Depending on context it might be stupid or make sense.

At my company, which has 100% Spanish employees, we can talk among ourselves in Spanish. However, in things "for the record" such as jira tickets, git commit messages, documentation pages, they have to be in English.

It makes no god damn sense. Nobody is going to read Jira ticket #6738 in 40 years when we are a multinational. It's a ticket about fixing a typo in page 567 of the documentation. 100% of employees speak spanish, and some have dogshit English.

Racism is expensive. Can't wait til your former company tanks.

Big corp and their pawns wanna listen in on every conversation to stop people from talking shit about the big corp.

Could also be xenophobia (I mean, unless its a company meeting, or some safety requirements where everyone need to know what's happening (like inside the cockpit of a plane that has an English-only crew member, for example) otherwise its unreasonable to enforce language policies when two peoplr are just chatting.

I find it stupid, because some of them would use Spanish to better explain to the new nurses how to do certain procedures

Ahhh, so its on the job? Could be slightly problematic. I don't know how your hospital/clinic works, but is it possible someone could miss important info form the converasations?

I think some plane crashes were attributed to communication issues between ATC and the crew, sometimes its miscommunication between crew members. Also can apply in factories, warehouses, where you can get hit by a pallet of stuff if there is miscommunication, for example.

TLDR: If its on the job, it can be reasonable depending on circumstances. If its during break/lunch, fuck no lol, speak whatever you want.

I don't think this policy is enforceable in my state. Not that we have much of a mixed language anyway.

I don't think its appropriate to have as a rule in general. I can understand having a universal language for work related topics if there is someone who doesn't speak the language present (or isn't fluent), but a straight out ban on all other languages but the target language? that's just unneeded and creates a hostile work environment.

With the NLRB it would have been illegal in the states. A form of preventing workers from organizing.

I'm pretty sure this would be straight up illegal in my country.

It is ridiculous of course but I do have one strange anecdote about this. I have been in a lot of retirement and assisted living homes and there can be some serious tension between racist resident and their non-white caregivers when they speak there languages around them.

One old Vietnam vet would get the fuck triggered out of him when the Filipinos would talk in Tagalog around him. They ended up making a rule that they can't speak non-english around him. Not saying that this was right, but it was understandable.

For a while I was the only non-spanish speaker on a shipyard barge loading / cleaning crew. The other guys spoke varying degrees of English and I was learning Spanish. Despite the job being incredibly dangerous with huge overhead weight, cranes, massive ships on floating docks, and other heavy equipment abound, we had no real accidents and communicated well. If I didn't need to know a thing, it was probably said in Spanish. Buy, we kept all radio comms in English, for my sake and for safety.

We decided that, as the workers. Not because some Karen didn't like Spanish. As long as the work is done safely and communication is timely and in a language understandable by the intended recipients there is not issue. Karen can fuck off.

As a joke you should all go in on a copy Rosetta Stone for her.

A sign of fear. And weakness.

my work has an english only rule when talking about work. we hire from all over the world, so making sure there is a common language is nice when i have to message someone in another country.

non-work-related talk is whatever, though.

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.

I work at a place where half of the people speak dutch, the other half come from all over the world.

It helps when everyone speaks the same language, English in this case, and can jump in and out of conversation whenever.

It's illegal for them to actually ban the use of Dutch, as this is in Belgium. But it's also just a dick move to exclude people from conversation, just because it's convenient to some.

Work related? Sure, 100%. Everyone might need to hear what's going on and if English is the dominant language that's what should be used. Personal conversation? Fuck that.

If Spanish is the dominant language I would expect all business to be conducted in Spanish.

edit: but yeah, if someone needs it explained in their native language, for sure use it. In that case one should do both languages.

I kind of get it if she's around and cannot tell if your chat is work-related or not. You could be telling your colleagues to go cut the red wire but she knows it ought to be the blue wire. She could've jumped in at that point to correct you, had she understood. But the bomb went off already and everybody died. I'm exaggerating the stakes here obvs.

I would try to keep shit in English when she's within earshot. And if she sneaked up on you while you're practicing your Spanish, apologize, acknowledge her wishes, and tell her you were just talking about the weather or the game or whatever. She might just be nervous about you talking about her behind her back - while she's in the room. So put her mind at ease. Don't piss off the higher-ups unless you're willing to lose the job.

If I'm intended to be a part of the conversation (such as a group demonstration) it's offensive if they don't make an effort to keep everyone on the same page.

The manager is also potentially concerned that she can't monitor the chatter for mistakes. (And ego)

This would be a non-starter where I work and employees would sue for discrimination. Rightly so.

We thrive on diversity. It's crucial for customer service.

Let people communicate however works well for them. Especially, if it increases speed/productivity. And even if not, it will raise workplace morale, which in turn will most likely increase production again.

imperialistic discrimination

the responses in both threads are clearly split between those who speak one language and agree with the manager, and those who speak multiple languages and think the rule is bullshit

dumb because other places have other languages

Not sure what country, but in the US, wouldn't that technically be illegal (at least between co-workers)? I know some places, such as call centers, won't let you speak another language to customers without approval (for liability reasons, I assume).

She would get very angry really fast if she heard anything in a language she didn't understand.

Karen es una cabrón.

The vacancy required German, but the department is from all over the place and we speak English a lot of the time. Nobody cares because they're not bigoted asshats.

I’m American in the middle of the country and I’m liable to greet you in any of like half a dozen languages. I’m the weird guy at work.

I only speak English fluently but I’ve picked up a lot.

I also prefer English to American English but not in all contexts. Like, have you seen how the English write maneuver? I could never. (I can spell it, but I can’t wrap my mind around that spelling.) (My iPhone changes everything to American English though.)

I believe awareness and immersion in multiple cultures, even if it’s just one you favor, it will make a person that much more interesting.

It is a sign that they have an unhealthy need to control others and it is best to get everyone to quit collectively