"Felt Dismissed And Insulted": Indian Man Stopped From Speaking In Meetings Due To Accent

An Indian man abroad has claimed that he was asked to stop speaking in meetings because his accent was difficult to understand. The 32-year-old man, working in the USA, said he was left disappointed due to the behaviour meted out towards him by the team member.

The OP said he had been working with the same team for over a year, where everyone else, bar him, was an American.

"Today, during a meeting, I asked a team member (about 55 years old) for a project update as part of my regular responsibilities. He told me to stop speaking in meetings because he couldn't understand my accent," the Indian employee wrote on the r/IndianWorkplace subreddit.

The man said it was the first instance in his professional career when he had been stopped from speaking by one of his team members.

"I felt dismissed and insulted. I've always made an effort to communicate clearly and professionally. No one else has said anything like this before I have been with the same client for over a year now," he said.

"Is this kind of reaction something others have encountered? How do you deal with something like this professionally without letting it damage your confidence or your contributions?"

Stakeholder told me to stop talking in meetings because of my accent-is this normal?
byu/OkSpecial9640 inIndianWorkplace

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Social media reacts

As the post went viral, a section of users sympathised with the man while others told him to check with others if his accent was indeed thick for other native speakers.

"That's really rude, usually if they cannot understand you they might ask you to speak slowly, but telling you to just stop speaking is very rude and not normal behaviour," said one user while another added: "That's so rude and constitutes workplace bullying I think. I would speak to my manager and file an HR complaint."

A third commented: "Please do understand from your colleagues how do you fare in your spoken skills/accent. If it's good, get a senior / manager to talk to the client about the issue. If there's a genuine gap which should be bridged, seek help and work on it."

A fourth said: "Setup a meeting, and record yourself speaking. Then play it back and listen to yourself. This can be a good litmus test of how others "hear" you."