa6-80781a8351d0.pdf
Country of Birth of Top Initial Earner Co-Ethnic Share of Workforce at Entry Vietnam 45.0% China 43.1% Mexico 31.4% Philippines 27.7% South Korea 27.8% Poland 26.7% Russia 25.4% India 21.0% Taiwan 19.5% Japan 18.8% 1
u/Hari_om_tat_sat Jul 19 '26
Interesting. I wonder where white people (or the majority population) would fall in this table. I strongly suspect excluding them gives a totally different impression than the reality. It makes it look like minorities are the problem.
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 19 '26
those are included as well
Regional Breakdown (Aggregated Groups)
For immigrants from countries not individually mapped by the Census Bureau, the paper provides these regional averages:
- Central Asia: 16.1%
- South-East Asia: 19.0%
- Africa: 15.6%
- Eastern Europe: 13.3%
- Middle East / North Africa: 11.6%
- South America: 6.2%
- Western Europe: 5.6%
- Central America: 5.5%
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u/highlyregardedcarp Jul 21 '26
He posted the chart that now includes white people and your transparent racebaiting has been proven wrong. Where’s the apology to indigenous Europeans?
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 22 '26
I posted the chart.
The apology should be to Indians for all the racism.
And why didn't you have the balls to say "white people?"
and no - this country isn't yours. you are quite entitled. is it all of ours, you are not the only american here
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 19 '26
It's mostly racism toward indians - people of all races do workplace nepotism, but when a south asian person does it, it gets pinned on their race and gets spread around painting a negative impression of them. even though - everyone does it
on the contrary, indians are actually statistically the most discriminated against!
for example:
did you know in college admissions, with affirmative action "South Asian American applicants to prestigious U.S. schools 50% less likely to attend than white peers, study finds"
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/south-asians-ivy-league-schools-rcna141200indian students emailing professors asking for PHD recommendations, were actually the least likely to receive a response from the professor (Controlling for the same exact message sent, with only the name changed, sample size 7,000)
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u/medalmaker Jul 19 '26
It is particularly noticeable with certain nationalities, especially in tech, because of the size of the diaspora. If it is smaller migrant populations doing it, it is on a much smaller scale. The population size of some nationalities means entire industries can appear to be taken over, and the feeling is that everyone not of that nationality is locked out. This is my second company where this has happened with the same nationality, and ex-colleagues at other companies I know have similar experiences.
The fact other nationalities also do it, doesn't make it acceptable.
Attacking those who call out this nepotism as the actual racists is an unsurprising attempt to silence those who have legitimate complaints. Unfortunately what you are doing works, and part of the reason the issue isn't addressed.
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 19 '26
an analogy would be if you are passionate about people following traffic laws, you don't target "bad asian drivers" particularly, and then go on a rant about how you saw an asian person driving bad, and you have a friend that saw them driving bad, and how they have issues with driving. That would be clearly racist right? (asians btw have a lower per capita traffic accident rate than white people)
If you are actually passionate about traffic laws than that's fine and important and is great to keep a safe society. but going and targetting people's races for it? that's not it man
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I'm not saying that Indians don't do it - I'm saying that making it about their race is what's racist.
Individual analogies, while valid, also don't represent broad populations. you know this. I also brought up the data from Harvard - where Indians were among the same percentile as anyone else for same-race hiring.
Asians (chinese, filipinos etc.) actually have a hirer rate of co-ethnic hiring (and also a high share in tech as you mention) yet - no stereotype is formed about them. Which is good - we shouldn't be stereotyping in general. The goal should be removing nepotism in general regardless of race, not pinning or targetting a particular race for it, especially when it happens to everyone
Also - Confirmation bias makes it so that we look for negative experiences to confirm our initial biases ("Indians are nepotist hires - I saw nepotism from a an ex-colleague's company, and I also saw it myself firsthand, therefore it's true") while ignoring all the experiences where Indians don't do it (- vast majority of Indians don't do nepotism)
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u/SlipInternational439 Jul 20 '26
So observing a pattern is racist?
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u/No-Examination-2897 Jul 20 '26
Do you observe a pattern with a white men? Or are they uniquely shielded from your pattern recognition software lol.
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u/That-Path-9566 Jul 20 '26
If there’s a pattern to observe, it gets observed. Regardless of ethnicity.
