Employer Commenting On Voice

[theshadowoftheliving]

So, I posted a while back about a really bad review I received from a work contract.

I found out today that part of that bad review was in regards to how I speak. Not what I say, not the information communicated, not the pace of what I say, but HOW I speak. My vocal patterns.

I'm livid with rage because I'm incredibly sensitive about this. I went through years of speech therapy as a child and this pattern is what I was corrected to, and, frankly, although perhaps not typical of the region I live in, I don't speak strangely. I'm articulate, I'm careful, I enunciate (because I'm horribly self-conscious about it). I've been told that I'm a brilliant public speaker.

Is this okay for someone to have said to me? It feels like an attack on my physical self, the way that being told that I'm too fat or too skinny would be inappropriate for the field I'm in (that relies just on my ability to think, and nothing else).

I don't know if I'm overreacting or not, but this doesn't feel okay.

 

[Deadman]

Well I don't know about OK but its certainly not nice and if true it may be in violation of local labor laws. If your job does not not have some odd requirement for a specific voice then how you speak should not be part of how you are assessed.

 

[Kintsugi]

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit.

If you want to hear about someone who understands this kind of BS, check out act II of this episode of This American Life, "Freedom Fries."

It's about the female journalists (of the most popular podcast of all time) being sent extremely hateful emails because of their "vocal fry." :bored: Maybe you'll find some kinship. Or a laugh.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

If your job does not not have some odd requirement for a specific voice then how you speak should not be part of how you are assessed.

This is how I feel. I don't understand how it has anything to do with anything other than being a personal attack.

Sounds like a bunch of bullshit.

Thank you.

Also - that podcast is really good. I've heard it before. Right now I'm still too upset to find humor in it, but thank you so much for putting this here for me to come back to.

 

[EmmaOwl]

That sucks. I've never had a full-time job hang on to it, but it did have to do with my job, working as a writer. I was asked to join in a live reading, just kind of for fun, casual, for the arts... but it ended up being reviewed in a magazine and the only thing it said about me was that I spoke "in a high piping voice".... I suppose that doesn't sound terrible, but it really made me feel bad, especially when that was her only comment about me, and in the rest of the article, she complimented the other readers at that same event/performance.

There is something personal and private about a person's voice - I think you caught it on target, a comment on someone's physical appearance whether they are large or slim. I think your voice belongs to you, it's personal. I understand what it is like to be judged in this odd way. In my case, it wasn't a play, it wasn't a dramatic reading, it was some poetry I had been asked to write for the event. I did the writing part, quite well according to the majority of the audience - but did I ruin my own writing by reading it aloud in a "high, piping voice"? Who knows. Did someone read that review and decide not to invite me to do other things, or not to write for different publications? Who knows.

Unsettling, a weird thing to hear about oneself. I'm sorry you've had to deal with this. :( I can't put my finger on exactly why, but it feels weird and so no, it is not an "okay" thing to say in a job review. Not appropriate.
This one could be rough, so I hope you'll have a chance to let it go, and not have it affect your work. Hugs!, and tea and sympathy :hug:


PS If she had criticized the writing itself, the words I used, how all that went... that's fair game. Some people might disagree with me on this, but I don't think the speaking voice should be considered a notable problem all on its own. IF she had gone on to something more substantial about the writing, which was the focus, then I would take stock in what was said. But that was all she said, and it was not a "spoken word performance" or anything. Just some published writers coming together to share some words from a page.

 

[Freedomfighter]

What I hate is the fact that any supervisor can come up with any kind of bullshit and not have to worry about that. Because the worker does have no ground to stand on.

The crap that I have had to listen to already from such reviews is atrocious. I have been told of improvements, of lower performance in my career while I had the exact same work standards, ethics, and did the exact same work in the exact same way for a long time.

The other thing I hate is the fact that they now at my work bring in two people to give the review. So then you have one worker and two superiors that outrank you and can play any kind of sick game they want to. Which is exactly what they are doing at my workplace. They play sick games and if they would be judged on their ethics and work behavior they would fail dismally.

Whatever it is such people are doing has nothing to do with my good work, that much I know. Which is so evident every day at work. There can be five different superiors and each and everyone has something else to bitch about, to command a worker to do.