What Stpid Thing Have You Done Today?

[Ghoulish Delight]

So I've been trying for a week+ to get something tested at our office in India. It needs to be tested before this week is over.

With the nearly 12 hour time difference, things are difficult, any communication takes a full day. As if that weren't enough delay, Monday was a holiday in India, and then the person who was supposed to do the work had to take the week off for an emergency.

So I asked on Wednesday for remote access to their systems so I could just do it myself. Instead the manager said he'd find someone else to do the work (would be way faster for me to just do it myself).

Yesterday, at almost 5PM (around 6AM India time), I got an email from someone about installing the software necessary (see the "Workplace reallyisms" thread for the substance of that email). We exchanged emails for a little while, then they stopped responding, so I went home. I kept checking in at home, trying to get status. Got no response, so I went to bed after 11 (middle of the work day in India) with one more email saying, "This is critical, I need to get this done tomorrow, please let me log in remotely".

Well, he responded shortly after I sent that. And from his response (and the appearance of an email from someone else in India) it finally dawned on me...this guy is not in our office in India, he's in San Jose.

He has an ethnically Indian name. And his manager (copied on the emails) has the same first name as the manager in India. And he working on exactly what someone in India would be working on if they were trying to do the testing I needed them to do. So I never thought to question it.

But now I feel kinda racist and had to send an uncomfortable apology email (I decided not to say, "I thought you were in India", just said "I mistook this for a different email conversation.").


ETA: Of course, the questions that this guy was asking were stupid, no matter what country he's in