Racist, and a way for management to know if workers are discussing unionization.

I was always told it's a bit rude to use a language that not everyone present understands, since you're basically excluding people from the conversation. Your example seems a bit silly though.

If you're scared of another language it just means you're a puta gordo

It seems like a combination of racism (I bet they wouldn't get worked up over two Norwegians communicating in their native language) and petty managerial tyranny.

I had a bilingual coworker that, after a customer came with a complaint, would turn to me and say "this asshole can suck my dick" in spanish and i would just nod thoughtfully like some important piece of information was given to troubleshoot with.

Shit was so funny. Very rude but i still laugh at that.

Ive never had coworkers talking meaninggully behind someones back in another language, and yeah thats rude too.

I have been the only people talking english somewhere and i felt rude for that.

Whether any of this rudeness justfies work place punishment or should or shouldnt be allowed just depends on the job.

Sounds like that wasn't your employer, that was your manager. I'd take that to the employer and ask if this rule is authorized, because it seems like a huge overstep on your manager's part.

Personally, assuming its the local language, I'm fine with the idea.

People who are multilingual don't always seem to get how it looks/feels for monolingual people -- but it's a way of excluding them from participating in whatever the conversation is. I think back to a camping trip described by an X with her friends, where in most of the group spoke english and chinese -- except my X, who only spoke english. Because one or two in the group were more fluent in Chinese, for most of the weekend the vast majority of conversation was in Chinese, which really drove home how isolating / alienating it can be to be the person left out. You're basically being pre-excluded from a conversation, just to make it easier for communication with someone else -- your basic participation is less important than the other person's ease of communication. My X had no concern about them "talkin bout her behind her back" or anything, they were all friends, but she finally understood how it comes across.

While the majority of the work force may speak another language, the "main" language in a country is to me, meant to serve as a default for business. If I were multilingual, working in a foreign non-english country, I'd expect any business I worked for to require me to use their local language. Even more, when it comes to supervisors/team leads, hearing the conversations can also help you target potential issues -- like if you overhear a team member teaching something incorrectly. So there's a potential business liability type reason to make sure that all team members, especially oversight, can understand what's getting said if it pertains to the business.

At the break table talking another language, no problem. Needing it to be able to understand their job, problem. Unless your clients are mostly Spanish it is their needs that are being overlooked. They need someone fully competent in an official language. If nurses revert to Spanish when they don't understand things, then their manager doesn't know what it is that they are having a problem with, unless someone is translating for her. She could end up in trouble for putting someone on a task that they are not able to do. I don't immediately see it a a racist problem (although it could be) but a work safety problem.

Wouldn't work here. We only use English with coworkers who have not yet learned the local language.

I think it makes sense to have a common language among all of the staff that is spoken whenever business is being discussed, in meetings and things like that.

I think that policing private conversations is kind of weird. I don't know why they would do that.

I'm trying to figure out why a manager would assume that people speaking in Spanish are doing it to have a nefarious, malicious secret code, when Spanish is the fourth-most widely spoken language on the planet, and is not a difficult second language for English speakers to start picking up comprehension with.

If I wanted an evil secret code, wouldn't I pick something far more obscure?

this is a clear sign to start a union. if you're in a union, speak to a rep about discrimination

Charge nurses and power tripping, name a more iconic duo.

Fucking stupid. The Haitians didn't speak English and we needed our bilingual guy to speak Spanish sometimes or else we wouldn't get shit done. Oh also the boss's English was shit too and sometimes him and the others from the country our company was from needed to communicate clearly

I live somewhere where French is prevalent but there’s also an important English community.

When people are speaking in English on break there’s normally no problem … but ! If you speak Arab, Spanish or even Creole on your break you’ll probably lived exactly the same thing you experienced.

My point is … racism, pernicious racism and control

Honestly, time to talk to HR who I'm sure would have a quiet word with this manager.

This sounds like bullying, triggered by racism/xenophia/paranoia or just plain bigotry. And yelling at people? That's terrible too.

I don't understand how white people in settler colonies can force the people there to speak their language and follow their culture when they stole land from the actual indigenous people who do not support such policies.

For the most part I think you should be allowed to speak whatever language you want so long as you aren't speaking it with a customer, co-worker, boss, etcetera, that doesn't understand it.

I personally don't see any reason why the language you speak should be policed so long as you aren't using it with people who don't understand it, unless they're saying illegal things, but even then that can be shaky depending on what country you're in IMO.

Just another expression of that innate American/Western fear that informs their actions and ends up with them in racist rallies, lol. Ridiculous.

I mean, foreign languages can and sometimes are used to talk shit about people without them knowing. Speaking English in a non-English place is rude for that reason as well, to make it less bait-y.

If even brief, well-explained excursions into Spanish are punished, that's ideology or personal paranoia, though.

Seems like a horribly xenophobic policy. Honestly a red flag.

I personally speak Spanish and French at work, in addition to obviously English. Work is the only place I really get to practice speaking French, and I take any chance I can to speak Spanish since I don't want to lose it

I wasn't directly involved in these situations but I have heard 2 different close secondhand stories where non English was banned. because to the ears of English - speaking people it sounded like the non English were using slurs or talking about certain English speakers in a way that would be considered inappropriate.

In both cases the complaints were made by black people. I think there can be complexity here

• in a lot of languages the normal word for black sounds like the n-word in English. It really sticks out even if some is saying "can you pass me the black marker" or other innocent and non hostile comment
• in a lot of languages there are using words that do in fact have racist overtones in that language. But the specific speakers in question may not care, may be racist, or may have insufficiently interrogated their use.
• Or frankly the sense that racialized people were being talked about covertly could have been correct.
• When it's people just complaining that they can't what conversations are happening around them (that they are not involved in) or white people feeling that they are being persecuted I have very little sympathy.

Even in a complex situation the banning of languages is unlikely the correct choice. Ideally workers could have a conversation to decide on etiquette.

I could see this becoming necessary. In Amsterdam and other European tech hubs it’s common to have English-speaking offices, so it’d be bad for team cohesion to have the native speakers form a clique in the lunch room.

Employers can go suck a big fat cock.

If the enployee can communicate with their managers and co-worker in English when needed and talk in an other language when they talk between them, there's nothing wrong.

Here I am thinking that it would be sick to have more multilingual coworkers. I'm struggling through learning the basics of a couple second languages (not complaining, it is what it is and I'll get there eventually). So its nice to have a native or fluent speakers around to help communicate with someone who doesn't speak english that well. Or at all. At work our english-speaking offices expect people who are stationed there to be able to speak English, or to learn it if they don't. But it's not mandatory to speak it in-office. Usually it's just faster for people to speak other languages with non-english locations or ESL people. Honestly its usually it's the other way around, with people in other places learning English to talk with us, but that doesn't always work out well. Its nice to be able to do both.

Your (edit - former?) manager sounds sheltered and unprofessional, to say the least. I hope HR gets involved (unless they're racists too...)

That frankly sounds like power-tripping / intimidation, but perhaps I'm biased living amd working in a multi-lingual environment.

I believe "ah, claro, y señor puede chupar mis juevos con salsa fresca" would be a proper response.

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.