'I didn't speak the Queen's English': Why people worry about their accents
By Marc Ashdown, BBC Business Correspondent
Growing up in Manchester, Mia Tanswell didn't give her accent much thought—until her first week at university in Loughborough.
"I knew people were going to notice that I was northern and that I didn't speak the 'Queen's English'," the 22-year-old says. "Definitely in seminars I would sometimes feel like my accent would sound a bit less intellectual than other people, especially if I was the only northern student in the classroom."
She's not alone. Fresh polling seen by the BBC suggests many workers still see so-called "accent bias" as a problem. The survey found one in 10 people in Britain feel anxious or self-conscious about their accent in high stakes professional settings such as speaking up in a business meeting.
Conducted by More in Common among 3,300 adults across England, Scotland, and Wales, the findings revealed:
- Geordies and those with an East London (Cockney) accent had the highest rates of accent-related anxiety (19% each). Welsh accents followed closely at 18%.
- Around 5% believed their accent had cost them a promotion, pay rise, or senior role, with "Brummies" (Birmingham) feeling this most frequently at 13%.
- Respondents with a West Country accent reported the highest rate of having their accent mocked or criticized by colleagues, at 15%, followed by 13% of those with a Geordie accent.
The poll was commissioned by Common Ground, an organization promoting social cohesion. Founder Lara Newman, who has worked in construction and property for over 30 years, admits she changed her own accent to get ahead in the workplace.
"I am incredibly realistic about what would have happened had I gone to university or gone into the workplace with a strong west country accent," she says. "I felt like that was going to be an issue for me."
Common Ground aims to support people from disadvantaged backgrounds into work, but Newman argues one significant barrier is accent.
"I think there is a problem in the sense that [an accent] implies a level of education or otherwise. It implies class," she says.
Martha Powell, 24, from Newport, Wales, is proud of her accent: "I love my accent, if anything I wish it was more Welsh." However, she still fears people make assumptions based on it, so at networking events, she gravitates towards others with a Welsh accent.
"I wish I would be able to stand out a little bit more, but I think I adapt my accent depending on where I am in the country," she says.
Softening an accent is common, with 13% of Britons admitting to changing the way they speak to sound more professional, with Cockneys and Scots more likely to do this.
Benjaimin Aidomoan, who came to the UK from the Czech Republic at age 16, understands this pressure all too well. His foreign accent has made job-hunting more difficult.