A client recently asked me for advice with regards to assistance to understand a situation with a new employee from South Asia.  The gentleman had recently been hired and was on probation.  In the first few weeks, he had stated that he would take a Monday off as vacation corresponding with a weekend he was going out of town on.  The vacation policy was explained to him and he was informed that he would be entitled to take vacation time after one year.  This clearly did not satisfy the employee and he stated that “he would be taking the day off  following that particular weekend.

While some employees may have feigned illness in order to take that time off and the employer would have been none the wiser, my client was perplexed at what was perceived as “defiance” or “arrogance”on the part of new employee who had yet to pass his probation.

Is there something my client is missing?

There very likely is.

First the direct style of speaking was something my Canadian client did not understand.  The request was not couched in the “appropriate” language of a request (“I have a … to attend on xxx weekend and will be unable to return to work until Tuesday.  I regret that this is occurring so early in my employment but the circumstances are such that I must attend to this.  Is this covered by our vacation plan?  No? Well I am hoping that you will understand that these were plans that were made before my employment and I am unable to change them and must attend…” ) and sounded more like “I dare you to try to stop me”.

The Canadian style of using softeners in our language take time to learn for someone from a culture that speaks more directly.

What if the request to take time off included the information that there was a wedding or a graduation to attend for a cousin on the spouse’s side.  Perhaps the employer is asking themselves, “Are you kidding me?  you’d risk your job for a cousin? your spouse’s cousin?  Really?”  The answer is likely, “Yes. Family relations come first.”

“Then you must not really want this job if you are willing to risk it over a wedding”.  Again the response may be, “But of course I want this job, I’ve worked terribly hard to get it, I’m so proud to have it.  I have accumulated so much debt in setting up our lives here and I need this job, but I can’t dishonour my grandparents by not being at this wedding.”

Can we relate to this kind of situation?  An important link to understanding this is to recognize differences in communication styles, attitudes towards disclosure and differences in values.  If you’d like to learn more or have us spend time with your team to address some of these situations, please contact us at solutions@bridgeworkshr.com or call 204 895 4667.