Maybe this person is an asshole and has the reasonable expectation that people will say rude things about them if they can't understand what they are saying.
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
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Asklemmy
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I've actually had the opposite experience. When I happen to work with people that speak my second language it's usually them who don't want to speak their other language bc they don't want to exclude teammates.
I think it's mostly stupid and ethically questionable, except when your speech needs to be evaluated as a routine part of the job. I don't think worker to worker conversations should be impacted though.
What companies are doing this?
It's being pushed in a lot of NZ hospitals at the moment. The claim is something along the lines of "all healthcare discussions need to be in english to avoid miscommunication", but in reality it's a bunch of white people getting upset because they think brown people are talking shit about them behind their backs.
Maybe they are, and they're polite enough to make sure they speak in a language they don't understand so they don't hurt their feelings, lol. But even that isn't enough for the Anglo-Saxon man! ๐๐
I hope they then talked about this person right in front of her in Spanish. LOL.
Hardern hell to police
It sounds like you're dealing with a multinational company.
There may be value in having all employees operate in the company's ligua franca over a better language as it provides practice to employees to function in the common language.
It may be easier for you to function in Spanish now, but you may have to interface with employees in the future where they know English and not Spanish.
How do you help those who can't speak Spanish?
Employers should mind their own business. The only people who have a problem with people speaking other languages in personal conversation are control freaks who think they have the right to know what everyone is saying all the time. The person I'm talking to understands that language, therefore I'm accomplishing my goal of communication with the sounds I'm making. Why do you care?
In meetings English or Dutch depending on the language skills of the people. Eating or anything else together the same. Two people from the same country collaborating on something with just the two of them, their own! Way more effective as long as their documentation is in English again :)