Employee Doesn’t Get The Bonus Promised For A Foreign Language, Refuses To Use It When It’s Needed The Most
Speaking more than one language can get you places. Especially if you’re working in tourism. At first, it seemed like that was the case for Reddit user Classy_Pyro. They got a job at a hotel and was promised a bonus for every foreign language they spoke. However, when it came to actually paying them, the managers thought they’d get tricky. And they did. But it totally backfired. You see, Classy_Pyro is an expert in malicious compliance and taught the higher-ups a lesson. When a huge wave of clients flooded the hotel, they refused to speak the tongue they weren’t paid for. Needless to say, it caused quite the chaos.
Image credits: Jose and Roxanne (not the actual photo)
Classy_Pyro has been working at the hotel for nearly two years. “The hotel’s structure is pretty good, lots of rooms, generally competent staff,” they told Bored Panda. “Though management is rather efficient with most things, lack of proper management and sometimes absurd mismanagement [account for] 70% – 80% of the problems we face in daily operations.”
“I still haven’t received a word from HR about [the bonus], I might hear something during the next payday. Hopefully, I’ll receive it, but if I don’t, I can already front you that if ellos no me van a pagar, yo no voy a hablar (if they don’t pay me, I won’t speak it). Honestly, I just think they don’t want to deal with the costs of it or allow someone else who struggle with another foreign language to try and claim a bonus for themselves.”
People had a lot to say about the situation
This story is way way way too long. I gave up. I hope it was great.
TL;DR: Guy didn't get a $100 bonus at work and took it out on his coworkers and clients. Nothing was achieved. Such a worthwhile story.
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The company I work asked for an certificate of my language skills. Well, I am a german native speaker and I learned French at school, but I have never been good. years later, I met a beautiful French girl, my motivation was a little bit bigger as at school :-). I moved to France and now I speak fluently French, still with an accent, but nobody cares. I have a certificate for Business English but non for French, so for them I don't speak French at all....
There is no rest. The last lines describe how the situation at that hotel continues to stay. Op refuses to speak spanish and he refuses to help a lot of Spanish speaking guests, so chaos starts and amidst that chaos he clocks out at the end of his shift.
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Devil's advocate here: Did the OP had a certificate that he spoke Spanish? How could he expect that a company would pay him a bonus for a foreign language without one? A language he admits he does not speak well enough? We don't know firsthand how well he speaks that language and only have his POV. If the directions he gave to tourists were very basic such as "You here, pharmacy here", "Room sleep up, breakfast down", "Me Tarzan, you Jane" etc, would you pay him $100 extra? And in the longrun, who gained something out of the situation? They ALL lost. He didn't get extra money, he was an a-hole to his coworkers, the hotel most likely got bad reviews which in turn means less customers in the future, the boss will end up with less money too which in turn means that workers will get fired in the near future. Use your brain, don't be a drone.
As well, my feeling is that if the employee had come in and helped when it was most needed, and had demonstrated that skill and its necessity, they would have been in a better position to persuade the employer to give that bonus later.
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This person needs to learn the word COGENT: get to the point. As for the hotel: if they don't want to compensate for special skills, then don't call upon an employee to utilize those skills.
Bosses don't want to pay for the work, but then demand the work. Seems about right. I would say "According to you lot, I don't speak Spanish sooooo, how can I check out Spanish speaking customers?". Any way, I only feel kinda sad for the inconvenienced customers.
Employer side: employee has a skill, employee admits skill is not high, hotel doesn't want to pay bonus. Employee side: employee has a skill, hotel NEEDS that skill, employee has a right to be paid for that skill. I get both sides. BUT: My personal opinion is that if they had come in, helped, used their Spanish to move things along and DEMONSTRATED that skill when it was most needed, they would have more leverage to get that bonus later. If it were me, I'd do the work, and then later, when I felt the time was right, I would approach the employer again about the bonus. THEN, if they refused to pay a bonus, I'd refuse to do further work. But that's just me.
"You're not a team player" is such a meaningless phrase. It's a generic attack when they have no real justification for what they're doing.
I work on Marriott, not at one hotel by good luck, my mother language is Spanish, I know how to explain myself on English, a little Japanese (not written) I watch a lot of anime, so I took lessons. And a poor German, since on my teenager years I was a huge fan of Ramsstein LOL But I do understand, I will do the same, I mean, it took effort and time (and money maybe) to learn a foreign language, and if they told to give one bonus for that and they do not give anything, well.... You're not the one to blame
Usually on this kind of scenarios, Spanish speakers say "CHALE" it sounds like (t'cha-Le) the meaning of this is like sadness and deception at the same time, but with the feeling that the bad situation could be avoided with little effort, like PAYING YOUR CHINGADO BONO POR SABER HABLAR ESPAÑOL!
