colleagues telephone voice drives me mad

[Fibilou]

Aaargh. My colleague is a normal, middle class woman. She does a lot of Amdram and is rather "oh look at me in all my wonderfulness". Which is a bit irking but liveable with.

BUT THE PHONE VOICE !!!!!! She speaks perfectly normally most of the time but on the phone she puts on the sort of voice she might use to the Royal Family. She tries to emulate a cut glass accent and the fakeness drives me bananas. Bearing in mind I work in the police, most of the people we deal with are not aristocrats and certainly won't appreciate the fake "oh yahs".

Just speak in your normal voice, woman !

[Fibilou]

Oh, and I forgot to say that most of this is at top volume. There are 25 of us in our office, we are on the phone all day but she's like a town blimming crier.

[LittleMissHissyFit]

Oh dear!

Tis the time of year where we have just all had enough isn't it?

Have you thought of recording her voice and playing it back to her?

[NiceShoes]

Taping without consent and playing back would be bullying. Is anyone else bothered by her? What does your boss think?

[AgentZigzag]

My mum has a phone voice, I can understand speaking clearly so the other person can hear, but trying to sound 'dead posh' speaks volumes about the person IMO.

[surfandturf]

Sorry - this sounds funny but I'm sure it would irk me too if I had to listen to it all day long, day in and day out.

[ValiumSingleton]

Oh I used to work with a woman like that, She used to talk with glass plums in her mouth and then her father rang one day, he seemed lovely, very natural, and he had a regional accent. Not strong, but she thought (erroneously) that being Irish I wouldn't realise her gig was up. She carried on talking like Princess Michael of Kent.

I used to ask her was she from Bristol every now and then. And she'd be mad. Then I'd 'forget' and ask her again a few months later. "You must be from Bristol right?". She was a nice girl underneath the rotten snobbery.

[Fibilou]

Oh gosh, it's not that serious to do anything about ! Just a minor 5pm Friday rant

[PGWomble]

I have a similar collaegue. When she answers the phone it takes about thirty seconds to get through her opening spiel. 'Hello...[name of company], [PGWomble's colleague] speaking, [department]...and how may I help you?'

Her work is internally facing in a small organisation, so 9 times out of ten the calls coming in are her husband.

[HecateQueenOfWitches]

What about smiling and saying "I love your telephone voice."

[WriterofDreams]

I think sometimes people honestly don't realise what they sound like on the phone. Apparently when I'm on the phone to my mum my regional (horrible) Irish accent is ridiculously strong, but I don't hear it at at all. My dad sounds exceedingly odd on the phone. He doesn't try to put on a voice, it's more that he's very conscious of being heard so he overpronounces everything. I think it's quite cute

[quaffer]

I've got one like that too. V annoying but it does make the time at work go more quickly listening to her!