Should my colleague help or am I being racist?

[madamreign]

We have a new hire. She is very experienced and qualified, but she is from overseas and is struggling. English is not her first language and I'm in awe of anybody who can do a professional job in a second language. If we can get her over her problems (confidence, communication, ways of working etc) she'll be a really asset to the business.

I'm trying my best to listen, understand and help her settle in. Taking cues from her on how to deal with this- I want to her to succeed!

I have a colleague who was born in the UK but who's parents came from the same country that our new hire did. I know they speak the language.

Would it be wrong to request that my colleague to help the new hire?

If you care to provide the Law and clause which outlaws this I think we'd all - especially OP - appreciate the clarity.

The accusatory emotion you attach to me is plain bollocks, but I don't feel the need to get angry over it.

Again, maybe I misunderstood the OP, but to me it didn’t sound like she was expecting her colleague to become a full time mentor/ interpreter/ language teacher to the new recruit.

Can you go to work, decide to ignore your work duties and do something else?

Nobody was suggesting that.

Can a employer decide to change the job you are paid for?

I‘m pretty sure that happens, but again, would that really be the case here if the colleague was asked (not told) to talk to the new recruit on a couple of occasions? How much training would they really miss out on if that case?

It isn't racist as long as it is the norm to pull another staff member from their job to help a colleague struggling with the basics of the job. As long as the help given would be the same, trime, effort wise etc and the other person's work load adjusted without any effect on performance reviews, growth opportunities etc. If the firm would normally hire someone who didn't need help with a basic requirement or use staff training by a trainer, then it could be seen as a discriminatory work practice and indirect discrimination. Tbh the OP should have put this to HR and not the internet.

I think you need to ask your colleague not putting any pressure on them.

In general I do not think it’s racist to ask the question.
Mentoring is common in my very multicultural workplace, quite often people of the same mother tongue are put together. It is always following discussion from both sides, some people that are trying to improve their English will request only English speaking mentorship, is that racist? Again I don’t believe it is - it’s no different to identifying a skill gap and making arrangements to bridge that gap.

I have certain skills that are often utilised for new hires, I don’t feel uncomfortable with that.

but then in my workplace people are seen as people - each different! The differences between us are utilised in a positive way not used against us because we look or speak differently.
Attitude is key!

It would change the job title. It depends on the work contract and how performance reviews are done. How additional training candidates are selected etc. Teaching someone a language is a skill and the pay more than your average office work. It's great to utilise your staff but it has to be decided at the start and how that will impact on the helpers actual job and workload. It isn't the job the colleague took. What if they don't like each other?

The way your work place approaches it sounds very reasonable.

Ok understood. Not sure if it really is outwith employment contract - like I said earlier I'd have grounds for many claims on that basis - but equally not being a party to the contract appreciate the point you're making.

I certainly agree with your (I think) previous post that said approach HR first. Best advice on the thread.

Mumsnet reinstated it. thanks for your support. I will use my life to fight every racist and microaggression where I can, even online. Have a great weekend ❤

My niece and nephew were put in this position. They are at school in another country, of which they are citizens, but they are bilingual. A new family arrived speaking niece and nephew's minority language and they were paired up and asked to show them the ropes. Which they duly did, but having not much in common apart from a language, didn't become great friends. That was presumptuous and a bit annoying but we never thought of it as racist.

We also did this for a friend's new wife. He spent two years abroad and married a woman from that country. Her English was not great when they arrived back in the UK. I knew another person from her home country and put them in touch (with mutual permission). They are now absolute best friends, see each other all the time, and my friend's wife's whole experience of arriving in the UK would have been substantially lonelier without the bridge our mutual friend provided. Good job I didn't overthink the potential racism involved at the time.

funny how OP hasn't returned to clarify anything! ... how people like OP think it's okay to add (unpaid) labour onto others

Mistaken once again I'm afraid; OP did return to clarify - and I quote - "Nobody will be asked to work for free, that is unacceptable"

And it would be appreciated if you could stop damning people as an entire group, as in your latest deleted post. You'd quite rightly resent that if it was done about POC, so perhaps you could extend the same courtesy in avoiding it?

Even if it wasn't the norm, you haven't shown at all how it would be racist...rather than unfair, or inappropriate, etc.

Where is the racism? That entire scenario could play out with 2 white french speaking people.
Not everything bad that involves a POC is racism.

In my workplace people are seen as people - each different! The differences between us are utilised in a positive way not used against us because we look or speak differently
Attitude is key!

Beautifully put, Therocksword; though retired now it's what I aimed for myself, and happily - apart from a couple of troublemakers who were swiftly got rid of - we seemed to avoid this kind of angst

Surely if there's no 'extra' workload, if they don't have to put in overtime to complete their work and there's no consequence to having to do this too then they are being paid?

Are jobs so regulated these days that you just do exactly what's in your contract and it has to be fitted in your contracted hours that there's no breathing space or room for initiative?

That’s what I‘ve been wondering too reading some of the replies.
Does every human interaction at a work place have to be regulated and specified in a contract?

I’m British born but Asian. If done wrongly it would annoy me but is fine if done properly:

1. the manager needs to do it - not another employee as that others
2. It needs to be based on language not race or eg because their heritage is from the same part of the world eg India. If the language here was French it wouldn’t be an issue - so it must be about the language
3. the manager needs to discuss with the second colleague first rather than assume or ask - ie it’s about collaboration rather than using authority

Surely if there's no 'extra' workload, if they don't have to put in overtime to complete their work and there's no consequence to having to do this too then they arebeing paid?

Makes perfect sense to me, Nanny0gg; it was just pleasing to see OP clarify that anything which was extra wouldn't go unpaid

And in the working world I've enjoyed this sort of "How dare you - it's not in my contract!!" didn't arise, perhaps because all that was really expected was for folk to behave with normal human decency no matter what their background, race or anything else

Thankfully, as mentioned, there were only one or two this was beyond, and they didn't last long

comment got reinstated because white fragility is REAL

Maybe look again at 10:42, whyisitallsohard - it was your generalised insults about entire groups of people I was referring to, which AFAIK are against Talk Guidelines. At least I think they are, but that's for HQ to decide and not me

I won't be engaging with you again though, since I'm not interested in race baiting

That’s a good point. Some people, like some posters on here, are so vocal about what kind of behavior they deem acceptable (or not) that it might come across as some sort of universal truth.
In real life though, people from the same group/ same cultural background and so forth still have different opinions.
As an immigrant, I wouldn’t want people to think they have to tiptoe around me or follow a specific protocol in how to approach me correctly in order not to offend me.

But would it be inappropriate to ask, say, an Asian British Urdu speaker to help out a new colleague in the language arena, but ok to ask a white British Polish speaker as that wouldn't be racist? I don't understand the rules. I do understand that presumptuousness would be inappropriate, as would taking someone substantially away from their usual role, but would asking be racist for one and not for another? I don't understand the rules.

I'll raise this issue at work if you go in and call all your colleagues racists and cowards.

Until then, just grow up.

A thoroughly sensible post, @inamarina, highlighting among other things that those who shout loudest aren't automatically in the right

And don't worry; those of us who've managed mainly immigrants and POC know perfectly well that the vast, vast majority don't need tiptoeing around - in fact many would doubtless be rightly offended if it was suggested
IME ordinary good manners do the job just fine, and in years of owning a company it seemed to work

please go ahead and discuss this thread in your workplace and see where it gets you.... sacked!

Sacked for what exactly, I wonder?