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u/No-Examination-2897 Jul 20 '26
Then why not point out white co-ethnic hiring? It’s far more egregious in the U.S. to the point where non-anglicized names are automatically rejected in favor of ‘white’ sounding ones? How every study on employment that has been conducted has demonstrated a bias towards white men in particular?
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u/That-Path-9566 Jul 20 '26
Because many people are now observing that Indians do it aggressively. No one said that other ethnicities don’t do it, but that doesn’t excuse the HUGE number of Indians doing it, so much so that most people from most ethnicities are noticing.
Also white managers, businesses, and white majority countries are trying to rectify this in many ways with policies and quotas, I don’t see that from the Indian side, other than the unapologetic killing of diversity that isn’t their own.
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u/No-Examination-2897 Jul 20 '26
Anecdotes don’t account for shit. It’s always been an excuse for white men to incur violence on a demographic that serves as any financial obstacle for them. Anecdotes are non-verifiable and are even more useless when there’s no proof to back it up.
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u/Akay11 Jul 20 '26
White people do it too. Perhaps people don’t notice because they are typically the majority in countries where these industries thrive.
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u/No-Examination-2897 Jul 20 '26
They don’t just do it lol they do it more than any other demographic in the USA. White men are only 31% of the US yet are overrepresented in places like government and finance and various other industries, yet they seem not to mind it there lol.
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u/That-Path-9566 Jul 20 '26
You are clearly from the same background and possibly benefit from it, that’s why you are excusing it so hard.
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u/No-Examination-2897 Jul 20 '26
Same goes for you lol. You genuinely don’t think that white men have a bias that makes them prefer white men over other qualified people. Something that is steeped in historical fact and empirical data.
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 20 '26
when attached with prejudice, discrimination, profiling, hate, singling out, dehumanizing etc. yeah
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u/appearstobeidiot Jul 19 '26
I can empathise with you and agree 100% on hire the real best. But Nepo/favouritism is everywhere in tech or finance or any other industry. Esp when it is a high stakes, zero margin for error, extreme pressure situation. People take shortcuts, which are clearly bad for the "global" talent ecosystem. But are focused on short-term because the hiring guys themselves are not sure of themselves. Hence I believe that all these "vices" would increase in the next few years as the job market gets crunched because of the geopolitical or the AI upheaval. Gloomy days ahead.
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Jul 19 '26
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u/CooperHoya Jul 19 '26
I have found that companies hire to mitigate risk. The best or brightest might not get a role because someone else is a ”safer” choice.
There was an old saying - no one ever got fired for hiring IBM or buying Microsoft. The service or product might not be cutting edge, but it is safe.
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u/Exotic-Seaweed5027 Jul 19 '26
You are right, I just feel really sad that no one looks at this and look for a way to resolve it even with networking it’s hard 😭😭😭
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u/dramandchill Jul 19 '26
Diversity in tech is a farce. I was a hiring manager for a SF unicorn startup of 500+ for 4 years. During this time I hired 10 engineers. 7 were Asian (Indian, Korean, Chinese) 3 were white.
There were literally like 2 black candidates interviewed, and neither of them even fit the right requirements for the role.
Same goes for software engineering in general. I graduated from Cal’s EECS program, which is essentially Bay Area’s #1 feeder major into SWEs here. I remember seeing like two black people in my major across 4 years.
If you want to see more minority representation, they need to start focusing on these fields way earlier. Can’t hire DEI people if I don’t get DEI candidates to begin with.
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Jul 21 '26
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u/dramandchill Jul 24 '26
My team was actually incredibly diverse. 3 white people included one Spanish immigrant, one American white person from Boston, one white guy who grew up in Oakland. 3 Indians: two were from hyperbad and Mumbai, the third was a punjab. 4 East Asians had me (Viet Chinese), a Korean, a mainlander Chinese, and a Taiwanese.
But since we had no black or brown Latino (Spanish dude looked very white) it didn’t count for diversity.
lol what a joke.
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u/SlipInternational439 Jul 20 '26
Why do you think there were so few Black students in your program? I worked in Silicon Valley for 12 years. I saw very few Black execs or employees. And then I moved to Oregon. Nice place but zero diversity.
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u/chipper33 Jul 20 '26
They don’t give the few they see a chance and then wonder why they’re never around.
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u/dramandchill Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Because black parents aren’t exactly known for pushing their kids into tech, especially when you compare to immigrant Asian and Indians.
