To wear earplugs to block out colleague with vocal fry

[calmama]

My god it’s grating. Wish she would do some work and stop frying all those words. AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH

I’m not an arsehole. It’s not a condition. She’s putting it on.

My nephew talks like this but has done so his entire life, literally as a toddler. Never knew there was a word for it. His parents don’t talk like this so not sure if it’s natural for him. Don’t see that he picked it up from reality tv at all.....his parents barely allow him to watch tv.

Never heard of vocal fry but if it's something reality TV stars do then obviously more women than men will do it because women watch more reality tv than men.

I had never heard of this until the last MN thread on it. Now I hear it everywhere!

If you want to hear vocal fry, watch an episode of The Bachelor. they ALL do it, more when they're talking to the bachelor than just with each other or to camera. It's definitely put on in some cases, to try to sound laid back and cool.

Had to go and look it up. Never knew it was a 'thang' or had a name. God, it's awful.

@VivaLeBeaver Exact same situation with my childhood best friend. She's had it for as long as I can remember. Really self-conscious of it now so constantly takes deep breaths before she says anything, which I find more annoying than the vocal fry itself!

I googled it and the first video suggested for me on what it was, was from 2013

But now I see what it is, I realise it isn't something new.

YANBU. My work colleague says “like” every third word, with a sprinkling of “you know what I mean” liberally thrown in for good measure. I use my headphones a lot!

@Tinkerbell2209 Yes, she does this too.

I haven't heard of it but it sounds dreadful. I didn't know it was a 'thing'.

Stacey Dooley does it. It’s a female subjugation thing to seem cute/girly and to show deference as if their thoughts are not enough. It’s awful.

My D.C. can imitate this voice perfectly! It's awful.

I can imitate a lisp. Does that mean that they're all just putting it on?

It's one of my pet hates too. I subscribe to an American podcast with a different expert each week, I got 3 minutes into last week's and had to turn it off as the expert was so croaky with fry that it was horrendous to listen to.

Now I've googled it I completely agree. I think some pps think you mean your colleague has a throat condition. From you tube clips it seems to be more of an exaggeration of the deepest vocal sounds when talking in a contrived way.
I'd be really irritated by this, so if you can move desks/ use earplugs without offending her/ compromising your work, then go for it.

I’m not an arsehole. It’s not a condition. She’s putting it on

Not sure I agree with first sentence.

Just block the noise out - headphones / whatever.

Irrelevant whether a medical condition or not or whether your determination that she’s putting it on is correct. You’re not the speech police (unless of çourse you are her line manager and you work in a call centre)

YANBU 100%

It’s one of the most annoying was someone can choose to speak.

I learned about this a few years ago, the Kardashians are the worst offenders and since then I can't stop hearing it.
In the spoof TV show The Windsors, Beatrice and Eugenie have fantastic vocal fry and it makes laugh, I love it.
But in RL I don't like it and it is bad for the throat. Bit like smoking and giving BJ's to 'larger' men

You do know that some people don’t do it deliberately right?

I'm sure some don't. But if something appears en masse, seemingly out of nowhere, then you can be pretty sure it's an affectation that people are 'catching.' Like the Australian/Californian upward inflection thing that spread quicker than the Coronavirus through the noughties. No-one in the UK did it before that, then suddenly everyone did it.

Answering every question with 'So...' is another such recent affectation among the under 30s.

Do you know what we need?

More things for women to feel self conscious about. It's even better if it makes them a bit ashamed about their voices or the way they speak.
The more women second guess their voices and their speech patterns the better.

My grandma used to make us feel self conscious about our speech patterns when we were younger, every time we said 'so' or 'like' she'd repeat it back to us in a stupid voice.
We weren't putting it on though, it's just that speech patterns are social and new trends evolve all the time.
If you're not in the epicentre or it's a new pattern emerging you might find it grating but that's a you problem not a them problem.

My voice does this naturally after thyroid surgery damaged the nerves to my vocal chords. However I don’t do the contrived bit just have a lower croaky voice.
The drawly contrived version ( American and Australian accents lend themselves to this) are really irritating. I think it’s a way of extending your sentence length when you have very little to say.

I've been trying to do it for 20 minutes and can't.

I haaaaaaaaate it.

Yes, we all have irritating little foibles of speech (or get irritated by them). Personally, I find rising intonation the one that makes my hackles rise.

I'm not sure earplugs are that efficient unless specially designed, but noise-cancelling earphones work a treat for me. Many colleagues use them, and as far as I'm aware none of us are considered 'rude'. We want to concentrate on our jobs, and today's workplace can be distracting and counterproductive.

I've no wish to listen to 'office gossip' either.

NYC - I can imitate a lisp. Does that mean that they're all just putting it on?

Two completely different things.
You really think that the trend for talking in this way is the same as someone with a lisp?
Don't be ridiculous.

@Aridane Just block the noise out - headphones / whatever.

So you think I’m an arsehole and the “speech police” then tell me to do exactly what I suggested I do...? Great contribution.