Temp employee plots to confront beloved "British" coworker after discovering he's been faking his accent: 'Whereabouts are you from, Mark?'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 25, 2025 8:00 AM EST

We all have done or said things to sound cool, but the vast majority of us try to retire this habit in middle school.

This temp employee started working at a New York office job after having recently moved from London. When he introduced himself to his supervisor, she was elated that there was another British person at the company and vowed to introduce him to his fellow Brit. However, when the temp employee finally met Mark, he instantly knew that something was off.

Sure, he was speaking in an obviously faux British accent, but he was also totally unaware of the geography of Britain. That was the true giveaway. Can you imagine being this desperate for cool points as an adult? I understand how hard it is to be yourself and to make yourself interesting to others, but that does not mean that you should go off and reconstruct your entire identity. 

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  • The temp acknowledged that perhaps there was a deeper reason behind his newfound British identity. If that's the case, Mark better start taking some dialect lessons because that accent is not exactly convincing. Moreover, his inability to place what the author implies are standard well-known geographical locations in the United Kingdom is also, frankly, embarrassing. How do you expect people to believe you when it's crystal clear that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about? 

    Again, we've all told the occasional white lie. It's common, especially in the workplace, for people to embellish their levels of experience in order to seem qualified for more responsibility. However, most people know when it's worth saying they have three years of experience in a certain field compared to one if they are confident in their own abilities to roll with the punches and learn on the fly. However, when it comes to concocting an entire persona, if you're not fully committed to making said persona believable, what is the point? You're basically asking for people raise their eyebrows and provide follow-up questions. What a rookie mistake, Mark! 

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    A group of young confident businesspeople discussing something in an office.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02

    "Fake Brit at the office"

    I'm originally from London, moved to America, I was working temp jobs in NYC. Got assigned to an office job covering for an employee on extended sick leave.
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    First day, I met the woman training me, who said "Oh, you're English! So is Mark! I'll have to introduce you later." At lunchtime she walked me over to Mark's cubicle. Mark said "hello, nice to meet you, I'm Mark." RIGHT away
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    I suspected he was faking his British accent! I said "Whereabouts are you from, Mark?" Mark said "Where are YOU from?" I said "Sydenham, London SE 26." Mark said "Oh right, I know that area." Awkward silence. He must have known that
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    I knew. Who knows why he was pretending to be British? Was he even really Mark? Was he using a fake ID? I didn't know and I never asked. Man must have had his reasons. So I played along the whole two months I was there. We
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    never spoke on it. He had that part right: That's SO the British way. My last day, Mark walked up to me, shook my hand firmly, and
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    said "Cheers matey, you're a top bloke." Which roughly translates into 'thanks a lot friend, you're a very decent man." I smiled and winked.
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  • 08
    wrhnj Faking a British accent seems like a lot of hard work just to hook up with some office hotties.
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    OP Ponder_wisely Yeah, my hunch is he was using someone else's employment authorisation and they were from the UK, so...
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  • 10
    wrhnj So I'm guessing you don't think he's American either.
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  • 11
    OP Ponder_wisely No. Definitely not. If I had to guess I'd say he was Indian or Pakistani.
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    miapaip If he was Indian or Pakistani my best bet would be that he is embarrassed about his south Asian accent and is trying to speak in a different accent to be accepted and not made fun of.
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    OP Ponder_wisely Except his name was Mark. Which is why I think he was using fake work papers. EDIT: His last name was something akin to "Reynolds"
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    Playful_Robot_5599 Probably watched Love Actually one time too often and believes hot chicks are waiting for any Brit to keep them warm in their tiny apartment.
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    OP Ponder_wisely Take my upvote!
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    No-One-8850 There are so many Brits in NYC I'm surprised he would even try to get away with it. I'm English and live in NJ. Many years ago I was in a local park with my young son. There was an English woman with a group of American women holding court and totally exaggerating her Englishness to the max, an they were all hanging off her every word. Super pretentious accent and using way outdated words and phrases like jolly good etc. I deliberately kept my voice down when I spoke to my son and li
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    OP Ponder_wisely Hilarious! My wife says that when Brits first interacted with her at work in NYC and realised she was also a Brit, their accent always seemed to jump up one class!
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    free_ballin_llama Was getting laid. Women in the states aren't well traveled. You can be 300 pounds and have an Australian accent and they'll let you hit it.
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    OP Ponder_wisely It definitely takes you up a few notches for sure. As a friend said, "If you have a British accent and can keep a straight face, you can get away with murder in America!" Dating was very different. In the UK a woman saying yes to a date means she already fancies the person. If you don't you say no. In NYC, women said yes to a date just to give you a shot at convincing her to fancy you! So you had to do much more heavy lifting. The British accent really helped.
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    SlowSupermarket8593 I knew a guy in college that everyone assumed was British. One day while we were drinking he confessed that he just had a speech impediment and sounded sort of british and just rolled with it. Dude was born and raised in Texas. The Texas drawl plus his impediment sounded kinda British.
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    human_person_999 You'd think he'd have a backstory ready to go... or maybe he did but was flustered because you're actually British so decided to just shut up instead.
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    Mariana TrenchBlue This reminds me of a guy I knew in middle school. He joined our school in 8th grade and told everyone he had just moved from Australia. Accent, outback safari clothes, tales of travels from all over, military family that had moved around a lot. Instantly became a little school celebrity. Summer break happens. He comes back with zero accent, denies being from Australia, acts like he has no idea what we're talking about. Finally admits it was all gag that just kept going and goi
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    papayametallica My rugby club went on tour to Texas (I don't know why but the organisers said it was a good idea). There as a crowd of us in a bar in Austin. The locals called us out for our fake British accents. We were quite miffed because we're Welsh. And so the evening progressed with us trying to explain about the relationship between Wales, England and the rest of the UK. It was a long long evening
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employee FAIL coworkers temp British unprofessional funny work stories accent
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