Ketchup

Diversity Issues at work:

Often at Sears we have customers who call and ask for someone who speaks Spanish...in Spanish. I panic. I don't speak a word of Spanish and don't know what to say. I stumble over a "Uno momento?" and put them on hold. Then I desperately call and page every department, searching for a Spanish-speaking associate, only to have the customer hang up for being on hold for so long. Or even worse...call back.

It hasn't been as bad in recent months because we have 3 Spanish speakers on staff - at least one is usually in the store. But 3 out of 80 or more employees really isn't enough to serve as many Spanish-only speaking customers as we have. None of our managers speak any Spanish either.

With high turnover and a smallish applicant pool, we can't require anyone to be bilingual for a job, but it would help a lot.

It's a lucky thing Sears feels like small-time business in the Golden Triangle Mall because I'm sure no PR firm could get away with such an inability to serve and communicate with its clientele.

Too bad I didn't minor in Spanish, I guess.