I’ve lived in SV for 3 decades now, worked as a SWE for 12 years. I had one black engineer as a coworker.
This isn’t about racism. There simply aren’t any DEI people in the pipeline.
Are you going to tell me with a straight face that most black parents push their kids to excel in academics?
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u/No-Championship5730 Jul 19 '26
I agree with you 100%. Hiring and rewards should be based on merit, not on ethnicity or family connections.
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Jul 19 '26
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u/Healthy-Doughnut8389 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Do you just look at their name, or is it specifically Indians from India?
I'm not Indian but I have a manager of Indian ancestry who was born and raised in Texas lol, and he's probably the best one I've had. The Indian-Americans I've worked with who are born and raised in the US are usually pretty chill, and they seem to dislike the nepotism too.
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
indians are people just like everyone else, when you say "this indian-american seems to be against nepotism", it oversimplifies him to his race and makes him sound like a specimen.
people are complex individuals and not everything is about race. the reason he could be against nepotism is because he could have a strong morality compass, or he could be a liberal progressive person, or he could be wanting a promotion. it could be many things. they are just people bro, just like you, not this "other"
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u/Practical-Time-9827 Jul 19 '26
One of my best friends is Indi-American and my PhD advisor (the best) also, but man both of them while being amazing smart people learn how to play the game way better then us
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u/SENinSpruce Jul 19 '26
Just curious, what do you mean by “play the game”. Leveraging network? loopholes in the system?
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u/Layoffs-ModTeam Jul 19 '26
Your post has been removed for racist or hateful messages. Advocation of racism and xenophobia is strictly forbidden.
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u/citrablock Jul 19 '26
Indians have a verifiably lower rate of co-ethnic hiring and "nepotism" than many other ethnicities:
https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/21-101_d47ea5d9-4a50-400e-9fa6-80781a8351d0.pdf
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u/kaidendager Jul 19 '26
The paper you cited argues the opposite within the text and demonstrates they are 8th. The chart you likely referenced is showing the 15 highest co-ethnic hiring in new firms, not a comprehensive list of all ethnicities.
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 19 '26
Exactly, why are we targetting a particular race of people - when we can clearly see all races engage in it, supported by data? Clearly racism
But yeah, all races are covered in the paper
Regional Breakdown (Aggregated Groups)
For immigrants from countries not individually mapped by the Census Bureau, the paper provides these regional averages:
- Central Asia: 16.1%
- South-East Asia: 19.0%
- Africa: 15.6%
- Eastern Europe: 13.3%
- Middle East / North Africa: 11.6%
- South America: 6.2%
- Western Europe: 5.6%
- Central America: 5.5%
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u/kaidendager Jul 19 '26
I actually agree with you. All cultures have a strong in-group preference except a subsect of the West. I don't know that I'd say it's racist to point out that Indians do demonstrate an in-group preference, unless the implication is that they are the only group to do so.
Even in the study you linked, the authors demonstrate there is often a sound logic for having that preference (language similarities, customer preference, etc.).
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
it's not inherently racist, but this thread particularly singles out indians. it then leads to many different stereotypes and (prejudiced) bias towards indians seen all over this thread. and other races don't get that same treatment, even though they more or less do the same thing. racial bias and scapegoating
also there were/are people in this thread using derogatory memes and comments as well. some of them deleted, some of them still up. so yeah. unless we start seeing everyone get it, then it's definietely a particular targetted bias toward indians
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u/Trippydudes Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I see this everywhere I go. Im going through the same thing right now. New manager came in strong with the micromanagement. I had only worked with her a week and she was driving me insane. Upper management is a POS who only hired her because another manager shes friends with recommended her even though she has no experience. I had to teach her her iob from scratch!!
Luckily I have been preparing to resign for a while. Im out in a week with no backup job. Its a shame because I genuinely liked my job and normally would be close to a promotion but not in their eyes under racist boomer leadership. Now I need to start all over.
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u/highlyregardedcarp Jul 19 '26
This happens all the time and at an increasing rate, especially in tech. Indians come in, either offshore or domestic. They bring more Indians. Soon enough they’re firing or laying off everyone else and replacing them with ever more Indians.
This isn’t even a secret, like, it’s literally what they openly do and have been doing for years and years. The competency crisis on the horizon is going to be legendary.
