What does a business owner gain by forbidding workers to speak spanish, and change their names?
Hotel Owner to Workers: No Spanish!
TAOS, N.M. (Oct. 26) -- Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel.
The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names.
No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark.
http://news.aol.com/article/hotel-owner-鈥?/a>
How does forbidding workers to speak spanish help out a business?
He gains more enemies and hopefully more boycotters. If I lived near by, I'd be boycotting.
How does forbidding workers to speak spanish help out a business?
Good for him!!! If you want to be in this country. LEARN ENGLISH! Points points points!!!
Quality lacks when there is not comprehensive communication.
I know first hand.
Is that even legal?
All the power to him. He's the boss, and if latinos don't want to work for him or stay at his hotel, they don't have to.
I think that this will help his business because American travelers in the area will make a point of staying at his hotel. It is very frustrating trying to communicate with a worker who just can't understand you, and I would absolutely drive a little farther if it would guarantee easy communication.
It doesn't! it hurts.
It would help those who do not know English, learn it.
You need to be able to communicate with the people who work for you and with you.
It could also be a safety concern.
Some tasks cannot be completed without being able to read and understand English.
The employee who doesn't know English cannot help customers who do not know Spanish.
If I visit a business and the employees cannot speak English or are jabbering amongst themselves in Spanish,it will be the last time I visit that business. A business will lose customers if they do not feel comfortable in the establishment.
Is was more just their name ...
A practice done by hotels worldwide
people with tribal or very long name are shortened so guest can remember and pronounce them
In West Africa one year my waiter every night was BHEKIZITHA ...but everybody knew him as plain Ben .... he certainly has no problem with it
In some places, if guests believe the staff does not speak English, they will be uncomfortable and leave. That鈥檚 not good for business.
Here in South Florida, many employers require employees to be bi-lingual because there are many guests who speak only Spanish and others who speak only English. The staff has to be able to deal with both of them.
I think Mr. Whitten is a bit paranoid. If he thinks his employees are talking about him when they are speaking Spanish, maybe he should learn to speak Spanish.
In the case of Mr. Whitten it most defiantly did not help. As the link article pointed out,
%26quot;Taos Mayor Darren Cordova says Whitten wasn't doing anything illegal. But he says Whitten failed to better familiarize himself with the town and its culture before deciding to buy the hotel for $2 million. %26quot;Taos is so unique that you would not do anything in Taos that you would do elsewhere,%26quot; he says.%26quot;
There are some people that do not want or allow others to shorten or change their name. I have to wonder if Mr. Whitten request to use the anglicized version of the employee's name would then allow the employees to shorten or change any calling or registered guest's name or is it possible that he would think this disrespectful and unacceptable to potential or paying guest?
%26quot;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. He had visited Taos before and liked its beauty. When Whitten saw that the Paragon Inn was up for sale, he jumped at it.%26quot;
It seem to me that he forgot, what worked best in correcting a past problem may not be the best answer to the current problem. Using the same old methods of fixing past problems without reviewing the current situation may only break it more.
%26quot;All the power to him. He's the boss,%26quot; I hope he removes his entire current staff then rehires staff with %26quot;American%26quot; names who have big life goals and even bigger wage, insurance and benefit demands for their labor.
If the business I have gone to has employees that can not speak English, I am going to leave and go somewhere where they can.
