Serious question: As a manager, is there a tactful way to suggest some pronounce "ask" instead of "axe?" I worry it undermines a team member's credibility with the client.

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I will say though, tread carefully. Sometimes you have to defend your team's credibility for things they can't help, and this may be one of them.

My mom has an English bachelor's, a law degree, and had worked in academic administration for 2 decades. She always says "par-ci-ti-pation" instead of "par-ti-ci-pation". If someone thinks the rest of her credentials are moot because of one mispronunciation, then I'd say they are looking for a reason to discredit her. We let people slide with grammar and pronunciation all the time. Really consider if this one makes you nervous only because it's associated with BVE, not because it's just any mistake. If that's the case, then I think your job as manager is to protect your teammate from a client's assessment by giving them more than ample opportunity to show how smart they are and how qualified they are.

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This is hilarious. Saying axe has nothing to do with having an accent and has everything to do with mispronouncing a word. But if course, anyone that says that is racist and is privileged because they know better. Get the fuck out of here with this garbage. How long are we going to hold hands and tell everyone that everything they do is okay because are a unique special person and anyone that says otherwise is discriminatory?

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Also open to hearing opinions on why it IS acceptable in the workplace. Not looking for a full blown debate on the relevance of BVE though. Just want to ensure my team is successful as possible.

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I can't believe how many people are getting so butt hurt over the idea that someone could take a pointer on coming across more polished. The way you present yourself matters. I seek that advice all the time. Jesus christ.. is there anything left that ISN'T racist in 2017??!

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Google to start. Even though you're being sarcastic, I'll give you grace. You could read anything by Hughes, Baldwin, Coates, W.E.B, King, Emerson... to name a few.

"Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn." - MLK Jr.

Peace.

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Is there truth to your worry? If that is true being direct helps.

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P3: you won't survive in consulting if you get upset about this. I have had the way I talk brought up in check-ins, not to embarrass me, but to make me successful. Learn to internalize feedback and understand that OP is not out to get his teammember

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AAVE is not the same thing as having an accent. Most people have an accent of some sort.

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Nothing wrong with behaving in ways that adapt to the client context. We are salespeople, like it or not!

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Of course it's an accent. It's literally an accent. And people who freak out upon hearing it are the ones who are acting like they need special hand holding to be reassured that they are special and their accent is the best and yay hear is your prize. FFS.

People in this country have varying accents and dialects and it hasn't killed anyone yet. If you allow people to speak a little differently than you it won't kill you. I promise.

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Saying axe vs ask is definitely not an accent difference. It may be a cultural/regional thing that you definitely hear more in the south but it has nothing to do with accent. More with education levels. My manager from Wisconsin saying "bag" as "beg" is an accent difference. "Axe" and "ask" is not.

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It's is 100% percent accent. It's the way that they are choosing to say the word based on how they learned in their surroundings. Do u seriously think they mean an "Axe" when they say it? They are using it in the correct way meaning they know what they are trying to say and they know exactly how the word is spelled. Yes their pronunciation may be different from yours but doesn't mean they are any less educated

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OP - Although "axe" may be technically acceptable from a speech pathologist's standpoint, that may not translate well at the client site (pun intended). There are plenty of things that may be technically acceptable in most circumstances, but are less acceptable at client sites given that we are in professional services. That said, be very careful if you decide to give this feedback - it would be best if you could site an instance where using this language may have hurt credibility (client expression, response, addressing questions to others instead of them). If you don't have an instance to site, this will be even more challenging feedback to give. And if you do provide the feedback, make damn sure you're explaining that you know it's wrong for clients to make assumptions on our abilities based on things like this, but it's just the nature of the job - if they want to change, that's their call, and you're not telling them what to do either way. Good luck - this is a tough one!!!

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Translation: "a black person pronounces something a certain way and I don't like it" veiled through professionalism. Also a very middle manager type of thing to suggest. I'm sure there are more pressing matters for your engagement.

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PwC5: lot's of things have always been racist, you were just able to avoid being confronted with that fact until recently. Which is what happens when everyone around you and everyone making the rules and everyone who gets to be heard is white.

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Without opening the argument of whether it's linguistically acceptable or not and racism in America, people who think "axe" is only an African American thing didn't grow up in a low-income area. I did. The word's usage was ubiquitous across races in my area.

It comes across as uneducated because typically, during school or previous work experience people have been coached or have corrected the habit.

If I were to begin mispronouncing a different word, it would be difficult to argue that my contributions to language are being ignored and denigrated because of the racial composition of the majority.

In the professional services field, there is a common vernacular. There are a multitude of words which are not accepted or are perceived as improper regardless of any perceived racial connotations because they may give the impression of lower education. For example: "Q4 sales were really good" would not be an an acceptable phrase.

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EY2 👍

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If they are doing solid work, their "credibility" with the client shouldn't be affected

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A2 would be funny if not sad. What do you think the English think of your "proper English?" They pronounce YOUR "ask" as "ahsk" and call your "English" a dialect known as "American."

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D3 - I didn't say I was upset, I said "asshole". You can think a person is an asshole without being upset. I've been corrected and I've corrected people. Doesn't make them (or me) less of an asshole. Thanks for checking in though, I'm doing just fine.

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Everyone, by definition, has a personal accent. To suggest that someone has made it to the point of being a client-facing consultant is uneducated because of their accent betrays both a lack of broad education and a misplaced need to feel superior. Value people for the content of their words, not the accent.

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I recognize the sensitivity of this subject, but I'll still voice my opinion anyway. To me it's like news anchors who are required to adopt neutral accents to be more pleasing to the audience. It's not that their native speech patterns are less correct, it's that a neutral dialect is more accepted in that profession. We are sort of in the same boat. Regardless of the roots of dialect differences, we are generally expected to adopt a distinct intellectual prose. Caveat: it's not a requirement and feel free to do you, but, you might run into a few people who pass judgement too quickly on you.

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