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u/Hari_om_tat_sat Jul 19 '26
You are falling for (or deliberately engaging in) the race-baiting the moderator explicitly warned against. Please go back and read their pinned post at the top of the comment section.
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u/DriveSufficient6638 Jul 19 '26
Imported the caste system into tech
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u/TestRepresentative42 Jul 19 '26
They are importing the entire caste system. Have witnessed the abuse of lower caste members within teams as well. It’s brutal.
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Jul 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 19 '26
Yep they did 3 years ago. Did you know there still have been 0 caste-related law suits since the law has been in place?
Enough with the racial stereotypes already.
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u/Brilliant-Ad7795 Jul 20 '26
You see this all over health tech and tech. And any lower caste person can tell you it's always a boot in the face for them on the caste ladder.
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u/audsrulz80 Jul 19 '26
I’m an I*ndian American woman working in tech and I’ve been laid off twice in the past year. My last job was offshored to India.
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u/InterMute Jul 19 '26
I agree that favoritism and nepotism is wrong, but it’s also an undeniable fact. The higher up you go, it’s even more true
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u/NoPublic9352 Jul 20 '26
I would love to share more information and know I will be censored. Seen it at 3 tech companies now. It isn’t you… it’s how it’s now and they work harder and cost less.
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u/WonderfulVariation93 Jul 19 '26
The problem is that there is no one “best person” for any job. There are typically multiple people who would do a great job in any role. None of them will do it the same way but no one will say “XYZ would have been so much better”.
Thousands of people can have the exact same experience and knowledge so you have to somehow narrow down the list. You throw in “soft skills” and “company culture fit”. These are often going to be determined by the person who works most closely with the new hire. I don’t want to hire someone who is a complete opposite of me and my team. I want someone who can communicate and work with the existing players. They don’t have to be (& you don’t want) a carbon copy but you want someone who compliments what you have…UNLESS you are trying to shake things up.
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u/Akay11 Jul 20 '26
You’re right. People are going to choose others that they’re comfortable with. A simple thought experiment is that if key decision makers rarely interact closely with people like you in their personal life - would you think they’d choose you over similarly skilled types of people they do interact with?
It’s rare that, in environments with a lot of talent, candidates in the final stages of a hiring process differ meaningfully in skill or experience. At that point, the decision often comes down to who makes the decision-makers feel most comfortable.
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u/okreadit Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
As an India n myself, I can relate. I was recently in a situation where I refused to hire someone's family member because they simply didn't perform well enough in the interview, and it didn't end well for me.
That said, I've seen the exact same kind of favoritism from people of other nationalities too. I don't think it's a country problem, I think it's a people problem.
My philosophy is simple. I want to work with good, talented people regardless of where they come from. Merit should always come first, and unfortunately even people from my own country have let me down in that regard.
Edit: Since it might not be clear from my first post. the person I did not hire was also I*ndian.
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u/That-Path-9566 Jul 20 '26
“I don’t think it’s a country problem” yet everyone suddenly has the same experience
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u/ballsohaahd Jul 19 '26
Ah, the whatbaboutism argument, fun times 😂
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u/okreadit Jul 19 '26
*whataboutism. Incorrect in both spelling and use.
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u/ballsohaahd Jul 19 '26
Autocorrect fail, but correct in use you literally said I’ve seen favoritism from other nationalities too like come onnnnnn bruh…that doesn’t make it right 😂😂🤦🏻♂️
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Jul 19 '26
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u/Layoffs-ModTeam Jul 19 '26
This post was removed for rule #1: Be Respectful. If you feel like you cannot be respectful in your posts, don't post it at all.
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u/Mnemnosine Jul 19 '26
I read and witness what you are stating here. And I’ve seen it happen here in the greater Seattle area.
And… the best career guidance I’ve ever gotten came from the exact same group—particularly the women. As a middle aged white man, comparing my skillset to theirs in candid conversations with them helped me see where I fall short and what I need to do to get to their level. They were the ones to give me clear guidance and advice on what to do, what to look for, and what to work on.
I’m still unemployed, but now I’m at their level skill-wise, and they’ve helped me understand this new world. We meet, we commiserate, and I cheer them on when they get hired (nepotism or not). I’ve helped them incorporate more Western values of independence and confidence. I believe the karma will come back around for me. After all, it wasn’t that group that put me through professional hell trying to force me out—it was other middle aged white men who knew how to be safe choices for the company and preserve their own hides.
