AIBU - work situation

[Darkbloom]

I've been working for this company for a year now - there is around 150 staff on our site and 6 members in our team (we have our own office away from the rest of the company).

All the team are English apart from two of the staff members are from a European country (Don't want to say which country they are from as I know a couple of my team are mumsnetters). The manager is from the same country as them.

The manager "prefers" to use her own native language when talking, so 5% of the time she talks English - the other two girls follow suit and talk in their language to her and to each other.

AIBU to think it's extremely rude to not communicate in English to the whole team?

Yes, it is rude unless it has been agreed with all employees in advance that they will speak in their own language.

I worked for a lovely German couple as a temp for a couple of weeks. It was explained to me in advance that they spoke in German to each other as it was easier for them and would this concern me. I said (truthfully) that it wouldn't.

However, that is very different from a clique excluding others by speaking their own language at work.

I just want to point out it might not be rude , if it's their first language they may just think quicker and respond quicker in this language . I have children who speak a second language and in some situations they think in that language and will sometimes respond and speak in thar despite me not understanding if they're with people they normally speak it to.

I would complain, if it was the other way round you can be sure that they would be calling it racist or any other ist they could find

I would be learning a few Interesting phrases in that language (good morning, anyone for coffee?, see you tomorrow, anyone going for lunch! Do you want anything from the shop etc etc) then dropping a few phrases casually into conversation.....

If their jaws drop and they look shocked - it tells you what they are up to!

I love doing this 😉

5% of the time is really no big deal. Did you mean 50% of the time? Because if so, yes, that's unprofessional and discriminatory.

Oh, wait, 95% of the time she's not in English? Yeah, that's a really serious problem.

Colleagues do this at my work too. I find it a bit rude. But at least it's not the manager!! How very unprofessional.

How come you worked for them for over a year and are still on probation?? I 99% guess they are polish - I worked in a similar environment before and can say they are one of the worst people to work around

Actually, I'm curious, why are him still on probation after a yeR?

It is not rude to converse in a native language,

I disagree - in a team setting, when not everyone speaks that language, it is incredibly rude! It excludes people, no one knows whether they are being talked about, or they miss vital information which is shared only between those that speak the language.

We have had instances of this at work and have clamped down hard on the behaviour. English is our business language and little cliques speaking primarily in their native language is just divisive and causes nothing but problems and grievances.

It's bad enough when it is just team members, but is dreadful behaviour from the manager too

If people switched whispering with using a difficult language can you start to see why it is so inappropriate?

It's unacceptable in work time it is designed to exclude others.

I work for a multinational, multilingual workplace, but the working language is English. There are some customer support roles where they are expected to speak the customer's language, but mostly you only hear that as one end of a phone call. I have been in meetings where someone might have explained in their own language to a less fluent colleague what was being said in English, but I'd say that's an inclusive use. I have also had a couple of Dutch colleagues speak Dutch at me - I don't think they were quite conscious of having switched, and I have learnt to say, "I don't speak Dutch" as a result! And then they just apologise and repeat in English.

But it doesn't sound like your colleagues are using their language in those ways, but through laziness. Your first step should be to raise it with the manager - not as a complaint, but more as an observation and that it would help team building for others to understand, and allow them to give input if relevant. However, from what you say, you may be falling on deaf ears there. If you did go to HR, I would approach it more as asking for advice on ways you can tackle it more than complaining. But IME, one of the first things HR would want to know is, what have you done to try and resolve this so far, and have you spoken to the people concerned?

If it's ever caused problems - e.g. someone made an error or something was missed or done wrongly because they didn't have all the information because it wasn't discussed in English, then it can become a complaint, because of the impact. (Frustration and exclusion should also have an impact, but in the end it's usually money which really makes a difference.)

Longer term, I see merit in learning the language. Git German manager that I had didn't seem to realise I understand a lot more than I could speak...

It’s so rude! I understand it’s easier and always natural to speak your native language but nurses on my mh unit used to do it too and having multiple people speaking in another language over a room of ten grown adults struggling to eat/drink a snack in twenty minutes was fucking awful.