Spanish Will Be Spoken In The Name Of The Lord. Hope For No Large Liability Against Intercare. (Op-Ed)
By Lonce LaMon - November 27, 2012
An employee of mine named Janet came to my desk one day back during the first days of our present century, sat down in front of me, and gave me a look of great concern. She asked if she could talk to me and explained that something that was going on in the office she found greatly disturbing.
So, I said, fine, I would listen to what she wanted to say. I closed the door.
She then proceeded to tell me that the person who was training her, Shannon, did nothing but talk about the Lord.
Janet said, “Coming to work here is just like being in church. All Shannon talks about is the Lord.” She went on to express that it was oppressive and that coming to work shouldn’t be like being in a church. She said that religion didn’t belong in a business.
I looked at her with some astonishment as I gathered my thoughts. I asked if Shannon was teaching her well, and if she was doing her job of showing her the ropes. Janet said that yes she was. Then I asked if Shannon mentioned the Lord mostly during short breaks or the lunch hour when sitting at her desk, and Janet said that yes, that was it. But then Shannon would also while training mention how the Lord has so helped her with her job to build the skills that she needs.
I know very little about employment law and honestly, the fact I have neglected learning it has probably not been to my advantage. But I just thought intuitively and on the fly, so I replied to Janet in the following way.
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I told Janet that I was not going to tell Shannon she could not talk about the Lord, and that I was not going to prohibit what Shannon wished to talk about... |
I said, “Janet, the subject of the Lord is just Shannon’s bag,” falling back on my 1960s vocabulary. “It’s her thing. Some people are obsessed with golf, basketball, or some other sport. Some people do nothing but talk about gardening or politics. People have their individual interests. So, the Lord is just Shannon’s trip.”
Thus, I told Janet that I was not going to tell Shannon she could not talk about the Lord, and that I was not going to prohibit what Shannon wished to talk about in any manner. Whether it was the Lord or basketweaving, it didn’t matter. I was not about to impose upon her freedom to be the personality that she is…
Janet looked at me with a look of astonishment, and I think she was really surprised by my answer.
Another thing Shannon would do all the time was leave a different weekly or monthly scripture on her voice mail greeting, and people would ask me sometimes, “Is your company a Christian company?” And I would say “no”, and I would further explain that I do not run a Christian company. Anybody can work for me whether Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, or whatever. So, Shannon was just doing her thing and I had no inclination for oppressing her freedom of expression. Her love for putting a scripture on her voice mail greeting was what she loved to do and I didn’t see any reason for stopping her from doing that.
I believe in tolerance and freedom.
So, I see a relationship between my attitude towards Shannon and Janet, and the supervisor of Intercare, Jackie Stewart’s, attitude towards the Spanish speakers in the Intercare Orange, California, office who were constantly speaking Spanish and annoying certain other professionals. There is a case now in arbitration awaiting a decision by the arbitration judge which is over a law suit filed by a former claims adjuster of Intercare.
That adjuster, Sylvia Lopez, was fired allegedly over her refusal to honor an “English-only directive”. She sued Intercare. Jorge Alexandria’s excellent articles from July 2012 and October 2012 discuss how supervisor Jackie Stewart created an imperative that employees were not to speak Spanish in the office (unless, as was implied, absolutely necessary for talking to a claimant). Employees were not even to speak Spanish in the lunch room or the rest rooms.
My personal view is that the Intercare “English-only directive” was intolerant. Just as my response to Janet was that she needed to be tolerant and deal with Shannon’s personality, I feel that companies that hire Spanish speakers or speakers of other languages need to be tolerant of them speaking non-English languages. To desire to control them from speaking non-English languages in the office, lunch room, or lavatory is excessively controlling. It’s very important always for management not to be control freaks. And that's why just out of my intuition I felt no desire to control Shannon’s love for the Lord by telling her she couldn’t praise Jesus every time she felt like it.
Native Spanish speakers are going to talk to each other in their common language. This is a natural thing. For other people near them within ear shot to get offended is a Janet attitude. I think it’s typical for humans who don’t know something and have no interest in learning it, to want to stomp it out. But we need to elevate ourselves to overcome these urges to repress.
In Jackie Stewart’s communication to Jorge Alexandria, she states that Elsa predominantly speaks Spanish and that it’s a lack of common courtesy to those around her. Well, I disagree. If Elsa is talking to another Spanish speaking person and other people are around who can hear but are not a part of the conversation, how is it discourteous? If Elsa and the other individual are talking to each other and not to anyone else who may be simply within earshot, it is not discourteous. But, if another person within earshot is supposed to be part of the conversation then yes, it is rude.
Just ten days ago I was having my hair done and the two hairdressers who were working on me were giving instructions to each other back and forth in Farsi. They are both Iranians and are close to one another, so why would they speak in English just because I happened to be sitting there? I was not a part of their conversation, so it was appropriate for them to communicate about their work with each other about which I did not need to be a part. It was not necessary for me to understand them. I was happy because they were conferring about my hair to get it right. It never occurred to me to say or feel, “Stop speaking in Farsi.”
My first cousin, Rolf, who was born in Oslo, Norway, for years would sit at the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table talking to his wife and offspring in Norwegean. Now that was rude! But I would just tell him so in a friendly tone and express that I would love to be part of the conversation.
But when I wasn’t part of the conversation I didn’t care. I would listen to Norwegean all the time in the background and even learned varous phrases.
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Even if Intercare was too controlling, I think any possible award to Sylvia should be modest and reasonable. |
So, should Sylvia Lopez get some big award for having her Spanish speaking repressed at Intercare and for being fired for not following the English-only-directive and perhaps being fired for some combination reason? I’m going to say no.
Even if Intercare was too controlling, I think any possible award to Sylvia should be modest and reasonable. Intercare is a good company, a fine third-party-administrator of workers’ compensation claims and perhaps other types of claims; and the executives I know to be fine, hard-working people. Sylvia Lopez found another job, and her skills were well sought after not just because she is Spanish speaking, but because she is a well-trained claims adjuster. There were other places for her to work besides Intercare and she got a new job.
I find the awards that are boasted of on her attorney’s web site to be absolutely frightening. We’re still clawing our way out of the Recession. Let’s not attack the incomes of claims administrators over a few management control freaks. We need to prioritize. Our economy is in huge trouble still and our government budget is now at the fiscal cliff. We need to protect our businesses. I don’t believe in these huge monetary punishments against businesses over labor law infractions. The fines need to be in proper proportion.
I have compassion for Sylvia Lopez but I do not want to see Intercare Insurance Services hurt by some huge award granted to anyone and levied as an overblown liability against them. I suspect Intercare’s management has grown from this experience.
I am confident Intercare from now on will not mind people speaking Spanish in their water closets.
lonce@adjuster.com
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