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1.24.2018

Hiring manager fired for mocking job applicant's English

"Let me tell you now, if you no speak English, I will send you home."



You'd think that basic professionalism (and you know, decency) would stop someone from writing insulting, racist remarks in their workplace correspondence. Tell that to human resources employee who is now out of a job after mocking an Asian American prospective job applicant's English in an email.

Minh Huynh is a Vietnamese immigrant who is still working on his English. He speaks Vietnamese and Cantonese; English is his third language, my friends. He had inquired via email about a job at Dash Delivery LLC in Seattle. The reply he received, from hiring manager Bruce Peterson, blatantly mocked Mr. Huynh's English skills, stating, "Let me tell you now, if you no speak English, I will send you home."

Mr. Huynh's daughter, Emily, saw Peterson's email and posted a screenshot on Twitter, calling out the response as "very unprofessional and passive aggressive." Once the internet got hold of story, it was on.




This is heartbreaking. A lot of children of immigrants can relate to Emily's situation. It's one thing to have parents who are limited-English-proficient -- this is true of so many Asian American families, and comes with unique challenges -- but to witness this kind of mockery and bigotry directed at our parents, it's incredibly frustrating and painful. So many of us can see some version of our loved ones in Mr. Huynh's experience.



Not long after her tweet went viral, the Huynhs received a message from the company. Dash Deliver LLC owner Kevin Bus apologized and said that the email was "inappropriate and inconsistent" with the company's values, and that the employee in question had been terminated.

"While it is true that communicating effectively in English is an important part of the job in question, the manner in which [the employee in question] communicated with you was highly inappropriate and following our investigation he is no longer employed with the company," the email states.



Who's the one sending out resumes now, Bruce? In a follow-up tweet, Emily shared that Peterson has since sent an email to Mr. Huynh, apologizing for his actions and begging for forgiveness.

"My dad forgives him and just hopes that people learn from their ignorance," Emily says.

The best part of this unfortunate incident? All of the supportive people who chimed in on Emily's thread, not only with encouraging words, but with actual job offers for Mr. Huynh. Every now and then, people are awesome.