“Code Switching Is Exhausting”: Man Records Co-Worker Using His "Office Voice," Then His Real One

How you conduct yourself largely depends on the situation that you're in. At your bachelor party, taking your pants off and wearing them as a scarf is considered par for the course, as is maybe giving beer to the donkey that your friend thought would be a good idea to hang out with.

(Now take another party scenario — an 8-year-old's celebration complete with a petting zoo — and that would be frowned upon heavily, unless this was happening on an island somewhere with some members of the United States government.)

This same type of situational-appropriate behavior also applies to work, something that TikToker Jay Will (@jwilltheproducer) demonstrated with a recording of a co-worker who was on a phone with a client utilizing his customer service voice.

The stark contrast between the man's tone while speaking with a client and the one he uses when he speaks with Jay is cracking up folks on the popular social media app.

"Work voice vs. real voice," a text overlay in the video reads, which begins with the cam-op leaving what looks like an office space room into a hallway. A man wearing a headset leaning against a wall and reading from a sheet of paper can be heard talking to someone who is presumably a client.

His tone is nasally in nature — he enunciates his words to such an extreme that it creates a comic effect: "This a whole life policy and you can keep it as long as you want and never have your rates increased. Now last thing and very important, if any other agent calls you fishing for information, just let them know that you're now insured, OK?"

He occasionally looks up toward the camera every once in a while as he delivers his spiel while he speaks to the client: "All righty now some people in this industry are very unethical, they just wanna sell ya [a] cheap plan that pays the highest commissions, not genuinely helping. So remember the customer service that you receive from your final expense company is just as important as the prices."

The employee, still holding the sheet of paper, continues to give his piece that he reads off of the paper: "Remember I have worked with all the major carriers in your state, and a lot of things are changing with insurance and out of everything you're approved for this is by far the most affordable policy that will not lose value and not raise price."

He goes on to speak to the customer on the other line: "Now I wanna give you a confirmation number for your protection, let me know when you're ready."

After flipping up his headset and looking to the camera man, the person off-camera recording the interaction asks: "Talk in your normal voice."

"What happened?" the worker states, a deeper, gruffer baritone echoing in the hallway. "Oh really you recording me," he says, smiling as the camera man laughs like Muttley from behind the lens.

Jay's co-worker holds his hand up in the air as if to signal that he should keep quiet and that he needs to tend to the client's needs on the call before the video ultimately cuts out.

Plenty of people have discussed the phenomena of "customer service voice," like on Chappelle's Show when the comic highlighted how in a "When Keepin' It Real Goes Wrong" segment a man is fired after acting entirely like himself, unfiltered, while on the clock.

Trengo also discussed the importance of adopting a customer service voice/tone while interfacing with clients: "The tone of voice in customer service refers to how you say things and what they make your customers feel. You could use a professional, authoritative tone and make your customers feel taken care of, or you could be casual and friendly so your customers feel comfortable and relaxed."

The website showed how tone can positively affect a customer's outlook on a company, even via text communications. The website highlighted how someone called out Pringles on social media, showing how their potato chips weren't evenly dusted on a recent purchase.

Instead of clinically sending a link to a customer for assistance, whoever sent out the reply tweet online wrote back "ugh sorry about that." Trengo highlighted that such a simple, humanizing three letter word, in context of the reply, culminated in an expert demonstration of what a classy customer service interaction should look like.

Folks who responded to Jay's TikTok video were impressed with the way his co-worker was able to switch it up, with one person thinking he should pursue a career in voice acting: "I thought my code switch was good. He should do voice acting."

Someone else said that folks who master the customer service voice are able to secure more money at their respective jobs if they can perfect it: "That voice will clear you an extra 30k a year, you better perfect it."