Indian employee in US asked to 'stop speaking in meetings' because of accent: ‘I felt insulted’

AN Indian man working in the United States has claimed he was asked to stop speaking in meetings as his accent is hard to understand. In a post shared on Reddit, the man voiced his disappointment with the workplace discrimination he experienced.

In his Reddit post, the man identified himself as a 32-year-old who is living and working in the US. Originally from India, he is currently part of a team where everyone else is 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 revealed on Reddit.

He added that his request to the team member was a simple and straightforward one. “My original request was simply for a progress update and accompanying pictures. Perhaps my question caught him off guard, given my position as a contractor and my relative age,” the employee wrote.

The man said that this experience left him feeling dismissed and insulted. “I felt dismissed and insulted,” he said.

“I've always made an effort to communicate clearly and professionally. No one else has said anything like this before I have being with the same client for over a year now,” he wrote on Reddit, asking if other people in similar positions have experienced something like this.

In the comments section, he also said that his manager told him not to interact directly with that particular team member going forward. Instead, all communication should be routed through the manager.

Accent to blame?

His post has sparked a lively discussion on Reddit about different accents and workplace etiquette. Some people advised the employee to give his team member the benefit of the doubt, as sometimes it can be truly hard to understand a particular accent.

“I had a meeting once where an Indian lady gave an update regarding the integration of what she was working on with my team’s product. There were a large number of upper management on the call, and I swear I couldn’t understand a word she said,” recalled one Reddit user. “When the update ended, I was unable to continue because I had no idea how to respond. I actually liked working with her, but we almost always communicated through Slack, so the meeting caught me off guard and there was fallout.”

“I have been in meetings with Russians, Vietnamese etc. where I could not understand a single word they said and had to ask for clarification again and again,” another said.

“So when an American says he cannot understand what I said, I would assume he is having the same problem with me that I had with the Russian and other Indian speakers.”