(Published July 13, 2009)
The university where I am currently working is huge, with over 10,000 employees hired from all over the world. Sooner or later, most of them happen by Human Resources, so we get a good sense of how incredibly diverse we really are.
I manage Benefits in this position. It's been kind of interesting to see on open enrollment forms some of the various combinations of names within families. I should probably mention that names interest me; they have ever since my fifth-grade teacher's approach to vocabulary words taught me about word origins and meanings. I don't know how I came to focus on names, but I'm always interested in what people's middle names are or what they name their kids. Of course names have fashions as well, and it appears that one fashion currently appears to be giving children ethnic names that are not necessarily from one's own ethnicity. As an example, there was one family where the parents had traditional Hebrew names; their son had a Shakespearian name and the daughter a Slavic one.
And why not? Maybe this mix of cultures in the names we choose for our children is a sign of acceptance that other people can have cultural traditions that are not ours, and that there is nothing wrong with that. Child of the seventies that I am, there's still a part of me that would like to "teach the world to sing," and if you get that reference, you've just dated yourself as much as I did.
A few years ago, I worked for a small company that had 60 employees representing 12 countries. We had one goal as a company, and everyone worked together to achieve that goal. With such a small population, we had to work together well. I know I've told this story before, but I want to mention it again because it kind of sums up what I've been thinking the last few days.
We allowed employees to use their own screensavers, within reason, and one employee had put up a screensaver featuring a symbol that, to him, was religious. Unfortunately, the symbol is so close to a swastika that you really can't tell the difference unless you know what to look for. I first learned of this when a project manager, who had been born in Poland, brought it to my attention.
National origin harassment? Religious discrimination? Talk about a clash of rights. Thankfully, the first employee was willing to adapt; he honestly didn't know what that symbol meant to the Western world and voluntarily took it down when it was explained to him. As he explained to me, "We don't study Western history in our schools, any more than you study Eastern history in yours. Maybe we both should."
Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to worry about national origin or racial harassment/discrimination any longer? A friend of mine recently participated in a potluck at work, where everyone brought in a dish from their country of origin. We did something similar, as well. Small steps, names and food, but if they lead to better understanding, isn't that a good thing?
Catherine Bannon is an HR consultant in Marshfield, MA (catherine.bannon@gmail.com). Bannon worked for 10 years in HR management before starting her consulting practice.
Home
