I work for a company that has HQ (though not engineering/product) in the Southeast. So lot of calls with fairly mild educated/urban southern accents. Not something anyone really notices. You get into rural southern accents, especially things like Cajun dialects, and it becomes more pronounced.

Sounds like Shipt

At college in Tallahassee my friends would have a stronger accent when talking on the phone to family than talking to friends, even at a Southern college.

This is either part of, or related to, "code-switching". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching . That could be the case at your FANG company, for one or multiple of the reasons given.

I’m from Texas but you would never know it in normal conversation. But it will come out when speaking with relatives. It’s like a dial that you can turn up and down at will, but my normal state is to have it turned off entirely. Except for y’all. That one gets used at work

Y’all is just a great word though, I grew up in the southwest and my family was from the Midwest, but I use y’all. It’s just fun to say!

I grew up in rural Mississippi. A few years back, a few coworkers pointed out that sometimes my accent weirdly sneaks out when I’m particularly deep in talking about tech that I love and know well.

But yeah, most of the time, people are like “Mississippi? You don’t have any accent!”

y'all won't turn heads anywhere anymore, but fixin will.

With "you guys" out of favor "y'all" is one of the common substitutes.

I speak differently when I speak with different folks. For an obvious example, I simplify the vocabulary when speaking to kids. When I'm around coworkers, I speak in our own jargon. When I speak to people who are not native english speakers, I avoid alliterations to pop culture they are likely unfamiliar with.

I do this with family too.

Our natural accent is a mix of the many places our family has lived and a fair few words that have stayed with us that most people don't use. It's ours and we love it. But I don't expect other people to know that.

When on the phone or a zoom with everyone, we'll drop into the natural accent. It's especially bad when we get drunk and do so. My SO has had a time learning 'us', and we've added some of their familys' ticks too. I guess it evolves with each person that comes in.

I had a friend in college from Boston's South Side and when he was drunk and on the phone back home, he was unintelligible.

I agree with calling this 'code switching', but to me (and maybe I'm alone here) that sounds a bit, I dunno, negative. Like I'm being forced to speak in a manner that I don't want to because of money. That's not it.

I speak with my family in a way that is a bit more private. We have our own little thing that outsiders aren't a part of. It's not exclusive by any means, but we're not worried about being understood. I think my family understands that a more common form of communication is needed for the rest of the world.

Actually, you know, we do call the form of English we use at work 'Cash English'. So, I'm full of BS here, maybe.

As a midwesterner formerly in a FAANG in SF I'd hear jokes openly about "rednecks", "white trash", "hillbillies", "inbreds", etc. I can understand Southern people code-shifting or switching or whatever it's called.

As another midwesterner also in the bay area, I have a lot of respect for rednecks. Talking to a colleague from Kentucky, I described an exceptionally high IQ friend of mine as a redneck. My colleague was initially offended, until I explained specifically what traits I meant. Then he agreed with me that my friend was a redneck, and that it was a compliment.

Tangentially related, I once told a coworker that he was a hobo. He was also offended, but I suggested he do a bit of research on the etymology. He realized that he was indeed a hobo.

> Tangentially related, I once told a coworker that he was a hobo. He was also offended, but I suggested he do a bit of research on the etymology. He realized that he was indeed a hobo.

Wiktionary has:

> Unknown. Possibly a contraction of ho, boy or the dialectal English term hawbuck (“lout, clumsy fellow, country bumpkin”).

What did he agree to?

Also, there must be something wontedly derogatory but technically accurate they could call you for providing this education?!

> Also, there must be something wontedly derogatory but technically accurate they could call you for providing this education?!

Condescending?

Call someone a term, then suggest they "research the etymology", then they realize I was right to call them that. Great for me providing them education!

You all don't lightheartedly joke around with your coworkers from time to time?

That's a stretch. Historically, a hobo was a homeless migratory worker, differentiated from a tramp by their willingness to work. The term supposedly came into popularity in California.

Technically, he's a "beachcombing barnacle" if Wikipedia's slang terms are accurate. After graduating with a mechanical engineering degree, he rode a dirt bike across the country to CA with no plan, and couch-surfed for a while on another coworker's boat at the harbor. He eventually stopped by our office on a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere, poked around a while, then asked for a job he was woefully unqualified for. We offered him an internship based mostly on his exceptional tenacity, and he's now been with the company full time for several years.

I'm born and raised in Louisiana left in my late 20's for 10 years in Texas and now live on the East Coast. My accent is all over the place, only time my Louisiana or Texas accent for that matter, come back is if I spend a minimal of two weeks in either state. Company I worked for in Texas out of a few thousand people I only heard a Louisiana accent once and his was way more pronounced then mine being he was from closer to true Cajun country.