Accent biases still thrive in the global workplace

Recently, an Indian was insulted by an American colleague for his accent. How should businesses mitigate such biases?

- Somak Ghoshal

Last week a 32-year-old Indian man working in the US posted on social media platform Reddit about an incident of harassment he had faced at work. Although by no means uniquely awful, it quickly hit a nerve and went viral.

"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," he wrote. Sharing that he "felt dismissed and insulted" by the comment, he threw out an open question to fellow Reddit users. "How do you deal with something like this professionally without letting it damage your confidence or your contributions?"

The responses ranged from outrage to urging the person to file an HR complaint to getting feedback from other colleagues about his speech. But the crux of the problem wasn't really the accent itself or even the bullying over it. The worrying part is the persistence of a work culture that enables employees to make such comments with impunity. It's even likely that these offenders pat themselves on the back for saying out loud the complaints that many of their colleagues silently harbor.

Accent bias isn't a new phenomenon. It exists in workplaces around the world, especially where people from different cultures have to interact with each other. Intercultural communication is a key aspect of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training programs multinational corporations (MNCs) should ideally build into their employee welfare, engagement, and development plans. And it isn't as if businesses are oblivious to this problem.