We have a growing number of non UK employees within the business for whom English is not their first language. More and more feedback is coming back from the UK nationals that the business should ensure that everyone speaks in English when on the production floor and not allow people to chat to their friends in their mother tongue. The sentiment coming through is that some staff – rightly or wrongly – are feeling a bit paranoid about what is being said around them as they can’t understand what is being said in these conversations. I’m very cautious about imposing a ban on speaking in any language other than English and wondered if anyone else has come across a similar situation and if so, how they dealt with it.
Anne Boyle