To say something about language spoken at work

[Babbleoff]

Im in an english speaking country. I have started working in an office where the majority of other employees are from another country. They speak their own language all of the time. I mean, ALL of the time!! Whether its office banter or actual work issues, all in their language.

I am very experienced, have been employed for my specialist skills and am relatively senior, altho its a small company with a fairly flat structure.

I am feeling very excluded and struggling to fit in due to the fact that i dont speak the other language. I find it rude that in a small and close working environment no consideration is given to english speakers. The other couple of english speakers are much more junior than me and i don't think they'd say anything.

I make an effort to talk to people. On occasions a conversation i have started gets picked up by someone else and they take over and continue in their language. At lunch they speak their language even if im sitting with them.

AIBU to raise this with my boss? I feel like a dick suggesting people dont speak their own language, but ive been upset almost to the point of tears about this. I can go all day without being included in any conversations unless i start them myself. I feel so stupid even about that because ive been working for yrs and have very thick skin (bit of a cutthroat industry).

i should also point out that speaking their language is not necessary for the job and was not a requirement or mentioned during hiring process.

Good luck. You can't continue like this. It's bullying.
Plus, you're right not to learn the language in this circumstance..

Hi OP. I can imagine the situation that you are in because I used to work in Hong Kong, which has both Cantonese and English as official languages. I'd say 75% of people there were Cantonese native speakers.

However the organisation was UK-based, all work output was in English and the majority of the senior management were monolingual English speakers. (The latter is not something to be proud of, I know, but that's how it was).

There was lots of Cantonese social chat around the office, but people were very careful to switch to English if a non-Canto speaker was involved - I guess maybe not if they were chatting in the kitchen and I came in briefly for a drink, but if I'd have stayed and sat at the table they'd have switched.

I don't think that there was any official rule about all work chat being in English, but everyone was very professional and it was usually in their interest to have us English speakers in the conversation in order to move the work tasks forward.

For you OP, the sense I get is that
(a) your manager(s) speak this language and are probably perpetuating it, so they need to lead by example if they are serious about retaining you
(B) your input is not seen as useful to your colleagues so they have no incentive to include you. Should it be?

Is this a job where the work product is written or spoken in English? Or something where the work is more physical and language of performance doesn't matter?Are your colleagues highly or minimally educated? Is the company headquartered in the country whose language they all speak?

What it boils down to is that the work environment is not enabling you to work or develop as they need you to. A good manager should already have spotted this actually.

Now how did I know this is what this thread would be about when i saw the title? We've not had this sort of thread in a while. Only fair it's due to happen.

"I'm in English speaking country " - said as if trying to sound like you're not talking about the UK but a different country. Lo and behold, it's the UK. So the point is, "they're in our country, they should speak English or they're excluding me".

Do you need to involve your boss? Can’t you just ask them?

I agree it’s incredibly isolating, having worked with lots of big groups of non-English native speakers, but wouldn’t “oy you lot, speak English!” go over better than taking it higher up in the first instance?

My thoughts too. Such a selfish viewpoint.

It's a good thing that the natives where you work didn't find it 'hilarious' to learn English.

The irony is completely lost on you, @AnnaKorine.

Good luck today, @Babbleoff

Well it depends what you do - but the inference can be in some workplaces that in not speaking English which is the common language, then you intend to exclude. Management had to tell our own staff that it was English in the office for that reason. I'd make a fuss but ultimately you need a different job given the ratio you describe.

Good luck!
I think if you remain factual you'll be fine! You can't argue with it. It must feel so isolating

Or they could just speak in English, since they are working in England.

It the language of the workplace is English and staff can speak English then staff should be speaking in English during work time. If they want to communicate in their own language then they can do so in their breaks.

I’ve had this at work too. It was a very large team and several native eng speakers objected it was dividing the team. Management put a stop to it. Say something

This. Some of the responses here a somewhat bizarre - “find a different job”, “learn the language”, “don’t complain because what are you trying to achieve?”
I would have thought it’s common decency to switch to a common language when joined by someone who doesn’t speak yours.
I’m an immigrant myself and that’s what I would always do - it wouldn’t occur to me to keep chatting away in my language while my colleague/ customer/ friend who doesn’t speak it is next to me, feeling excluded.

Bit of a problem though if a whole team chooses to speak in their first language, including managers. For this reason, I expect, there are people employed in care homes who don’t speak any English.

Given that it's a workplace in the UK - and the other language being spoken is a European one - it's not unreasonable to have a common language policy which says that workplace conversations should be in English.

In the same way that you wouldn't take a job in Croatia (for example) as a native Croatian speaker. Only to find that the unofficial common language there is Portuguese rather than Croatian, and that it's your problem to learn Portuguese despite this not being a requirement when you were hired.

I would bet money they’re speaking Italian and OP’s in London.

You should have let the funky music do the talking.

Are you public sector? Because the only monoglot Welsh speaking offices I've ever come across (and I come from Gwynedd) are either public sector or something specifically to do with the language and are set up in such a way as to encourage Welsh speaking. You wouldn't end up in OP's situation as it would be made clear all through the recruitment process that Welsh speakers would be preferred. And courses would be available.

I'm not saying this from an anti-WL perspective (I'm a fluent speaker myself), I'm just saying that in my experience no one would end up in the situation OP describes wrt Welsh.

This. Find another job. Be selective and leave.

I'm not British and this would annoy me but I can imagine it happening if the majority of people in the office are from my country.

Change your job. They sound very inconsiderate and forcing them to speak I English would make them talk behind your back and be unhappy.

Sorry.

If only finding another job was as easy as being in Eastenders. Launderette this week, cafe next week, pub next month.

Why would it be Welsh. I worked in central London for a well known company that happen to be owned and run by a sri lankan family and at least 50% of the employees were also sri lankan and often spoke Tamil when talking to each other. I think you may be a touch paranoid.

Not the point at all. Clumsy wording/drafting thread late on sunday dreading work next day. Have learnt my lesson to be SUPER CAREFUL with wording of OP in future.

Ive lived and worked overseas myself. Ive worked in multinational environments my whole career (nature of my industry). I understand and have experienced all the issues this brings. There are big egos in this business and i have very thick skin as a result. Not a lot phases me. This situation however is really frustrating and isolating.

A poster upthread mentioned my boss perpetuating the situation and this is correct. He drives a lot of the discussions here…does this in office and never organises actual meetings despite me repeatedly asking for more structure and process. Very nice guy on the face of it, but massively lacking in self awareness or actually just doesn’t care. (On loo break, back to work…)

I'd have thought that speaking in a language that one person does not understand, when all of you speak a common language, is exclusionary no matter where you are in the world?

The native language of the location is irrelevant.

I haven't found that yet luckily might be my area. Vast vast majority of patients will have English as their first language and only language. It's really disorientating for patients so it gets clamped down very quickly.