to think that in the Uk you should speak English at work?

[Wrongornot]

I can't make up my mind?

My employer have banned the use of any language other that English being spoken during working hours?

Are they being unreasonable?

www.scotsman.com/news/odd/lidl-polish-workers-banned-from-speaking-own-language-1-3596137

(Regular but name changed)

"What the fuck is it with monoglot English speakers? It's like you're actively offended by the existence of other languages."

Erm--the general rule that "it can, depending on the circumstances, be rude to use a language that's only shared by some of the people in the room" actually applies in other countries too, believe it or not.

I live in Japan and if I am part of a group where some people don't speak English, I would avoid using it, even to another English speaker, if it is possible.

If there is another English speaker present who doesn't speak Japanese well then it can't be avoided, obviously. And speaking English to a small child because you are raising your child bilingually is generally felt to be acceptable too.

But as a rule, you do what you can to try to avoid shutting part of the group out of the conversation. It feels dismissive of the other part of the group, for a start, and can also feel like the linguistic equivalent of whispering to someone when you are in company. That is the rule in most countries I have been to, NOT just in English speaking countries.

Socially...what in earth do you mean "interesting this happened in Scotland..would they ban English?"

Scots people speak English. Maybe with a Scots dialect but it's English.

What a goady unnecessary remark.

Re the ban. I can't help feeling customers who complained about this might be on the xenophobic side.

It's not goady, what I meant was if we're talking about native languages, then given that Gaelic was the native language, would they insist that Gaelic was spoken over English (obviously not but to me it seems the same thing)?

Boleh "it's more about courteous behaviour than language"

Exactly.

If I worked at Lidl and was Polish, if I was in a situation where a Polish customer didnt speak English I'd refuse to talk Polish to help them. They can't have it both ways.

Friend worked in a food factory for a couple of months up to Xmas each year when they took on extra staff for late late shifts. It required a temperature of 5 degrees or thereabouts plus everyone spoke a different language. Poor her.

I'm in two mind about this. Whatever people do within private conversations, fine. A couple examples though :

• previous job in central London, it was me ( trilingual), American guy ( also trilingual), 5 guys from the same European country ( bilingual). Our only language in common was English. Despite that,if American colleague was out entire days could go by when no one spoke to me in English while they chatter away all day in their language across the bank of desks. Work related emails which are legally discoverable were also written in that language. Is that ok?
• In new office, over 50% of staff comes from same country. They generally chat across bank of desk all day long in their language and have loud coffee break all together at the table which is in the middle of the office. It's incredibly hard for anyone else to join in. Is that ok?

No, it's not okay, but that isn't because they're talking in a different language, it's because they're being rude.

The person with the desk opposite mine is a native Spanish speaker. So is the person with the desk just behind mine. If they talk to one another, it's in Spanish. If someone else asks something in English, they switch to English instantly, and they'll frequently switch themselves and say "hey, Skylark, do you know anything about...?" It's a complete non-issue.

I've often wished I spoke more languages just because only speaking English (and French, but not at a level that a French conversation wouldn't switch to English if I joined in) makes me feel a bit pathetic given how many languages many of my colleagues speak fluently, but I've never felt excluded because I don't.

I think there must be a company rule on work email being in English, because I've sometimes been copied into an email chain later it's in English even where the initial two people have a different language in common. Though I imagine if they email a client who speaks another language it isn't in English - one of my Spanish speaking colleages just went to see a client in a Spanish-speaking country, and he was sent so meetings could be in Spanish.

Socially if a business were to insist on Gaelic being spoken, they'd probably struggle to recruit in most areas and not sure how many customers they'd get. The Gaelic school that opened here was meant to be 'total immersion' but struggled to get support staff.

I think it is ridiculous that a company would try and dictate what language employees spoke in private. And I would have thought having polish-speaking staff would be an advantage - we have businesses here that advertise that they speak Polish.

sorry but if you are in an english speaking country you speak english .end of story .what you do outside work is your own business .if you get customers in that can,t speak english and you know there mother tounge then fine .but between staff no .

"If you're in an English speaking country you speak English" is like that Britain first "when in Rome" meme.

Ebear the point about enforcing the rule is if someone was being bullied/excluded and other staff members were whispering (good point made by a previous poster) or the conversation stopped when they walked in the room etc they would be pretty sure that was what was happening - more or less certain if it happened all the time. They might even overhear the odd word.
If someone was speaking but in a different language you could think and feel it was about you but you couldn't be completely sure.

