Employee pretends to be British at work, gets caught out when office hires British temp: 'Who knows why he was pretending?'

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Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Dec 20, 2025 12:00 PM EST

Lying on a resume is common practice, but lying about the country you're from is a little more unique.

While some might question the ethics of it, it is understandable that someone might inflate their qualifications and experience somewhat to try to give themselves an edge in the ever-competitive job market. No one can prove your 6-month stint as a manager at Blockbuster was actually a gap in employment history, anyway.

However, spending two minutes of an interview convincingly fleshing out a lie is quite different from spending your entire stint of employment pretending to be somebody you're not. Presumably, it is not something anyone would do without having a good reason for it. Putting on the performance of being a happy, productive employee can be taxing enough without adding some extra spice into the mix. That is a lot of stress to live under, not least if the job is already stressful. 

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  • two men shake hands in a meeting room as a woman observes them
    via Curated Lifestyle (Unsplash+)

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

  • Significantly changing how you speak every time you talk at work has to be a lot of effort, but that is exactly what one man suspected of his coworker at a temp job he was doing. A British man, he was working in offices in New York, and when the woman doing his induction realized his nationality, she wanted to introduce him to another British person working there.

    However, when he met this supposed Brit, he felt it was obvious that he was faking the accent. He wasn't sure why this was the case, but he kept quiet about it nonetheless. He shared the story.

  • 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. 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
    via Ponder_wisely
  • Mark." RIGHT away I suspected he was faking his British accent! I said "Whereabouts Im England 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
    via Ponder_wisely
  • the union jack flag
    via Wesley Tingey (Unsplash+)
  • that 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 never spoke on it. He had that part right: That's SO the British way.
    via Ponder_wisely
  • My last day, Mark walked up to me, shook my hand firmly, and said "Cheers matey, you're a top bloke." Which roughly translates into 'thanks a lot friend, you're a very decent fellow." I smiled and winked.
    via Ponder_wisely
  • two computer monitors opposite each other with a city skyline in the background outside the window
    via Saniye NEBİOGLU
  • wrhnj Faking a British accent seems like a lot of hard work just to hook up with some office hotties.
    via wrhnj
  • OP Ponder_wisely Yeah, my hunch is he was using someone else's employment authorisation and they were from the UK, so...
    via Ponder_wisely
  • wrhnj So I'm guessing you don't think he's American either.
    via wrhnj
  • OP Ponder_wisely No. Definitely not. If I had to guess I'd say he was Indian or Pakistani.
    via Ponder_wisely
  • 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
    via No-One-8850
  • OP Ponder_wisely Hilarious! My wife says that when British clients first interacted with her at work in NYC and realised she was also a Brit, their accent always seemed to jump up one class!
    via Ponder_wisely
  • Touch-Tiny One thing you could never accuse the venerable Dick Van Dyke of is deceiving people into believing he was a British Cockney!
    via Touch-Tiny
  • OP Ponder_wisely EVER!
    via Ponder_wisely
  • LONE_ARMADILLO I have encountered a few Indian and Pakistani guys that had sort of a British accent. I always thought it was because they learned English from a language program from England, not the USA and that is why they had the accent.
    via LONE_ARMADILLO
  • OP Ponder_wisely He didn't just have a fake British accent, he'd told them he was from England. But he didn't know anything about England. Acted stumped when I asked him which part he was from.
    via Ponder_wisely
  • AwaliBahrain not sure if your taking the piss??? if not you need to get a hold of Guy Richie and make that "jackanory" into a film matey!!!
    via AwaliBahrain
  • OP Ponder_wisely Every word is true. I'd need my sister's permission. We stopped talking when she stole my mum's house and emptied the bank accounts after mum died!
    via Ponder_wisely

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