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My job doesn't may me for my skills either. So I do the very very very basic work and I do it well. They burned their "above and beyond" bridges long ago.
It's amazing that all of the posters who felt that the OP should have gutted out the shift and helped with The Spanish-speaking customers are voted down. Making a single, obvious, undeniable display of your ability to help Spanish-speaking customers like this would have been a real show of character, your skills, and your "team-player" mentality (which I admit that phrase usually means you giving up your time for something less than fair). However, the next time would have been the effective time to withhold your Spanish skills from he Director and the business rather than the first time. You yourself said that you aren't quite fluent, but if you helped in a crisis like this they could not deny that your Spanish is adequate and critical to their operation when you next asked for the bonus.
My only thought is that the motel should have a multi-lingual check out app or screen in the lobby .
Well, almost similar here, night auditor, been working like half a year already, boss promised me a pay rise (I've been promoted from Housekeeping) doing it and some front desk job, guess what? They pay me like a normal clerk even though I do mainly accounting job, because they say that I'm "not fully trained yet" and my friends from front desk in total earn more because of upsells which I dont make because I work at the back of office... And its not a small hotel but a huge chain one.
I'm not reading all that. I stopped at "came to ask me my shirt size". Too much details.
To many insignificant details in this story. Your boss was being cheap so you decided it was okay to inconvenience customers who had nothing to do with it.
Gee your smart! But the customers had everything to do with it!
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I think if I wanted a $100 bonus, i would have stayed late, served all the Spanish speaking people and then taken concrete evidence of my skills to the top with a clear reason for being given the bonus. I don't know that I would want to screw over my company or paying customers to prove a point, but that's just me. That being said, I can speak four languages fluently, plus get by in a few others. I want a job that gives me a $100 bonus every month for each of those!!!! Sign me up!
He's not "screwing" them over. Quite the opposite. When interviewed he was told that he would get a bonus for speaking spanish. Inspite of the fact that management knows that he can speak spanish, they refuse to give him the agreed upon bonus. I would be interested to know how this is any different than a photographer giving free photos, that everyone was riled up about in another article! What other jobs do you think it is fair to give free service for in the hope of adequate recompense?
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No, no te vas a arrepentir. Hasta te puedo enseñar "albures" juego de palabras para burlarte amistosamente de otros que hablan español.
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See I don't agree with this. You shouldn't be kind in hopes of getting something in return but because of the goodness of your heart. Yes how the company tried to use him for his benefit was wrong and incorrect but I just don't agree with it. The whole thing is too f-ing long and dumb
1: It should be part of your regular pay not a bonus. 2: Screwing over other front line staff because you angry with management is a no no. 3: Don't be surprised if no one has your back ever again.
They PROMISED though. That was the terms. He gets a bonus for each language. The hotel didn't hold up their end of the deal.
Load More Replies... 
This story is way way way too long. I gave up. I hope it was great.
TL;DR: Guy didn't get a $100 bonus at work and took it out on his coworkers and clients. Nothing was achieved. Such a worthwhile story.
Load More Replies... The company I work asked for an certificate of my language skills. Well, I am a german native speaker and I learned French at school, but I have never been good. years later, I met a beautiful French girl, my motivation was a little bit bigger as at school :-). I moved to France and now I speak fluently French, still with an accent, but nobody cares. I have a certificate for Business English but non for French, so for them I don't speak French at all....
There is no rest. The last lines describe how the situation at that hotel continues to stay. Op refuses to speak spanish and he refuses to help a lot of Spanish speaking guests, so chaos starts and amidst that chaos he clocks out at the end of his shift.
Load More Replies... Devil's advocate here: Did the OP had a certificate that he spoke Spanish? How could he expect that a company would pay him a bonus for a foreign language without one? A language he admits he does not speak well enough? We don't know firsthand how well he speaks that language and only have his POV. If the directions he gave to tourists were very basic such as "You here, pharmacy here", "Room sleep up, breakfast down", "Me Tarzan, you Jane" etc, would you pay him $100 extra? And in the longrun, who gained something out of the situation? They ALL lost. He didn't get extra money, he was an a-hole to his coworkers, the hotel most likely got bad reviews which in turn means less customers in the future, the boss will end up with less money too which in turn means that workers will get fired in the near future. Use your brain, don't be a drone.
As well, my feeling is that if the employee had come in and helped when it was most needed, and had demonstrated that skill and its necessity, they would have been in a better position to persuade the employer to give that bonus later.