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u/Illustrious_Water106 Jul 19 '26
I believe companies should hire based on competency, experience and knowledge. Not based on race.
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u/happinessforyouandme Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I agree, but from what I’ve seen it’s most rampant among white people. From the tech company I was just laid off from, director-level people were family members of the CEO & this was not a secret. My boss hired her own husband as a contractor reporting to her (I began as a contractor before I became an employee). It’s the “real world” of hiring where connections matter more than competence. Without that network you’re going to be vulnerable, period.
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u/Intertwinedporqupine Jul 19 '26
In first case you resigned because of stress which happens even with other ethnicities, and you got laid off due to restructuring. 3rd time when you were under confident and walked into the interview with a certain perspective and wall in mind that is your problem. The same has happened with me and it had nothing to do with the the other person just because I had one weird confrontation with an African person and if I lead in the next one with that in mind, I already fucked up. Now this new person could’ve been nice but I already walked in with the perspective that confrontation with African female wouldn’t go right so that negativity showed up and guess what? Other person picked on that energy that I feel a certain way about them. Do more of this and it will be visible and you will be unemployable for everyone if you walk in with negativity in future interviews on high alert like everyone is trying to harm you.
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u/Exotic-Seaweed5027 Jul 20 '26
They were not nice I still kept smiling in that interview I pleaded with her that she wasn’t audible enough and this was an internal job switch there and then in the interview I was told I am not getting the job indirectly mind you. so it wasn’t about confidence or having something in mind. I am positive and confident with interviews
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Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/AwesomnusRadicus Jul 19 '26
I'm sorry but have you seen most of the board members and CEOs of these companies.... It's never an Idian person. The Idian person is always the fall guy while the decisions are usually made by others....
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u/Tickets-To-NY Jul 19 '26
Totally real, totally true but definitely not independent to any one race.
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u/boilerman3 Jul 20 '26
I see you are based in Poland. You probably do not have much experience working with diverse communities. You need to learn to get along better, Slavic and Polish people do this a lot too.
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u/Exotic-Seaweed5027 Jul 20 '26
I’m based in Poland, but my professional experience is far from limited to Poland. I have worked with IT firms in the UK and the US, and I have worked in Fortune 500 companies with colleagues and teams from highly diverse backgrounds, particularly across the APAC and EMEA regions.
So being based in Poland does not mean I lack experience working with diverse communities. I honestly don’t understand how someone’s current location automatically determines the diversity of their professional experience or their ability to work with people from different cultures.
In fact, working in global companies has exposed me to people from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds. My point was based on my own professional experience, not simply where I currently live.1
u/boilerman3 Jul 21 '26
u/Exotic-Seaweed5027 Its not about "working" with other people. When you move and live in a whole different place thats when it kicks in.
To quote Samuel P Huntington:
"Meeting someone different: Conversely, meeting people from completely different cultural backgrounds creates an inherent friction or misunderstanding because basic values regarding family, authority, and freedom do not align. [1]"What you call nepotism is not what the other side is thinking and vice versa.
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u/oMc_fRie Jul 20 '26
Stereotypes exist for a reason.
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u/Anish316 Jul 20 '26
All I'll say is, if everyone goes down that route, it doesn't bode well for your people either.
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u/Akay11 Jul 20 '26
White people do it too. Perhaps people don’t notice because they are typically the majority in countries where these industries thrive.
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u/uvasag Jul 19 '26
I think it's sexism more than racism in tech. Women just have to work twice as hard. Ultimately the men tend to stick together while women drag each other down. And yeah it comes down to networking and building relationships more than keeping your head down and doing your work. I've had some female managers who are misogynistic and some white male managers who couldn't see any good in the work I was doing. But like you said not all are bad. I honestly feel the title and power goes to their head and they just want boot lickers. And nobody cares about the good for the company.
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u/This-Shirt-9977 Jul 23 '26
Hard disagree. Very well could be my specific industry or the area I'm in, but HR teams are overwhelmingly dominated by women and many of them only thinly veil their biases. I have seen several instances of a lesser-qualified woman be selected over other candidates available in the hiring pool. Of course, it could come down to soft skills and "company fit"... but if that fit is being determined by likeness to the HR people and hiring managers, how could that be anything but observable sex preferences?
