How to deal/remedy to foreign co-workers isolating themselves

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

My company, a start up, has recently hired 3 new people to work in my team (I am a part of the team, not the boss or even a team leader, I've simply been there for longer and integrated quite fast). The thing is, they all come from the same foreign country (They may have known each other prior I'm not certain but they were all sponsored by the same visa-sponsor company).

The problem:

They aren't hostile per se (although I've noticed they're getting increasingly confrontational with another co-worker who is particularly intransigent to mistakes, but he's so with any and everyone, it is not targeted), but they are segregating themselves more and more.

• They now often take abrupt breaks all together
• They only speak their own language to each other, rendering it impossible to even help them if we could when they are stuck on some issue or another
• They, to the exception of one of them, take no steps towards integrating with the team (the other two don't even say good morning or good bye to the rest of the team half the time)
• They don't talk much at team meetings, even when encouraged, except again for the one.

The company being a start up means things around here are actually quite cheery and not too corporate. Which means that team cohesion is actually quite important if we want efficiency.

Looking forward to your suggestions to change those tides. Keeping in mind that we probably can't really ask them to stop speaking their language without alienating them (especially since they aren't completely fluent in the home language here).

Edit :

thank you for the answers.

How often do the natives try to engage with them

Maybe not as much as we should, but it's hard to gauge. It happens but it's mostly work-related. it's not rare for us to crack a joke in between talking about something serious, but now I realize that if they aren't perfectly comfortable with the language, and maybe they don't quite catch them or are unsure if it's safe for them to take things lightly.

I will see what I can do about helping them with the language( I don't have the power or standing to propose a language formation, but if i'll pay attention and if they are really struggling I will float the idea to superiors I'm friendly with ).

I've seen the idea to try and learn bits of their language, I will try that as I am pretty comfortable with many languages.

I have read all the other advises and am considering how I can implement those too, I'm not mentioning them in particular because they require some more thinking.

Thanks again for the answers, I'll keep reading if more comes.

manpreet 2 years ago

I work with colleagues where for many, English is not their first language. There are a few who come from the same foreign country and if they meet on their lunch breaks, will talk in their native languages. We do not discourage this as they are not discussing work-related issues and they find it relaxing and pleasing to use their first language every so often.

Given that our company is based in the UK, our company's "official" language is English. Anyone who joins the company must be fluent in English and in communicating to colleagues (verbal, email, etc.), it must be in English so as to ensure everyone understands them. Even as a start-up, it would be wise to specify a language that all employees must be fluent in - or willing to learn - before starting their employment. There are a few things that you can try to remedy the situation for your current employees:

• Speak to your superior about arranging tasks where the three colleagues you mentioned are not grouped together. Have them work on projects where interacting with those outside their circle is mandated. This will help them integrate with your colleagues and encourage them to use the more common tongue more frequently.
• Emphasise that as the company grows (and inevitably becomes more 'corporate'), communication is key and that official policies may soon come into effect regarding language proficiency. If you recruited an additional 50 members but these three still stick together exclusively, things will only worsen. Offer some in-house (and ideally on the company's time and dime) linguistics lessons. Care should be taken, even in a small group, to ensure that the three are not being singled out for this. You could even show your support by going along yourself.
• Encourage them to contribute more at meetings. In our team, we have daily stand-up meetings where everyone talks about what they have been doing, however trivial it might be. It may sound harsh but the longer you allow them to not communicate with the rest of the team, the tougher it will be to integrate them. They have to be willing to join in and if this continues, they would have to be informed that it can jeopardise their long-term stay at the company.
• Once you become more friendly with them, depending on their culture, they may be happy to return the favour and teach you some of their language. It would help with team integration if nobody shied away from these offers.

In all these cases, you're not asking them to flat-out STOP speaking their language. It's good of you to want them to feel more included and they should in time realise that these efforts are for their benefit.