Babble On? Is your English-only policy open for misinterpretation?
By Jane Easter Bahls •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It can be unsettling to walk through your workplace and hear people chatting away in a language you don't know. What--or who--are they talking about? How is this affecting other employees' morale? Some employers have made rules stating that only English may be spoken in their workplace. But such rules have to be written carefully or they'll likely get you in trouble for illegal discrimination on the basis of national origin.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission takes a dim view of English-only rules, especially when applied across the board--for instance, even when employees are on break. However, judges in several key cases have backed employers, especially if there is a legitimate business reason for the rule, such as safety when working around dangerous machinery, for example.
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