HR Soapbox Blog

(Published November 9, 2009)

Did you hear the one about the hotel owner in Taos, NM, who made some of his Hispanic employees anglicize their first names?  The punch line, and I quote: "It has nothing to do with racism.  I'm not doing it for any reason other than for the satisfaction of my guests, because people calling from all over America don't know the Spanish accents or the Spanish culture or Spanish anything."  This is not a joke, and it's not funny.  His customer satisfaction justification is an insult to both his employees and to his customers. 

Whether he is conscious of it or not, this name-change request smacks of xenophobia.  The message I'm hearing is that we shouldn't have to accept that which is foreign to us until they become more like us.  I certainly don't understand his customer service rationale.  He didn't indicate that he received any complaints, so to me that says he's catering to an assumed desire of customers to not have to deal with ethnic names.  And even if someone had actually complained to him that, say, their check-in experience was poor because the employee's name was Juanita, someone needs to tell him that catering to customers who are dissatisfied because of the ethnicity, race, gender, religion, etc., of the person servicing them is a discrimination claim waiting to happen.
 
And what does this say about what he thinks about his customers?  I think he also insulted the rest of America, by implying that we are ignorant and unsophisticated because, in his words, we "don't know…Spanish anything."  Really???  Okay, so I don't have the ability to roll my Rs.  He's got me there.  In that case, it would be totally unprofessional to employ any Hispanic person with a name with an R in it.  (I'm kidding, of course!) 

I also have to say that if he thinks Anglican names don't ever cause issues, he's wrong.  Who hasn't mistaken Kerry for Carrie or Ron for Rob?  Is Ms. Johns going to be upset if I accidentally call her Ms. Jones?  Is Martin (Mar-TEEN) going to get mad if I accidentally mispronounce his name as Mar-tin?  I surely hope no good customer service rep would!

I really don't understand why he thinks exposure to another culture's names can have such a major effect on customer satisfaction.  If the employees are helpful and pleasant, what do their names matter?  Their names are probably not as foreign to — or uncomfortable for — his customers as he seems to think.  However, if this hotelier is so sure that his customers can benefit from renamed employees, perhaps he should follow Dr. Seuss's lead in The Cat In The Hat and refer to employees as Thing 1, Thing 2, and so on.  Everyone knows their numbers, right?

Gloria Ju
(Or, if I worked in that hotel, you could call me Lori Jones.  Or Thing 3.)
Editor in Chief