Dive Brief:
- An HR representative for a small Seattle delivery service company has been fired after an email he sent to a job candidate — in which the rep appeared to mock the candidate's English — surfaced on Twitter, ABC News reports.
- The email read: "Let me tell you now, if you no speak English, I will send you home." The words “if you no speak English” were underlined. The candidate’s daughter, who helps translate for her father (who is a Vietnamese immigrant), posted a screenshot of the email to the social media site. The post received over 16,000 retweets and more than 35,000 likes in just two days.
- The delivery service's owner has since issued an email apology to both the candidate and his daughter, agreeing that the message was inappropriate and unprofessional. The owner also stated in the letter that the rep had been terminated following an investigation of the incident.
Dive Insight:
It didn't matter that the original tweet containing the errant email was posted to a personal account with about 300 followers; employees need to be cognizant that their words and actions reflect on themselves as well as their employers, especially on social media.
The call to protect the brand in the event of employee missteps is difficult, but essential. Only 1 in 5 candidates will apply to a firm with a negative reputation online. While the company in this case took immediate steps to correct the situation and apologize to the family, those efforts only go so far in the minds of potential applicants (let alone customers).
And recruiters should know that discriminating against applicants or employees based on the language they speak can amount to a Title VII violation, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Similarly, EEOC says that “English only” policies are rarely justified.