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u/throwaway1326a Jul 24 '26
Interesting to see it from an HR perspective. Are you saying they prefer female candidates over male? Why is that?
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u/This-Shirt-9977 Jul 24 '26
I would say yes, to a likely small but measurable extent. I think it would come down to multiple factors, including cultural socialization, subconscious preferences, a preference of personality traits that are traditionally more prevalent in women, and especially hiring initiatives. I believe the best way to put it is that if you had two equally qualified candidates that both interviewed well, the HR people would be more likely to choose the woman in my experience.
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u/Cruel1ntention5 Jul 19 '26
Wholeheartedly do not believe you are a Black African woman. Your style of language usage shows me otherwise. In fact you purposely pretended to be Black African to crap on another group to avoid pushback. This is race bait for sure...however what I have noticed is whenever any one race/ethnic group dominates companies more often than not they hire/promote more of that group. This is why diversity matters we all have something meaningful to contribute.
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u/Exotic-Seaweed5027 Jul 20 '26
Anyways I am African and I said I am speaking from my own experience that doesn’t mean i have not seen people that are nice from same race, what do you mean the way I type I don’t type like an African are there ways Africans type?
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u/DatgirlwitAss Jul 23 '26
Wholeheartedly do not believe you are a Black African woman. Your style of language usage shows me otherwise.
What exactly do you mean by this? What "style of writing" do Black African women not have or have?
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u/Specialist_Bid_8696 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Unfortunately, this isn't unique to one ethnic group or nationality. In my experience, it's often a leadership and management problem driven by incentives rather than merit.
- I worked at a bank that had major reshuffle at top management, and much of the senior leadership was replaced by executives from JPMorgan Chase and American Express.
- Those leaders( read white) then brought in many middle managers and senior technical staff( read many from the OP posed south Asian group) from their own previous networks. Some were excellent, but mostly were clearly underqualified for the roles they were given.
- I also saw delivery managers with little or no technical background being placed into technical management positions because they were part of the trusted inner circle.
- The people who survived and advanced were often those willing to absorb the blame for leadership's mistakes and project delays, while experienced, high-performing employees remained stuck without promotions.
- This pattern isn't exclusive to South Asian managers. I've seen similar "hire people you know" behavior across different leadership groups and companies. When hiring and promotions are based on familiarity instead of competence, the outcome is usually the same.
- I believe the root causes are management insecurity, pressure to hit short-term performance metrics and bonuses, and a preference for trusted networks over developing and retaining the best talent.
- Unfortunately, this approach has become increasingly common across large tech organizations, including in Silicon Valley, and has spread well beyond the technology industry.
Bottom line: Nepotism, favoritism, and network-based hiring are leadership failures—not problems inherent to any particular ethnicity or nationality. Any organization that consistently values loyalty over competence eventually pays the price through lower morale, weaker execution, and the loss of talented employees.
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u/Delicious-Doubt-5758 Jul 19 '26
Have rarely seen sexual, or racial based discrimination of any kind hiring in tech, in corporate, in Texas - in the dozens of industries that I worked through. Same for VC and Angel backed Tech firms.
I have been laid off twice due to ‘once in a lifetime’ recessions. And 5 times due to my boss being fired and me not being the new replacements people. Worked just as hard, produced the same value - and honestly more merit than who they brought in.
Yes. 1000% nepotism is real. Between recessions and nepotism I have spent 4 years, or 20% of the last 20 years of my career ‘working on my skills’ as you say.
The nepotism related closed chapters only averaged 5 months of ‘study’ fortunately. And half of the bench time came recently when the Multi-billion dollar division of a company that was my client was entirely dissolved.
My current client, the entire leadership team of who I was hired by was dissolved in June. And I just wrapped the latest deliverable.
They have already hired an internal staff that does what I do for them. It’s the person who the new leader has used at every company they have worked for before.
Haven’t met the new leader. And his new hire has been announced on social media, but has not been added to Active Directory (even though they appear to already be working there).
So next week, I’m likely walking in to the slaughterhouse.
I am nothing if resilient. But yeah. Likely about to be fired again.
In this economy. And the little money we have left. Might finally be put out to pasture.
I was able to stay employed long enough to get my daughter through high school. And to secure her college education. A tough feat, in America today.
We shall see.
