'Murca, Dang It

[filkertom]

A hotel's new owner wants his Hispanic employees to change their names.

Comments

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

And to only speak Murcan in front of him. (He's worried that they'll talk about him, apparently. Like any boss has ever stopped that.)

[mythdude.livejournal.com]

While he's at it, he should remove their eyes lest they cast an offending look in his direction. And they can't have fillings, cause that'll be how the CIA will listen in on him!

I know, I'm just saying TOTALLY CRAZY things about this guy that will probably never happen. I shouldn't make assumptions about someone just because they're different or speak differently than me.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*snort* If you apply for the job of manager in *my* town (which is about as far from the Mexican border as you can get west of the Mississippi, absent Alaskistan) and you *cannot* speak Spanish, you will not get the job, period, paragraph, NEXT! Taos? Hell. Most gringos in NM *grow up* speaking Spanish. I have a good friend who's a rare exception.

There is a phrase in the South, where both I and the gentleman in question come from. "Y'aint from around heah, are ye, boy?" Don't care of NM is technicaly south of the Macy-Dixie line, it ain't nothing like Virginia. Bin there, Dun that.

Our *ahem* friend here needs a copy of Rosetta Stone and a clue-bat up'side the head.

[janeg.livejournal.com]

This guy is so out of touch he was probably despised by his classmates when he was a child, and almost certainly by those he served with in the military. How sad that the hotel employees were put through this. I hope they get a better owner, with some modicum of cultural competency. He's made pretty much anyone who follows look good.

Bet the business schools make this situation into a case study in doing everything wrong.

[cjfringe.livejournal.com]

Ay Carumba!

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

He banned speaking Spanish because he thought they were talking about him? What is he, twelve?

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

...and yet in my anecdotal experience, that comes up a *lot* when people flip out about immigrants speaking their native language. "If they weren't talking about me, they'd speak English..."

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

My thought precisely. It says a lot about him that he didn't seem to think that him learning Spanish was any part of the solution. Heck, if I were in his situation, I don't think I'd try for fluency; I think I'd just try to get a basic vocabulary together ... and I'd find someone who could fill me in on the most common insult words. Then I'd practice. If he's really worried about employees being sneaky around him in Spanish, he could probably get away with mastering a few good boss-to-employee type phrases to use.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

Local elementary school in my town had to do just that. The hispanic kids -were- using Spanish to insult and bully other kids, around adults that didn't speak it. When they got teachers in who did understand it and cought them, their parents threw a fit that their darlings would never do such a thing. No one ever complained before! Sued the school and lost over it, because the nuns banned Spanish outside of Spanish class in the building. I know just enough spanish to get me in trouble (mostly just the insults and the numbers) and have seen that happen around our school. The kids smile oh so sweetly, while calling another teen girl puta and such.

[lariss.livejournal.com]

Sad thing is, his tactics might actually have helped the business.

[kayshapero]

Some places, certainly; Taos, I'm not so sure. One thing's for sure, if you can convince THAT town you're a flake, what a very true flake you are...

His main problem is he's one of those top down "I am the Boss" types who has no clue that his employees have a stake in the survival of this enterprise too. This means he gets no feedback until he's done something so dumb it becomes visible to the outside world. Then he gets pasted.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I've worked in a hotel. That said:

I actually understand the "Speak English on the job" - language barrier and exclusion suck and make it really hard to do the job.

The name thing was STUPID. Beyond words stupid.


That said: No one sells a hotel if it's making money, and if they've been through FIVE owners they are having a systemic problem from management all the way down. Truthfully? They need to "close for renovations" and let everyone go and re-hire. (That's what should have happened with the hotel I worked at - it hasn't made money in YEARS!) But they won't.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

Agreed. The business needs serious work, and firing everyone is a start. Rehire people willing to work with the new staff, change it from the ground u p, and try again.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

"What kind of fool or idiot or poor businessman would I be to orchestrate this whole crazy thing that's costed me a lot of time, money and aggravation?" Whitten said.

This is a question which contains its own answer, methinks.

[capplor.livejournal.com]

Well, I know where to avoid the next time I'm on a concom.

My grandfather was from Norway & came here with his best friend. (I even have a copy of the page from Ellis island) they got a job together working on a farm in North Dakota where half of the other field hands were also Scandahoovien. The farmer who owned the place was second generation or later & only spoke English (what do you call someone who only speaks one language? - American)& he was also concerned that the field hands were secretly talking about him when they spoke their native tongue. Bestafar always said that they didn't until forbidden to speak anything but English. Rather they talked about what they were doing, the pretty girls in town, the weather & all of the normal things field hands will talk about when together.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, polling places and my name. One of the reasons I pretty much vote exclusively by mail now that I don't need to come up with a "valid reason" for voting absentee anymore.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I see nothing wrong with requiring employees to know how to speak English. If I'm a customer and I have a problem with my room, I shouldn't have to go through several employees to find one who understands the words coming out of my mouth. (To paraphrase a Jackie Chan movie.) It's happened to me before. I would go into a room that was dirty and the maids would claim not to know English. Likewise the employer and employee need to be able to communicate with each other clearly. (Actually I wondered if they claimed not to speak English to avoid doing their jobs.) If the employer chooses English, then the employees should be able to understand it.

