Multilingual workplace can translate into opportunities

[Harold Schiffman]

Multilingual workplace can translate into opportunities
 By Maggie Jackson
April 20, 2008

Hola, America, we're going global, pronto.

By the watercooler, in the boardroom, around the cafeteria, a new
multilingualism is burgeoning, sparked by a swelling immigrant
population and our deepening ties to the world economy. Nearly 20
percent of Americans over age 5 speak a language other than English at
home, up from 14 percent in 1990. That means say "hola" - hello - to a
rising linguistic diversity that is spilling into the workplace
"pronto" - or right now. Yet when workplaces begin to sound like
mini-United Nations, much can get lost in the translation. Co-workers
can feel excluded when others chat in a different language. Managers
must balance a bottom-line need for workers to speak English to get
the job done with a growing demand for language skills. And workers
with scant English struggle at home and work to cope with routine
tasks, from attending a school meeting to reading a medical bill. The
result: a cacophony of work-life needs and wants.

Try managing 300 workers who speak more than 30 languages. At Tufts
Medical Center, Nora Moynihan Blake directs a housekeeping staff that
sometimes can't speak to one another or give directions to a lost
visitor. Most are hard-working immigrants whose careers often stall
for lack of English fluency, says Blake. "When I met with the
employees to introduce myself, I realized almost immediately that a
lot didn't understand what I was saying," says Blake, director of
hospitality services. "You can have misunderstandings between patients
and visitors and employees." Her solution? Bring school to work. With
crucial support from hospital executives, Blake helped partner with
Boston's Asian American Civic Association last fall to start on-site
English and high school equivalency classes for hospitality staff.
With 35 enrolled and a growing wait list, Blake already sees gains as
workers gain confidence - and a voice. "It's huge," she says. "They're
talking more to be heard."

The Tufts program is unusual. While 80 percent of companies employ
workers whose deficiencies in English limit their ability to perform
their jobs, only about a third provide remedial language training, and
then mostly if a worker asks for help, according to a 2007 Conference
Board survey of 70 senior corporate directors of training. "For a lot
of companies, it's a reactive rather than a proactive approach," says
researcher Chris Woock.

Legally, employers can require that a worker speak English on the job
- if there's a sound business reason, such as needing to deal with
customers or dangerous machinery. However, the federal Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission discourages blanket English-only
policies, especially those that try to restrict a worker's ability to
speak the language of their choice during breaks or personal time. As
the country diversifies, the "English-only" issue is fast becoming a
political battleground.


A particularly high-voltage case erupted last spring with a federal
lawsuit against the Salvation Army for firing two Framingham-based
workers who spoke mostly Spanish at work. The government contends the
two back-room workers didn't need to speak English. In response to the
suit, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, has introduced
legislation to protect companies that enforce English-only laws.

more stories like thisCases related to language or accent make up a
tiny fraction of the EEOC's work. Last year, the government filed a
handful of lawsuits involving such issues and received 306 charges or
formal accusations against employers, says David Grinberg, an EEOC
spokesman. But it's likely that many cases go unreported because
immigrants are afraid to speak out, he stresses.

"It's a fine line that employers need to walk," says Grinberg. "That
is the key as far as implementing a policy that is not discriminatory,
and being sensitive to people who may be language minorities."

Below the legal radar screen, as well, language issues pose
challenges. Is it callous for a bevy of Spanish- or
Vietnamese-speakers to keep to their own tongue in front of others at
work? Where some see a bit of bonding, others argue that it amounts to
exclusion.

"It's the rudest thing to do," says Myrna Toro, a Latina who heads the
Philadelphia architecture firm Synterra Ltd. "It's a gift to speak two
languages, but there's a time and place for it. If I see a Hispanic
person, it's instant that I want to speak Spanish to them. But that's
where it ends. 'Hello, how are you doing' in Spanish."

People should be sensitive to the need for using a shared tongue, says
Roberto Avant-Mier, an assistant professor of communications at Boston
College. When some members of the "Latinos at BC" network said they
couldn't understand the plentiful Spanish spoken at meetings, the
group switched to English. "The really cool thing was, it was no big
deal," says Avant-Mier, who is fluent in both languages.

At the same time, those excluded from conversation by a group of
speaking another language shouldn't assume that others "invoke their
language when it's time to tell secrets, " he says.

For housekeeper Maria Teixeira, improving her English has been life
changing. Her studies at Tufts mark the first English class that she's
taken since moving to the United States from Cape Verde a decade ago.
Before, she felt uncomfortable talking with supervisors, hospital
visitors, or her doctor or her daughter's teacher.

"I always like to keep my mouth shut" in the past, she says. Now,
"when they talk, I understand them better. I feel more confident
asking questions." Soon, she will apply for a job as a nurse's
assistant. "I want to take the next step."

Maggie Jackson, author of "What's Happening to Home: Balancing Work,
Life and Refuge in the Information Age," can be reached at
maggie.jackson at att.net.

http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2008/04/20/multilingual_workplace_can_translate_into_opportunities/#
-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************