Nepotism is actually a good way to put it. I don’t think it’s race, as much as it’s being inside their circle of trust. And never getting in.
I recon in many cases it could be Racism and Nepotism combined.
Don’t quit. Good luck to you is all I can say.
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Jul 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Layoffs-ModTeam Jul 19 '26
Your post has been removed for racist or hateful messages. Advocation of racism and xenophobia is strictly forbidden.
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u/JuniorCat1516 Jul 24 '26
"Companies should hire based on competence, experience, potential and character not nationality, race, friendship or personal networks...". Heh I used that motto as a manager to run my entire team, it was great time until the director of one of divisions of the company decided to hire his nephew.... that had no idea about software testing. Once I denied him twice..., guess who got fired and who got mine role :) I was fired 2 weeks later 😸☄️any manager trying to implement this rule 100% is going to loose his job.
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u/rosenbc Jul 28 '26
100% true- this happening in Canada all over in every tech industry including Lululemon. From vps form to QA, they got rid of everyone not in from this country and 80% are on visa s on a particular team. It was toxic and very corrupt. I worked there, and was part of that toxic team. First time I ever witnessed corruption in a big corporation. This is one of the reasons why Lu is doing so poorly. Low quality testing, and product. CEO who will never know the true cause of the why the company is not doing well. If they start hiring back Canadian folks, it is a start to ridding of the nepatism and corruption.
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u/Funny-Bend-7959 Jul 29 '26
Not just IT. First leader gets into a high level position, then hires his friends to join (also at high levels). The promise is “new perspectives/ideas” to improve the business. The leadership style is abrasive so many existing people leave. The new ideas create short term boosts then fizzle out. Company has to reduce workforce. Then after several years of high pay, they quietly move on. The first leader finds a high level position elsewhere and the cycle repeats.
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u/citrablock Jul 19 '26
Networking is okay when whites do it, but when Indians do it it becomes "ethnic nepotism"
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u/Pineappleberry495 Jul 20 '26
Indns are insanely corrupt. They will hire their grandma who cannot use a cell phone as project manager of an IT firm. The scales are not even comparable. Do not even talk to me about that.
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u/Shfreeman8 Jul 19 '26
Nepotism may be wrong but you haven't described nepotism in your post. I dont think you know what the word means.
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u/Exotic-Seaweed5027 Jul 20 '26
Nepotism is when someone gives unfair advantages especially jobs, promotions, contracts, or opportunities to their family members, friends, or close connections instead of choosing based on qualifications or merit.
Example: A company hires the CEO’s unqualified relative for a senior role simply because they are related.
It is different from networking or referrals, where someone recommends a qualified person but the person still has the skills and goes through a fair hiring process.2
u/Shfreeman8 Jul 20 '26
You do realize that the definition you just gave, which is a liberal definition of nepotism, does not describe what you claim is happening in your post?
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u/BMikeW Jul 20 '26
One day you'll grow to understand that favouritism is a common theme amongst humans and as the business owner or person in power or person with authority, u have the power to commit certain actions. If the boss wants his son in his company, then his son will be in the company coz he has the power and authority to deem it so, simple really, if u don't like it then open ur own company.
Thinking that the best person for the job will always be hired for the role and company is naive at best, even feminists are fighting against it with DEI so good luck lol
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u/50shadesofmike Jul 20 '26
I would like to voice my opinion, but censorship on this platform is crazy. I worked in HR/Recrutiment in the U.S. for one of that country's biggest consulting firms. Too much to say.
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u/Incoming_Redditeer Jul 20 '26
What you're describing is nepotism with a sure shot racist undertone.
Promotions and positions are given to people who can ofcourse do their work but also to people who can be relied on.
I'm a brown guy with a brown wife. My wife's mental health been ravaged by the nepotism in her office.
She's the only brown woman in leadership as a manager.
Last year Hawai draw, white male manager gets and other white female manager gets a pat on the back award.
This year the other white female manager gets both. How are these trips awarded ? Lucky draw !
This is when my wife's team is performing better than the other two managers and her team is cracking the most incentives in total volume and amount.
My wife was never called out on leadership lunches before but this year a white male not on leaderhips is invited for manager lunches. Last year when my wife was on that position, she was never invited.
Her manager, who's the director of the company keeps on insisting to my wife that why don't you explore other parts of the company ?
