If a job posting says “x language speaker required” i think it’s fair that the employee be requested to complete work in that language.
However, there are many times when multilingual employees are asked to translate work or complete special tasks that their teammates cannot because they speak their second language.
I often see these requests in client facing roles such as retail, finance, or law.
Should someone who speaks more than 1 language receive compensation because they are being requested to do work that requires their extra skills? What do you think?
To answer my post, I think work such as translation should be sent to a dedicated translation team or compensate an employee for using the extra skill (because they would be doing “extra” work for the same pay as their teammates).
I often see these requests made of Chinese speakers in North America/Asia, Spanish speakers in America, French speakers in Canada, and French/German/Italian in EU countries.
I was not hired as a translator and it is not in my job description.
I refuse to take on the legal risk any mistranslation may have on the company.
I agree with this!
I had an argument with someone who worked in medicine; they spoke french to a patient without requesting a translator although they did not have experience working in medical in french. I said that they should not have done this because they run the risk of mistranslation and there would be a heavy cost.
Always push back with the legal risk in situations like this.
If you are in a role and they brush you off, go to legal directly. They will love a middle manager deciding this without consulting them.