Some bosses don't want to hear Spanish

Houston Chronicle ^ | JAMES PINKERTON

[Dubya]

It should be speak English everywhere in USA.

[inkling]

Some bosses don't want to hear Spanish

Some customers don't either.

[donnab]

This is one of my hot button issues. To me it comes down
to respect. Why be in a country that you dont want to be a part of? The answer to that is they want to take and have no desire to give back. Enough is enough already.
The English language is used here. Period.

[Jeff Chandler]

I like speak English everywhere in USA.

[DonaldC]

I used to work for a guy from Portugal and during a time that a long time friend worked for him as well, they would switch from Portuguese to English in mid-sentence if they heard someone walk into the room. I did not care at the time if they did it or not, but I had a great deal of respect for them for doing so.

[Haddit]

It’s legal not to hire someone that doesn’t speak Spanish.

[sheana]

You are correct. I used to manage the bar at a prominent Country Club. Most of our waiters were legal immigrants from South America or the Philippines. They all spoke English very well.
We had a space where the coffee, tea, bus carts, etc were kept. There was a divider between that space and what we called the ‘Grill Room’ which was the golfers everyday bar.
The waiters used to gather back there and chat in their native language and they were loud. I constantly had to tell them to speak English when they were where they could be heard. What they did outside the clubhouse was their business.
I don’t think they did it on purpose but boy did the members get perturbed over it.

[Jeff Chandler]

Where I worked Mexicans who spoke perfect English would carry on conversations in Spanish in rooms with English speakers. Quite rude.

[wally_bert]

I had to work for a cheap skate technical manager who would have loved nothing more than to deep six everybody and replace the bodies with cheap labor.

FWIW, in later years, I have heard anyone who can that has had to work for the guy jumps ship at the first chance. I guess he will get his wish one day. Sad.

[Jeff Chandler]

boy did the members get perturbed over it.

It's rude because many people use it as "code" when gossiping about others within earshot. Even if that's not what they're doing, it raises that suspicion.

[weegee]

So if the employees are using Spanish to make racist and sexist comments about their co-workers, they have “free speech” not afforded other employees?

[sheana]

That was always my explanation to them....that it was rude.

[mamelukesabre]

I think any empoyer should be able to demand english only in the workplace.

HOWEVER, I think it is a little extreme for an employer to get so upset his workers were speaking spanish ON THEIR BREAK. It’s none of his business what these employees are saying or what language they are saying it in while on break. I think employers should leave employees alone while on their break.

[Aggie Mama]

The solution to this is simple. An English-only speaker needs to file a EEOC suit claiming a “hostile work environment” and from Spanish speakers.

[weegee]

I’ve seen job descriptions that seek candidates who can speak “2 or more languages” but if that language is Japanese or French or Swahili, don’t expect to get a callback.

[timm22]

Private businesses should be able to establish whatever policies they want for their own business, including language policies. Governments should NOT be involved in this matter, unless the policy is in conflict with an employment contract.

If an employee doesn't like an employer's English-only policy, the employee is perfectly free to seek employment elsewhere. Likewise, if an employer does not want his employees to speak Spanish, he should be perfectly free to let them go if they do so.

I feel the same way whether the employer wants an English-only or a Spanish-only policy. This is not something the government needs to meddle with.

[mamelukesabre]

Yes, that’s exactly right.

I have a funny story to tell. I once had a friend that was originally from panama. He was wealthy. We used to go to bars once in a while. ONe time his relative from panama was visiting him and the three of us were out. There was a woman in the bar that was a body builder, I mean steroid use big time. My friend and his buddy started making fun of her in spanish. I don’t know spanish so I didn’t know what was going on or what exactly they said. But it must’ve been pretty raunchy because the muscle chick turned around and said “ I know spanish” plus a few other things in spanish that I don’t know what it was, and then beat the hell out of him right there in the bar. I mean she thrashed him really good. The bouncers came over and dragged the three of us out the front door.

I asked the two of them what the heck they were saying. THey wouldn’t tell me. So it must’ve been really bad.

[Rumplemeyer]

I have had the same experience, I have work with the Portuguese and Spanish in heavy/highway construction for 40 years the considered themselves “American” first.

[Cacique]

Not rude at all. They didn't want you to know what they were talking about. When people speak another language in front of you assuming that you can't understand them they very often do it on purpose.

I have often walked in on political discussions at my local bodega. Because I don't look hispanic they went on thinking I couldn't understand the language. Sometimes I leave without saying anything. A few times though, I couldn't help myself when they were ragging on the country. I would let them ramble on until I was ready to leave and then in perfect Spanish, I would tell them what to stick in those dark private places and what they could do with themselves. After they swam back where they came from of course.

[csmusaret]

I can name one major US city where it is almost impossible to get a job if you don’t speak Spanish...El Paso, Tx.