If you felt bullied would you want to tackle them yourself? How many people would be confident enough to tell colleagues you are making me fell uncomfortable to their face in that situation? So you go to your boss/line manager.
(When I was the boss - so a strong position- and the guy was ranting about what a bitch I was I tried to ignore it at first - it was a difficult thing to do to call him on it. So I didn't until I understood enough to know for certain what was happening and could quote something he had said back to him so he couldn't deny it)

When questioned the people speaking in another language could say x is being overly sensitive - that isn't what is happening at all. So you explain and ask them to speak in the common language just when x is present. Fine.
But actually it might be awkward for x to be identified as the one making the complaint - they weren't actually sure that is what was happening -just felt it was. And now they have complained about their colleagues over 'nothing' - hardly likely to feel comfortable in their presence. Plus the non-English speakers might feel resentment towards them - even if they weren't deliberately excluding x in the first place. And then as x leaves they switch back to their native tongue ...would be worse I think.

The easiest way is therefore to enforce a blanket ban.

And if no-one else was present how would anyone know what language they were speaking? So completely 'in private' they can continue...but in the presence of others they can't...which is actually just good manners.

If you are in a customer facing role in an 'English speaking country' and a customer asks you something in another language that you also speak - is it not absolutely appalling customer service not to respond to them in that language? I imagine this will lose them a lot of business if they insist on not responding to customers in this way.

Do all British ex-pats in Spain ensure that they are fluent in Spanish?

I went to France a couple of years ago. I did study French at school up to sixth year, but I hadn't used it a lot since and couldn't communicate exclusively in French. I did my best to speak to people in French, but had to resort to some English words sometimes. They were invariably very helpful, and responded in English when I was stuck. Should they have insisted that I only speak to them in French?

I can understand a requirement for customer-facing staff to be able to communicate in English - but to stop them speaking other languages in their own time and in response to customers is just bizarre. I wonder if the manager has been given a talking-to, I find it hard to believe this would be actual company policy.

I dont see the issue behind doors but on the shop floor I would prefer english.

I don't think this is a language thing, it's a politeness thing. I'm trilingual with a smattering of other languages that means I can understand a lot of what other people say and I am always conscious to speak in the language understood by the majority of people in a room - it's just common courtesy (or maybe not so common). A lot of people don't do this and sometimes they purposefully switch into other languages to make snide remarks which can get very frustrating so I totally understand what caused the manager to bring in this rule, even if I think it's a bit odd.

English only in my work place. It is the common language between employees. Rule brought in following complaints of exclusion eg Chinese staff in lunchroom excluded by Indian staff.

It's about manners, not language. You can't legislate manners, unfortunately!

It needs to be dealt with at an individual level, as you would with any other issue in the work place where people are individually behaving in appropriately. This is a stupid and lazy way to attempt to deal with the issue.

As others have said, this is not about language at all - the instances where people have felt isolated were because the other people were behaving unkindly but they could just have easily done that in English - snideness and cliquey behaviour is totally possible in the same language!

I work in a modern languages department and the fact that you hear lots of different languages just walking down the corridors is part of what gives it character. And I don't need to know what everyone is saying all the time because I'm not paranoid

Not sure if this is relevant but there is a Polish deli in my town and the majority of their customers are Polish from what I can gather. However, the Polish chap behind the counter speaks English to everyone, regardless of their nationality.
On the other hand, my dh works in non customer facing role with a lot of the staff coming from other countries. They are supposed to speak in English at all times but they don't. Dh often says when he has to speak to one of them about something they have done wrong, he knows they will be talking about him, while he's there, but in another language. Personally, I don't think that's ok as as it's an exclusion issue. They should speak English at work, including break times. If I went to work in another country, I would expect to learn and speak their language. They have, after all, chosen to come and work over here.

I can understand banning staff speaking any language but English to EACH OTHER while working. But not letting them speak it to customers is totally ridiculous. As others have said, you wouldn't have this situation in any other country, imagine all the English speaking tourists and expats around the world who would be totally up shit creek!

At a previous job our Polish cleaner always chatted to the Polish postwoman and now they're living together

I now work with a Spanish guy and a Argentinian guy and they always talk in Spanish, I find it funny when I walk past them! It doesn't bother me at all.