Miguel Saviroff, southwestern Pennsylvania regional extension educator who specializes in agricultural financial management, takes a break from milking instruction with Carlos Lopez and Victor Velázquez, both of the Chiapas province of Mexico.

Hispanic populations have been increasing in southeastern Pennsylvania, particularly on dairy farms and in Chester County’s mushroom industry, for the past 30 years or more, and Penn State faculty and staff are working to help farm managers overcome the resulting language and cultural barriers at the workplace. Stup has been working with farm managers on language and cultural issues for the past five years. “Through word of mouth and social networks, more and more Hispanic employees are finding work on farms throughout the state,” he says. “I work with employers because they’re the ones—through the behaviors they encourage and the environment they create—who set the culture at those workplaces. If we have a mixed workforce, we can create a new culture that welcomes everybody, regardless of where they were born or what language they speak.”

“Penn State faculty and staff are working to help farm managers overcome language and cultural barriers at the workplace. ”

Miguel Saviroff, an extension educator in Somerset County, encounters many situations similar to Stup’s early-morning milking scenario. He offers another example: On one dairy farm, Hispanic employees were complaining that the English-speaking herd manager talked too loud. “They interpreted it as personal,” he says. “But I explained that it wasn’t. She was raised with four brothers and was used to having to make herself heard. It’s important to be aware of these kinds of misunderstandings and miscommunications and to help clear them up and restore relationships at the workplace.”