There’s this woman I work with who seems to have her accent change randomly.
Some days she sounds like a typical American accent, then others she sounds like she has a Caribbean accent and others she sounds like she has a French accent, and others she sounds like she has an Arabic accent. Other days her voice is super messed up, like she’s been screaming.
Beyond her voice changing, she is an odd person to work with. She’s gotten into public, loud vocal spats with other coworkers even in meetings. She was very nice and sweet with me when I first had to interact with her but that all changed when I made an honest mistake one time and she went off on me and wouldn’t stop until I ignored her and now I just keep my distance unless I have to. Others have said similar things about her as well.
I’ve wondered if maybe she has a personality disorder, but I would think that would also cause her to not do her job correctly?
I don’t know, I’m just curious. This is something I’ve never experienced before and wondering what this could be.
It’s normal for people to change how they speak based on the audience they’re speaking to. Here’s an interesting video focusing on “gay voice” but notes it’s not just a thing gay men do. Everyone does it. The thing is, it’s consistent, not random. If the person at your work isn’t changing their voice based on who they’re talking to, but randomly, they’re just being weird.
I have a good friend who lives and works in West Hollywood. Whenever he comes to visit his accent sounds hella gay when he first shows up, and gets less and less gay as the visit progresses. We definitely adjust our speech based on whom we are surrounded by. I once hung out with a Londoner for a week, and near the end of the trip it was pointed out to me that I was speaking with an English accent when I got drunk. The funny thing is that my then-girlfriend told me to stop it, and I couldn’t. I couldn’t go back to my normal accent for some reason. Of course it went back to normal on its own when I sobered up the next day.