Load More Replies... This person needs to learn the word COGENT: get to the point. As for the hotel: if they don't want to compensate for special skills, then don't call upon an employee to utilize those skills.
Bosses don't want to pay for the work, but then demand the work. Seems about right. I would say "According to you lot, I don't speak Spanish sooooo, how can I check out Spanish speaking customers?". Any way, I only feel kinda sad for the inconvenienced customers.
Employer side: employee has a skill, employee admits skill is not high, hotel doesn't want to pay bonus. Employee side: employee has a skill, hotel NEEDS that skill, employee has a right to be paid for that skill. I get both sides. BUT: My personal opinion is that if they had come in, helped, used their Spanish to move things along and DEMONSTRATED that skill when it was most needed, they would have more leverage to get that bonus later. If it were me, I'd do the work, and then later, when I felt the time was right, I would approach the employer again about the bonus. THEN, if they refused to pay a bonus, I'd refuse to do further work. But that's just me.
"You're not a team player" is such a meaningless phrase. It's a generic attack when they have no real justification for what they're doing.
I work on Marriott, not at one hotel by good luck, my mother language is Spanish, I know how to explain myself on English, a little Japanese (not written) I watch a lot of anime, so I took lessons. And a poor German, since on my teenager years I was a huge fan of Ramsstein LOL But I do understand, I will do the same, I mean, it took effort and time (and money maybe) to learn a foreign language, and if they told to give one bonus for that and they do not give anything, well.... You're not the one to blame
Usually on this kind of scenarios, Spanish speakers say "CHALE" it sounds like (t'cha-Le) the meaning of this is like sadness and deception at the same time, but with the feeling that the bad situation could be avoided with little effort, like PAYING YOUR CHINGADO BONO POR SABER HABLAR ESPAÑOL!
Load More Replies... My job doesn't may me for my skills either. So I do the very very very basic work and I do it well. They burned their "above and beyond" bridges long ago.
It's amazing that all of the posters who felt that the OP should have gutted out the shift and helped with The Spanish-speaking customers are voted down. Making a single, obvious, undeniable display of your ability to help Spanish-speaking customers like this would have been a real show of character, your skills, and your "team-player" mentality (which I admit that phrase usually means you giving up your time for something less than fair). However, the next time would have been the effective time to withhold your Spanish skills from he Director and the business rather than the first time. You yourself said that you aren't quite fluent, but if you helped in a crisis like this they could not deny that your Spanish is adequate and critical to their operation when you next asked for the bonus.
My only thought is that the motel should have a multi-lingual check out app or screen in the lobby .
Well, almost similar here, night auditor, been working like half a year already, boss promised me a pay rise (I've been promoted from Housekeeping) doing it and some front desk job, guess what? They pay me like a normal clerk even though I do mainly accounting job, because they say that I'm "not fully trained yet" and my friends from front desk in total earn more because of upsells which I dont make because I work at the back of office... And its not a small hotel but a huge chain one.
I'm not reading all that. I stopped at "came to ask me my shirt size". Too much details.
To many insignificant details in this story. Your boss was being cheap so you decided it was okay to inconvenience customers who had nothing to do with it.
Gee your smart! But the customers had everything to do with it!
Load More Replies... I think if I wanted a $100 bonus, i would have stayed late, served all the Spanish speaking people and then taken concrete evidence of my skills to the top with a clear reason for being given the bonus. I don't know that I would want to screw over my company or paying customers to prove a point, but that's just me. That being said, I can speak four languages fluently, plus get by in a few others. I want a job that gives me a $100 bonus every month for each of those!!!! Sign me up!
He's not "screwing" them over. Quite the opposite. When interviewed he was told that he would get a bonus for speaking spanish. Inspite of the fact that management knows that he can speak spanish, they refuse to give him the agreed upon bonus. I would be interested to know how this is any different than a photographer giving free photos, that everyone was riled up about in another article! What other jobs do you think it is fair to give free service for in the hope of adequate recompense?
Load More Replies... No, no te vas a arrepentir. Hasta te puedo enseñar "albures" juego de palabras para burlarte amistosamente de otros que hablan español.
Load More Replies... See I don't agree with this. You shouldn't be kind in hopes of getting something in return but because of the goodness of your heart. Yes how the company tried to use him for his benefit was wrong and incorrect but I just don't agree with it. The whole thing is too f-ing long and dumb
1: It should be part of your regular pay not a bonus. 2: Screwing over other front line staff because you angry with management is a no no. 3: Don't be surprised if no one has your back ever again.
They PROMISED though. That was the terms. He gets a bonus for each language. The hotel didn't hold up their end of the deal.
Load More Replies... 
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