I have given presentations in English for years. I have written reports, conducted investigations, mediated disputes, and built professional relationships — all in English. And there are still moments, fewer now, but they happen, where I can feel the room adjusting to my accent before it has adjusted to what I am saying.

Language and credibility are linked in professional environments in ways that are largely unexamined. We know this intellectually, we have seen the research on name discrimination in hiring, on accent bias in performance evaluations. And yet in most workplaces, the conversation about what constitutes “professional communication” rarely touches the assumptions baked into that definition.

What the Research Shows

Studies on accent-based discrimination in professional settings are consistent and troubling. Speakers with non-native or regionally stigmatised accents are routinely rated as less competent, less educated, and less credible by listeners, including by listeners who consciously endorse equality and would be uncomfortable with that characterisation.

This is not a fringe phenomenon. Research published in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology shows that accent-based bias operates within the first few seconds of hearing a voice, and it is resistant to correction even when listeners are aware of it.

The Language of Intelligence

Certain accents, in the UK context, particular regional British accents, foreign accents of any kind are treated as proxies for social class, educational background, and intellectual capacity. These proxies are inaccurate. They are also deeply embedded in professional environments in ways that are rarely made explicit.

For non-native speakers operating in their second, third, or fourth language, the stakes are particularly high. The person conducting a complex analysis in their non-native language is demonstrating a level of intellectual capacity that dwarfs what is required to do the same in your mother tongue. This is almost never acknowledged.

The Personal Cost

For the person on the receiving end of accent-based friction, the experience is a particular kind of cognitive and emotional labour. Watching for comprehension. Repeating or rephrasing to ensure understanding. Managing the self-consciousness that comes from knowing your voice is carrying additional meaning that you did not put there.

Over time, this can lead to self-silencing, a reduction in professional participation that is not a function of capability but of the accumulated cost of making oneself understood in rooms that require extra effort to meet you.

What Can Be Done

At an organisational level, awareness training that specifically addresses language and accent bias is more valuable than most diversity training, because it targets a form of bias that is both widespread and rarely named. At an individual level, for those in positions of influence: slow down when you are listening to someone whose accent is unfamiliar. The effort required is minimal. The signal it sends is significant.

Related reading: From Brazil to Britain | Microaggressions in the Office