Posted on 08/24/2013 4:41:24 AM PDT by Iron Munro
Verizon executives in Tampa Bay are informally telling employees that they should be speaking English only when on the job.
Not because Verizon has an English-only policy at work — it doesn’t — but because speaking Spanish at work when not absolutely necessary can make nearby English-only speakers feel excluded.
This topic came to a head recently in Tampa when three employees of a Verizon dispatch center were speaking Spanish together, and another employee made a complaint because she felt excluded. The tri-lingual newspaper La Gaceta first reported on the incident this week, telling the story of Margaret Hess, a Verizon employee of 33 years who was asked to speak only English with her co-workers.
Verizon spokesman Bob Elek confirmed the incident, and described the company language policy this way.
“Generally, we tell employees they can speak Spanish (or any other language) on break, lunch or any time away from the work area,” he wrote in an official statement. However, when employees are on the dispatch center floor or other work setting, they should speak English, he said. This promotes “positive employee relations” because it’s courteous to co-workers, and employees should be “mindful” of making others feel uncomfortable, Elek said, “not because they’re speaking Spanish’, but because for some it can create a feeling of separation versus inclusion.”
Elek said that Verizon absolutely encourages employees to speak Spanish as part of their jobs – when it’s necessary to communicate with customers or for other business reasons.
This issue “pops up all the time because there’s friction between cultures,” said Tony Morejon, a cultural affairs liaison for Hillsborough County. “I encourage people to learn English ... but some employees are going to resent this kind of rule. Some will say they won’t speak Spanish for business purposes unless they’re required to, because they feel used. Like ‘Oh when you want me to speak Spanish you say do that, but not other times.’”
Guidelines from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission allow a company to have a narrowly tailored policy requiring English in the workplace, so long as the policy is not adopted with an intent to discriminate, said Reed Russell, a partner with the law firm of Phelps Dunbar and a former legal counsel to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Companies can require English in many places and times for reasons like workplace safety, efficiency and “harmony,” or official communications.
“Where employers get into difficulty with the EEOC is if the rule is overbroad,” he said, for instance an English-only rule on all company grounds at all times. “This is one of those issues that gets a lot of discussion, but there are not that many EEOC charges or lawsuits filed. It gets a lot of people agitated on both sides of the issue. Some say such a policy is racist or mean-spirited. Others say you should only speak English in America.”
It has not been suggested that people can't speak whatever language they prefer on their own time.
It is usually forbidden at professional workplaces.
I gather English is not your native language.
Paranoid whites/Anglos as you call us, have the same ability to learn a second and third language as everyone else.
First by mere osmosis, next by serious study.
We generally pick up on the “dirty words” and insults first.
People of any native language can generally comprehend a large number of often heard phrases, even of several different foreign languages, in multilingual environments.
Did you really think anyone, of any language, doesn't know foreign language rude trash talk when they hear it?
Perhaps you are not quite as correct as you think you are, on this issue.
For some odd reason, certain foreign cultures tend to think their languages and local dialects are super-secret codes to english speakers.
LOL!
I figure you are a rather plump call center supervisor or team leader.
I had dozens of you working for me. Generally in their forties—really old school.
You think that it’s your workplace and you know your customers. As the world consolidated, you got moved into larger, and larger call centers. It brought you from the suburbs into the city. New languages and new food. New performance standards—that you had trouble meeting.
Then, when the promotions came, they went to those brown girls.
Am I close?
Well, I was the guy orchestrating that. You girls thought I was the devil himself. That was after you whispered behind my back about how I was sleeping with that cute secretary, or new supervisor. You made comments when my wife and kids came into visit..
Just as you think those brown people are talking about you in that different language.
Yes, I know you. I reviewed you. I set the standards. You failed to meet the new standards because”you took care of the customer..not like those new girls. You know the Spanish ones.
Twenty years I did that. I’ve known dozens of reps like you.
And you want it to be 1986 again.
I have worked in various positions, both in this country, the USA, and several others, where most people were
bilingual or multilingual.
I have often encountered the output of various call centers, some apparently run by people such as yourself.
....one of the many reasons I never accepted a position at “your” type of business.
If you haven’t worked in a call center then you are talking crap about stuff you know NOTHING about. Stick to your own profession. You would suck as a call center manager.
(Note to the NSA: Can you hear me NOW??)
“Telling someone they cannot speak their native language on their own time is an idiot.”
Anyone not capable of speaking English as their primary language in a workplace is an idiot.
Again, we are NOT debating whether or not they should speak English in the fulfillment of their jobs—they are expected to, and they do.
The debate is whether two natural Spanish speakers should be “forced” to speak only English in the bathroom, break room, parking lot, etc. when they are on their own time and off the clock.
To expect them to is unenforceable. And it just leads to more problems. It’s crap thinking like this that sends these employees right into the hands of big unions.
Address them angrily in Russian, or Japanese...or make up your own language.
I usually just grunted and growled. At least that is what they would say.
The longer you keep posting, the more you out yourself.
No, I would never have excelled at your chosen profession. I also would not make a good thief or union chief.
Perhaps it is a cultural thing....
I note that you have now moved the “bar” to erroneously claim that Verizon is forbidding people to speak in any language they want, on their own personal breaks or at private lunches.
Bad form.
We call that a strawman argument around here.
I don't really care if you knew that or not.
Most of the rest of us do. Are you feeling excluded now? LOL!
“The debate is whether two natural Spanish speakers should be “forced” to speak only English in the bathroom, break room, parking lot, etc. when they are on their own time and off the clock.”
Employees are never off the clock when on premise. Maybe they are not getting paid at the moment, but that does not mean they get to refuse to abide by property owner rules.
Yeah, feeling excluded on the Internet. That makes me feel all scared.
Anyway, your expertise on the subject is pretty much, “I’ve talked” on the phone. So, go back to baking cookies for the first day of school.
LOL!
As I have previously stated on this same thread, you out yourself more, with every post you make.
HA! Right.
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