6164 Week 6 Blog

During the summer I work as a receptionist at a summer rental property.  My job entails answering phones, responding to emails, and working with guests when they come to check in.  My boss is an amazing, kind, and funny woman.  That being said, she has many ideas about people that I would say are not “politically correct” and customer service is not her strong suit because of this.

Today my boss took a call from a woman with a very heavy Russian accent.  She apologized for her rough English to start the conversation.  When the woman spelled her name for her reservation I heard my boss comment to the woman that it was sort of a crazy last name.  Later she said, “You are very hard to understand, did you know that?”  The woman was embarrassed by her limited English to begin with and I’m sure the comment did not help.  After hanging up my boss commented that she hated calls from “those people” because she could never understand them.

This interaction made me feel very uncomfortable.  On one hand I wanted to say something to stand up for the woman on the phone.  On the other hand I was worried about upsetting my boss by bringing up something that she had done.  It was a very awkward situation and I ended up not saying anything.  While I did not encourage her behavior I also did not stop it, which is how things are allowed to continue.

The comments my boss made diminished the equity of the woman on the phone.  She was made to feel inferior because of her broken English.  To set the situation right my boss would have needed to be more culturally sensitive and respectful or the woman would have needed to say something to combat the behavior.