DEAR DEIDRE: My colleagues hate my accent and pressurise me about my political views because they know I voted to leave when it came to the Brexit vote.
I’m a woman of 30 and I’m half Australian, half British.
I hold dual citizenship but I spent a lot of my formative years in Australia until my mother wanted to come back to the UK for family reasons. I went to university here in the UK.
I work for the NHS as a nurse and I take a mild interest in politics. I didn’t like reading about the EU links to Russia and the amount of money it was costing the UK taxpayer to be part of it, so I voted ‘leave’.
My colleagues all found out after I’d mentioned it to one friend not long after the vote.
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Now I’m constantly pushed on whether I’d vote to be back in the EU given the chance.
My colleagues often mock my accent too although I regard myself now as very much a British citizen.
Some friends ignore me now but they talked to me before Brexit.
I’m beginning to think I should leave the NHS and find a job where nobody knows my political views.
DEIDRE SAYS: I’m not surprised. This particular vote has split opinions everywhere but it’s nobody else’s business how you voted or what you’d do if you could cast that vote again.
It would be sad for us to lose another NHS nurse, so think very carefully about whether a change of career would be right for you.
My support pack which teaches assertiveness skills will show you how to reply to these colleagues pressing you for your political persuasion and how best to move the subject on.
Where your accent is concerned, Stop Hate (www.stophateuk.org, tel: 0113 293 5100) can help. They work to challenge all forms of discrimination, based on any aspect of an individual’s identity.
