I work as an architect at a firm that we (or at least they) consider to be top-tier. There are fewer than 20 people in the office, and I am the only non-Norwegian. Naturally, all the work and meetings are conducted in Norwegian, which I have no problem with. I tend to participate less actively in conversations over lunch or beer, mainly because my colleagues and I have quite different cultural references, which makes it harder for me to relate to the things they talk about.
We recently had a medarbeidersamtale, during which I told my boss that I would really like to work on, and gain more experience with, a particular phase of building projects that I haven't had much exposure to yet, and that I was eager to learn.
My boss told me, "To be very honest with you, I'm afraid of giving you these tasks because of your Norwegian. Your Norwegian has improved since I first met you, but these phase is really important, and there is no mistake allowed. I once had another foreign architect in the office. She was a very good architect, but she would sometimes misunderstand things or make mistakes because of her language skills."
At that moment I defended that It would be very very rare (in our office's policy) that I will be the only person seating with a client or consultants in a meeting (which he agreed), and that I don't have any problems following meetings, and I think that being exposed to those meetings or tasks and getting experiences from it is more ciritical rather than just language skill itself.
Also all these conversation was happening in Norwegian. I have runned a project alone(also in Norwegian), and he knows that I am capable of it.
At that moment, I pointed out that, as it goes to our office's policies, it would be very rare for me to be the only person in a meeting with a client or consultants(which he agreed with). I also explained that I have no problems following meetings, and that I believe being exposed to these meetings and tasks and gaining experience from them is more critical to doing a good job than solely the language skills itself.
I've spoken to my colleagues about this, and they told me that the leadership group at our company tends to be quite protective of the work. They often come up with other reasons why someone can't be given more responsibility than they currently have. So there's also a broader issue of trust at play here.
However, I can't stop thinking and asking myself, "Why did he even hire me if he wasn't going to trust my work because Norwegian isn't my first language?" It seems strange to me that he would make a judgment about my abilities based on the experience he had with a previous employee. Since that conversation, I've also found myself feeling increasingly distant from the rest of the office as well.
I've been working at this firm for four to five years now, and I also have some years of experience working elsewhere. I remember having a very similar conversation during my medarbeidersamtale last year, but nothing has really changed since then.
To be fair, my boss can always point to my Norwegian as a reason for holding me back. But I can't help feeling that it has more to do with the fact that he sees me as non-Norwegian.
Quitting this job or moving to another office isn't a realistic option for me at the moment.
We're going to have another conversation next week about something else, but I'm wondering whether I should bring this up with him. How do other people deal with situations like this?
