An incident occurred this week when two team members were called in to the manager's office, and they were told that we were forbidden to speak Spanish with each other. They had been occasionally speaking Spanish with each other for the past few years. Until now, nobody else on the team or the company had an issue with this.
The manager stated that a new employee of 8 days, had complained to management that she felt uncomfortable and assumed they were talking about her. Now the issue is, this new employee does talk to others in her native language and nobody has an issue with that.
This appears (to me) to be language discrimination as it was not an "English only" policy, but a "No Spanish" policy.
On top of that, there are several business partners that we interact with in Spanish when dealing with Latin American countries as required by the company.
What are everyone's thoughts on this?
Not so simple
Hi NSV1234,
I will be as brief as I can but this topic is not one for few words.
I am assuming you are talking about a company in the United States and if so, there is certainly more to it than appears to a sense of fair play. Your example is frustrating and seems to violate US labor and equality laws. It seems to violate those laws because it does and it does because every law that provides rights to some, by definition must take those rights away from others.
US businesses are required by law to provide an harassment free workplace. There is no time limit or seniority aspect of this requirement. Whether the complainer has been there 8 days or 8 decades makes no difference.
Harassment is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. This includes perceived harassment, even where none was intended or even present. As M&M frequently point out: Communication is what the Listener does. Even if the Spanish speakers in your post are talking about the big game this weekend, if the listener perceives harassment, she being harassed. Think about it this way: You and I are talking in the corridor at work. A female co-worker goes by and we lean together and lower our voices to a whisper as she passes and watch her go around the corner before resuming our conversation. Even though we were talking about purely business topics, our behavior reasonably led her to believe we were discussing her fundamental attributes. She has a complaint and can legitimately complain about it. Businesses are caught in the net of stupidity we have woven in our efforts to ensure people have the constitutional right to not be offended to any degree.
You specifically mention the new co-worker is female and believes the Spanish speakers are talking about her and this makes her uncomfortable. This meets the test of harassment as it is taught in the company for which I work. She has a legitimate case.
Based on the way you phrased your post, I get the impression you are begging the question. There is almost certainly more to it than the simplistic portrayal you provide. What is the complainer's native language she speaks to others? Who are these others; family members she speaks to on the phone or co-workers who share a language? I also get the impression you are one of the Spanish speakers, despite your careful phrasing. You say "two team members" were called to a manager's office and use the plural pronoun several times but write "we were forbidden to speak Spanish to each other." Are you one the people affected by this decision? If so, you need to distance yourself from the emotional content and think it through from someone else's point of view.
I am sure the normal course of doing business does not apply here and cannot be used as a defense. If you have clients/customers/suppliers from Latin America where Spanish is prominent, I think it highly unlikely you will be forbidden to speak Spanish with them.
Forget about fairness. Fairness is a concept found only in the minds of human beings and nowhere else. Fairness also strongly resembles self-interest when you listen to people talk about it. What is deemed fair by a person almost always benefits from the "fair" thing.
You mention she talks to people in her native language, which I will assume here is neither English nor Spanish, while at work. You can claim she is making you uncomfortable because you think she is talking about you. This would be petty and unprofessional if it is not true and only used for retaliation. You would have to prove reasonable harm, for which there is plenty if the Spanish speakers in your post are male.
The company is putting itself in a very vulnerable position by not creating an "English" only policy. Better to prohibit all other languages in the workplace rather than singling out only one. A prohibition would also apply to all interactions in the workplace, not just work times. If you have formal break and lunch times, you cannot revert to Spanish because "you are on your own time". In the workplace means just that.
Fortunately, people making a complaint of harassment must prove certain aspects, such as impact on effectiveness or professional disadvantage, but I would not put my career on the line based on that. Companies are safety-wired in to over-reactions to such cases and all reason goes right out the window. Far better to avoid putting my hand in the vise that to trust the person not to tighten it too much.
The only realistic and actionable thing you can do is comply with the directive, suggest it be expanded to all languages than English except for talking to your Latino contacts, and wait. If the complainer is truly a wart, they will be known as such soon enough. People will understand and these things tend to self-correcting. Be the better persona and better manager. It is normal to be outraged by behaviors we deem so unfair and this outrage is a clear application of Horstmann's Umbrella Rule.
Ed Zaun
DiSC Profile 7-3-1-2
I agree with Edzaun, that
I agree with Edzaun, that management to be fair must apply language restrictions to all languages and create an "English only policy" when communicating with fellow workers. This way, it cannot be viewed as descrimination because the restriction applies to all languages other than English.
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