Keep being called posh at work

[Consciousuncouplings]

I've lived on and off in Manchester for a lot of my life but spent around 10 years of my childhood 20 miles away. I've been back in Manchester now for around 5 years, I don't really have the accent, it's quite a neutral one and it's hard to pinpoint exactly where from I think.
I work for a place in Manchester where a lot of the colleagues are from around that area or live close by, most have quite a broad accent.

I've been referred to as posh by them a few times, one the other day commented on 'my accent.'

I once said something and one said 'Oh I thought you'd be too posh to say that."

They're acting as though I speak like the Royal Family, far from it! I'm not posh in the slightest, and my accent is just very neutral, I spent some childhood in a market town about 20 miles away like I say.

I don't know why it bothers me really, but some people seem to associate you with thinking you're above others, snobby and so on and I'm none of those.
When they say it I just say 'no I'm not.'
Does anyone else get things like this and how do you deal with it?

I’m a proud Wiganer but work in Manchester and I get told I sound “rough as toast” !!!!!😂😂😂😂😂 luckily I’m not precious and take the p* out if myself

Every time I travel to Manchester I get called posh!

I wouldn’t mind if I was posh but I’m from Cornwall and grew up in one of the most deprived areas in Europe (and everyone else says our accent is common as muck).

I could have written this. I'm from Manchester too but my accent isn't broad at all. I often get people sating I'm like a newsreader with no discernible accent. I get considered posh all the time. I think it's because in general I don't swear much and definitely not at work. I don't tend to use slang with work colleagues either. It used to annoy me before but now not so much and to be fair I don't live in Manchester anymore. Laugh it off would be my advice.

Try being from the Black Country, people automatically assume I'm thick!

People like this are usually the first to be affronted when someone makes comments about their class or where they are from…

We once stopped for directions in the Black Country and had absolutely no idea what the (very friendly) chap was saying to us!

I think it’s a fascinating accent, a sort of blend of Brummie and Welsh that becomes its very own thing?

I love accents/dialects and the more unusual ones make me weirdly fond of being British (see also: pea wet on a pie and Blackgang Chine). I recently discovered that some of my grandad’s sayings are Cornish, but I don’t think he ever got any closer to Cornwall than Watford!

Honestly, I'd just say 'thanks' then ignore it. I know it's not meant as a compliment, but if you take it as one, then they've kind of shot themselves in the foot, haven't they?

It's rude and annoying.
But find a way to call them out that's funny.... Like a hugely overemphasised Manx accent saying "ere, that Carol (your name) with the (place that's about 10 miles away) accent thinks she's all that don't she...

Get someone actually funny to help with this, but basically everytime they make that kind of comment be bigger and funnier than them and it will put them off repeating the same pattern if something unexpected happens when they do it...
Hell, maybe just get a water spray and squirt them each time and say, would a posh person do this?!?
Train them out of it..

I used to find it really offensive. And I would say I didn't understand why they fell the need to comment But in the end I just Ignored people who had to mention it.
Says more about them.

I had that said to me when I worked for a homeless charity in London. ''You are too posh for us'' ''You are going to get your posh clothes dirty''.

Some of the staff never even said hello to me or acknowledged me, even if it was just me and them in a corridor for example, for the entire time I was there.

No idea why some people feel it is an appropriate way to behave towards a colleague.

I was polite and friendly with everyone, never bragged about anything and there was nothing particularly ''posh'' about my clothes.

I just tought it was their problem, not mine and just got on with the job but I must say I was happy to leave that environment after a couple of years...

@Consciousuncouplings Inverted snobbery is FAR worse in my opinion.
I don’t have an accent at all, and people have assumed I have had a wealthy upbringing.
Not so.
It really is annoying.
Someone said an accentless accent is “ RP”
Received Pronunciation.

I love accents. Mine has always been fairly neutral but when I lived in the North the kids I taught thought I was really posh when I actually come from rough working-class stock. I have a slight northern twang for some words and now live down south. The kids say nothing, but the adults I work with always comment on how I speak. Repeatedly so. I find that MUCH more annoying!

You either correct it - 'nah, common as muck me' or make a joke - 'yes, got my pony parked around the corner and had considered wearing my daytime tiara tomorrow'.

I worked on a team with someone from the W midlands. She thought my colleagues and I all sounded the same... one of us was mega posh W London private school, one middle class N London & one Essex girl. Totally all different! But she said we all sounded the same 🤣 🤣

Ha! How is Northern "neutral" ?! 🤣🤣🤣

Oh yes, I had this a lot working with a certain charity- But I say “ Having a no accent doesn’t stop people from being street homelessness
preventing addictions or abuse as a child” - These things cut across all classes.

I think reverse snobbery comes from possible insecurities, nothing else.

I used to get this all the time when I was in school! I live in Greater Manchester, never moved away and went to school in the town I lived, a girl once asked if I was from London, she said that I sounded really posh. I definitely don’t sound like I’m from London and I realised the reason people thought I was ‘posh’ was just because I pronounced things properly 🤷🏻‍♀️ really weird for grown adults at work to comment on it though

I speak with an RP accent but I have never had any negative comments. I deal with trades people all the time and often get tips from them. I treat everyone who meets me in the same way and it seems to make no difference at all.

There's no such thing as 'having no accent.

I’m from the north and have lived in the South East for over 20yrs. Very multicultural team so accents from all over the world but I’ve been teased a lot about the way I saw certain words. They actually had a presentation about accents last week for our organisation and how you accent can hold back your confidence in the workplace if you think those with an RP accent automatically sound like their opinion counts for more than us with less posh accents. So it works both ways and the way I’ve dealt with it is to not let it bother me.

Yeah but when every single thick character in tv and adverts has got my accent, and I don’t talk like most of the locals, that gives them free rein 🤷‍♀️

I would have thought people in Manchester would be used to 'posh' accents and/or those from the south.

There are about 60,000 of them every fortnight from the people who claim allegiance to the men's football team from Old Trafford, who have no connection or heritage to anywhere in the north west of England.

I live in Manchester, I'm Australian but I've lived in the UK for nearly 30 years now. I also studied at Oxford for 4 years. I was amused recently when a Tesco delivery driver said I sounded 'too posh to be living here'...I just laughed.

I still have an Australian accent - not as strong as my mother or brother, who both still live there, but you can still hear it. When I go back to Australia I'm 'accused' of being posh British...I can't win either way!

They come in on coaches and go straight back out on coaches without speaking to anyone who actually lives here!

I used to get called posh a lot...in an unkind way...so one day I replied very sincerely...yes I suppose I am posh...compared to you!