What is it with the vocal fry!! Just stop!!

[usedcars11]

I manage a girl less than half my age and she is driving me insane.

She has this low, croaky vocal fry voice where she drawwwwwssss ouuuut every syllable, It must hurt her throat to talk like it!.

She also sniffs constantly, I sit right next to her and have thought about offering a tissue but I dont want to offend her.

On the other hand she is genuinely driving me insane with the dopey, drawling voice and the sniffing.

Is it ok to speak to her about it? I suspect the sniffing I can address but I dont feel I can ask her to just bloody speak properly!

ARGHH

It’s also very difficult for people with hearing loss to catch every word. My hearing was damaged in my early 20s and on Teams and the phone especially it is difficult to make words out with too much vocal fry. If she’s on the phone to customers she may be causing problems with her lack of clear speech.

I’ve noticed men with vocal fry now, this is a fairly new thing. I hate it. I have to turn off podcasts if the host does it.

I can’t bear it either! So many young people speak with it full-time these days. It’s like nails on a blackboard for me.

I also can’t bear the upward lilt at the end of every sentence. I follow a girl who’s content I really like and I will read every post but my lord, I can’t listen to her podcast because it’s just constant vocal fry and upward lilt and all I can hear is that, I can never follow what she’s actually saying.

And still the OP’s problem.

Didn't know what vocal fry was till I watched a YouTube video....thaaat would toootally send me insaaaneee… 💅🏻
I would move her before I killed her.

Ah man. Noise cancelling earbuds. And you can definitely offer a tissue every time she sniffs but you can't ask her to speak properly.. unless.. you could potentially find a way to steer the conversation towards accents and then tell her she has such an interesting way of speaking. Maybe you 'know' someone who lost their voice eventually because their 'unique' way of speaking led to nodules and they needed surgery that went wrong and left them with no throat.. or something 🤔😏😆

You have my sympathies! Can you move your seat away from hers or move her or something?

The vocal fry wouldn't bother me (even though I do think it sounds a bit silly and affected) but constant sniffing would drive me flippin' insane.

One woman started in our office a few months ago and soon stopped when she realised she was the only one. Recently another woman has started and they sometimes sit together when most other staff have left and the office is quiet. They seem to be in a vocal fry competition. It drives me crackers when I’m there.

As for the sniffing, second sniff I’d ask her if she was ok, third sniff I’d offer her a tissue as ask if she needed to go to the pharmacy at lunch but yes, you do need to move her.

I first noticed vocal fry when we emerged from the lockdowns. I genuninely thought it was a symptom of long Covid.

Then I realised it was actually people deciding they have enough energy to spare to concentrate every moment of their life on talking like they've swallowed a kazoo.

Perhaps they think it makes them sound sexy. Like when your throat goes croaky with a cold. Sometimes, if you havent lost your voice in a way that makes your speech whistle and bark occasionally, it can sound quite good and husky. Maybe thats what they are trying to recreate?

It’s certainly an accusation only thrown at women … so there is that.

There's a great scene in Loudermilk in a coffee shop which shows this in action. 'Do yaaa wannnnnt coffffffffffffeeee?'

No loads of men do it too. Theres an economics guy on the Spectator podcast that means I have to turn it off if he comes on. His vocal fry gets worse as he speaks too. Can't focus on anything else.

Yep, I wasn’t talking about who did it. I was talking about the criticism of women. Linguists have been studying this for a pretty long time. There were studies being done about vocal fry back in the earlier 2000’s. Young women attract a lot more negativity than men which is annoying because they’re also criticised for having voices with a higher register ( which was why Margaret Thatcher was advised to change her voice ).

It's an unfortunate fad that has been transmitted to young people by US culture. Like almost everything bad from there.

How about don't try and control the vocal cords, speech and bodies of others? Leave her alone.

Have you thought about putting your hands around her throat, and squeezing tightly?...just a thought...

I have a young colleague like that (it's always a girl) she has this fake drawn out Americanised accent (she's not American) that is so popular with the young women these days. She's lovely otherwise and she's started to talk a little less like that (I'm guessing someone has called her out for being fake - not me!) they'll grow out of it

I'd never heard of it until now! Seems awful. Would drive me nuts.

I understand your pain OP. I was living in the US when it started and it was sometimes so painful for me to listen to some young girls and women talking , it is now everywhere and even creeping into other languages .Its rampant on Instagram and all social media .I turn off interesting podcasts when vocal fry is present (men also ).I was in Chicago this summer and we had a waitress with the most pronounced vocal fry I have ever heard .I honestly though she was taking the piss. I honestly could not work with someone who spoke with vocal fry.

I work with a young man and young woman that speak like this too. When I'm needing help with something or wanting something explained, I find i cannot follow what they are saying. The guy us worse, I have to really strain my ears to catch what he's saying. It sounds as though he can't be bother3d to talk or something and it makes me feel tired listening to it

So if someone screams at you, it's a 'you' problem?

Someone screaming at you is aggression and unacceptable. You could go to HR and that would be dealt with.

How can you deal with a colleague who just talks in an annoying way? You can't. You can only control how you respond. Avoid them. Earbuds. Minimise contact. Email instead of ring them!