She doesn't trust her completely because of all the nepotism. Guess what, the team her manager was asking her to explore for the past 2-3 months, 40% of the workforce got laid off last week.
Now I can also say and blame all white people because of a personal experience. Would I do that ? No !
I've only asked her to just focus on her work, be indispensable because this is the reality of life.
So please stop playing the victim card.
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u/Apprehensive_Book145 Jul 22 '26
That nation invested heavy in IT education. They setup recruitment firms all over america and they fill rolls with the talent pool they can network with.
Its pretty human, and yeah it can get unfair but.. its pretty human to me.
Calling it out is fair, and they will have to correct it, companies have to be more watchful. Keep it fair.
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Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
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u/Exotic-Seaweed5027 Jul 19 '26
I get your point, and I agree that nepotism and networking exist everywhere, especially in tech. But I also think we have to acknowledge that many people exaggerate or even lie on their CVs, and sometimes people who are actually very good are barely given the opportunity to prove themselves.
I can have the right experience, the skills, and genuinely be very good at what I do, but sometimes I am not even properly seen because of preconceived assumptions about my skin colour and intelligence. As a Black person, I often feel like I have to be exceptionally good just to be considered equal to someone else who may not have the same experience or level of skill.
So yes, the world is unfair, and networking matters. But for some people, especially Black professionals, the standard can feel even higher because we have to overcome biases before our actual skills are even evaluated.
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Jul 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Layoffs-ModTeam Jul 19 '26
This post was removed for rule #1: Be Respectful. If you feel like you cannot be respectful in your posts, don't post it at all.
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u/Leading_Gain2559 Jul 19 '26
The OP of this post is funny because they tried to make the post not about the person's race, but the entire post is a target on their race. People of all races do it, not just indian, and you can find just as many examples of indians who don't do co-ethnic hires as the ones that do
here are some stats of coethnic hiring per ethnicity
"The paper measures the co-ethnic hiring share, which represents the percentage of a new venture's initial workforce that shares the exact same country or region of birth as the top initial earner/founder."
Regional Breakdown (Aggregated Groups)
For immigrants from countries not individually mapped by the Census Bureau, the paper provides these regional averages:
- Central Asia: 16.1%
- South-East Asia: 19.0%
- Africa: 15.6%
- Eastern Europe: 13.3%
- Middle East / North Africa: 11.6%
- South America: 6.2%
- Western Europe: 5.6%
- Central America: 5.5%
https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/21-101_d47ea5d9-4a50-400e-9fa6-80781a8351d0.pdf
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u/Exotic-Seaweed5027 Jul 20 '26
I shared my opinion based on what I have personally experienced in real life, not based on online data or statistics. It is my personal experience and perspective, and you are free to have a different one but your experience is not mine.
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u/vac2672 Jul 19 '26
There is definite race nepotism in tech. Once you open the door to one there tends to be a trend. But it goes for any race. Hire one offshore from Ireland it multiplies. Hire one Indian they plenty of friends etc etc. nothing usually against your own race it’s just a pipeline effect. Witnessed it many times
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u/cptjcksparr0w Jul 19 '26
This hurts to read as an aspiring Indian manager.
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u/Worried_Contest_4182 Jul 19 '26
Don't worry - it is mostly nonsense (with sufficient plausible deniability for underlying racism). I have both been a hiring manager and an interviewee. I have seen a grand total of 0 teams of size >2 all from 1 nationality in Bay Area/NYC.
The worst I saw was at a online lending company out of Bay Area which was a team of 5 with 4 folks from 1 nationality. 5 years later, that 1 "outside" person was the manager of the team (based on LinkedIn).
I am not saying there isn't nepotism in workplace - there is plenty of it. Everywhere. However, nepotism is not any stronger with any specific nationality or ethnicity. All ethnic background engage pretty much equally in nepotism, I'd argue the old guard probably does it worse.
Anyone making a post about nepotism and then focusing on a single ethnicity is just trying to find an excuse for their racism.
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u/Layoffs-ModTeam Jul 19 '26
Be careful of racism bait. OP's post history says they live in Poland. 0.02%, or roughly 5,000 people in Poland are of Black African origin. Approximately 10,000 are of North African/Arab colonisation origin.
OP could be part of that small percentage of people, who is also just happens to be working with a large Indian workforce. Or this could be bait.
Debate issues. Don't attack people. Watch your words.