Now he seems to be doing it out of paranoia which is just dumb. Employees are going to talk about their bosses regardless of language. We're not going to talk about him when he's around. And westernizeing names went out when Ellis Island closed.

I'm going to separate from my usual liberal beliefs and say that if you're going to live in a country it's your responsibility to learn the dominate language, the language most people speak including the President. I saw the ESL section of my local library, the materials were hardly used despite being several years old. There's no excuse for that and the fact that so many people can live out their lives in America and never speak English is a tragedy that cheapens all of us because they've cut themselves off from most Americans. (Note, I'm not restricting this to Hispanics. I was in Chicago's Greektown once and met an old man who lived in Chicago for most of his life and the only English he spoke was insults.)

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I see nothing wrong with requiring employees to know how to speak English.

But that's not what he did. What he did was forbid them to speak anything but English on the job, even with each other, which has nothing at all to do with any of the valid points you make.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

The Virginia-born Whitten had spent 40 years in the hotel business, turning around more than 20 hotels in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and South Carolina, before moving with his wife to Taos from Abilene, Texas.

Ahhh....now I understand.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

He think Hispanic names are too difficult for people to deal with in New Mexico? El hombre es muy estúpido. I'm thinking that even out-of-towners will expect people in the Southwest to be Hispanic and have, y'know, Hispanic names.

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

My own Spanish is pretty much nonexistent, so I might unfortunately mispronounce the Spanish versions of names that are spelled the same as in English -- but, oooh, guess what, I accept friendly corrections made with a smile. And, yes, in a place called New Mexico, Spanish would not be unexpected in the culture, the language, the architecture, etc. Duh. This guy is just made of FAIL.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

"I've been working 24 years in Texas and we have a lot of Spanish people there. I've never had to ask anyone to speak only English in front of me because I've never had a reason to."

Really? Spanish people in Texas? And you were there for 24 years and it never occurred to you to maybe pick up a smattering of their language?

Hell, I've never lived in China, but I still say hello and thank you in Chinese when I go to Chinatown.

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

What an asshat! Lack of flexibility=FAIL. I still remember a local convention where the security was run by an ex-marine who thought he could treat civilians (and SF/media fans!) as military subordinates. *Surprise*! After him barking orders at a room full of 800 people for 20 minutes re: how the autograph line was going to go (as though we were schoolchildren, not paying adult con members), everyone ignored him and his team and formed their own line in their own reasonably orderly way in a big F.U. to the idiot. (I'm sure he wished he and his team were armed.)

The addition of racism to this *particular* guy's approach just makes the FAIL irreversible.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Okay, call me a bigot if you must, but I can understand the sentiment of wanting someone who was willing to acknowledge that their country was such a shithole that they would do anything to get out of it through fair means or foul to adapt in any and every way they can to the culture of their newly-chosen homeland.

The name thing is a tad much, though.

[kayshapero]

This is Taos we're talking about; odds on, those employees were BORN in the US, and already familiar with English. Insisting they carry on private conversations in the language of the boss's choice however is a Bit Much.

As someone who has lived in New Mexico his whole life

[juglore.livejournal.com]

This story is so not news. Some Texan is pulling a stunt like this about this successfully once a year.

New Mexico is not like anywhere else. The first families in my home state have names like Pacheco and Garcia and Anaya. Johnson and Gregg and Smith are all Johnny come latelies. In New Mexico if you don't have a blood tie to one of the original Spanish land grant families you are nobody and always will be. Do these first families all speak Spanish? Not really, some do some don't.

Assuming someone with a Spanish accent or someone that prefers to speak Spanish is from Mexico is just fucking stupid here. We are not in Kansas.

Taos, sounds like house. Kenny Rogers used have a hit song about something happening in Taos and every time he said 'Ta os' I cracked up.

About twenty years ago in Texas it was a serious social stigma to be able to speak Spanish. Not speaking it, just being able to speak it was a serious social faux pas.

In New Mexico whether or not you can speak Spanish is mostly irrelevant. If you want in on a conversation taking place in a language you don't have you just ask what they are discussing and they will usually tell you or shut up. But I grew up here I'm used to this. I know enough Spanish to tell whether or not anyone is trying to insult me or talk about me. Or ask embarrassing questions and hope I don't know what they are saying.

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

If he weren't such a dink, he wouldn't have to worry so much about people talking behind his back.

What a schmuck.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

The "Speak English!" rule is defensible, but the "change your name!" bit is moronic on so many levels. Ignoring, for the moment, the issue of your employees inherent human dignity; Any customer who actually _cares_ about your employee's name, will also be offended by their probable accent. And even people who wouldn't other wise care at all, may be annoyed at the perceived deceit, like all those Indian-accented tech support call-center guys who give their name as "Steve".

[sciffy-circo.livejournal.com]

Well, in my Bachelor's program for Hospitality Management, I'm required to take a Spanish class. 2 if I want a Master's.

And for this idiot? Kunta Kinte, anyone?

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

IMHO, the ability to speak English may be a legitimate occupational qualification. Having a name the boss can pronounce without feeling embarrassed is not.