Imagine working in a posh part of town, but you’re from a working class part of town. If your accent was a giveaway that you didn’t grow up in a wealthy home, would you try to hide your accent, or would you speak naturally?

In this story, one brother and sister were in this exact situation, and they were able to hide their accents pretty well. Yet, sometimes, customers realized where they were from and weren’t too pleased.

Here’s what happened with one of those customers.

Incompetent because I’m not from “here”? Sure, I’ll call my supervisor.

When my brother and I were in our early 20’s, we worked at the same small theatre in a rather posh area of West London.

It was a lovely little place with small productions and was visited by some pretty cool people, but occasionally you’d get someone visit who thought a little more highly of themselves than others – you know the type who treat service people as lowly trash and it’s ok because they’re sooo important?

It wasn’t often, but we’d have a few people visit once in a while.

They were imposters.

Now.. me and my brother are NOT from this posh part of London.

Actually, we’re born and raised in the East side – pure bred apples and pears Cockney (with a bit of grime thrown in!).

But speaking to us, you’d never really guess that because we are pretty good at adjusting our accents for our workplace..

which is important for later.

The coworkers were not imposters.

Also, no one knew we were related unless they worked with us.

Most of our co-workers were from more affluent areas and sounded so, and were all awesome.

We had great banter.

It sounds like she knew her job really well.

Anyway – I was a barista at the time and one of the rules was if it was cutting close to the start of a show, you weren’t allowed to put certain food orders through because it just wouldn’t be ready in time, and if the customer wasn’t seated by the time the show started they’d have to wait until the interval for entry.

Most people understood, some people just thought we were lying and didn’t want to take their order (I don’t know what possible reason they thought I would want to lie about that ..)

So one day, LadyMcSnark comes up and demands one of said food orders and I politely explain the above scenario, point her to the foods that are able to be ordered and ask if I could interest her in one of those.

I guess somewhere along the line my accent slipped up (it just does! I’m not ashamed of it, but it can be hard to mask! I drop the occasional T now and then..) and her face just turned.

This is so cruel!

It was a pure twist of disgust and her voice changed.

I could almost feel the disdain pouring out of her mouth.. “OH. Of course you’re incompetent. You’re not from here. I want to speak to your supervisor. I want to make a complaint about your service skills.”

I was pretty taken aback, but not surprised. We’ve both had this a lot.

I asked her if she was sure she wanted to speak to my supervisor.

She was sure.

She assured me she absolutely was.

I was happy to comply.

So I called my supervisor over.

My supervisor was my brother, at that time. Because he is awesome.

This is funny!

He asked LadyMcSnark what the problem was, and she proceeded to insult me personally, about my “poor service skills” being a result of my social background and how I didn’t belong there having come from “that place”.

Putting on his best Cockney accent he replied, asking her if she wanted to continue personally insulting me, his sister and coworker, or if she would like to pipe down and continue taking her order with him – who reiterated the same menu rules.

I’ve never seen someone gasp in such a dramatic way – it was wonderful.

She did shut up and place her order.

I bet that lady was hesitant to ever go to that theater again. She sounds so rude and elitist.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Here’s another story about working with a family member.

I don’t think people in the U.S. are this judgmental about a southern accent.

I completely thought she was going to miss the show!

This person would’ve let her miss the show.

Don’t judge a person by their accent.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.