Example: several of my former coworkers are from Mexico, Peru and Argentina, meaning they share Spanish as a common language.
I used to practice Spanish with them, but my last charge (like a ward’s manager) would yell at us to stop it, use English only. She would get very angry really fast if she heard anything in a language she didn’t understand.
I find it stupid, because some of them would use Spanish to better explain to the new nurses how to do certain procedures, but maybe I’m missing something?
Forcing groups or individual workers to communicate in a non-primary language can present employee safety concerns.
There is also a hit to overall productivity, as communications include hesitations or slight pauses and is not nearly as detailed as it could be.
Employees should communicate with each other in the most effective way possible.
Allowing multi lingual communication for work purposes can also cause employee safety concerns and breed abusive work environments.
Sadly this very VERY much goes both ways.
It’s why context matters so very much.
Bunch of random super market employees? Doesn’t really fucking matter. Health care workers? Of fucking boy does it matter a LOT.
leaving someone out is never effective. So it is often good to force one language for work purposes. Though personal convertations can be whatever.
“Never” is carrying a lot of weight here. Leaving people out can be super effective, especially if they’re not needed for a task. They might be needed in 20 minutes when it’s time to do their thing, but if a group doesn’t need that person and can communicate more effectively without using that persons language, there’s no need.
Imagine an EMT crew. All of the medics speak Spanish and the ambulance driver only speak English. He needs to know how to get to the emergency, and which hospital to take the victim to, among some other things I’m sure. But I don’t want my all Spanish EMT crew fucking around in English and miscommunicating with each other just to make the driver feel more comfortable.