I’ve actually tried some cases involving that issue and it’s very dangerous territory, because an accent is in the ear of the beholder. Some people have very easy times understanding accents. Others don’t. And unless it is a very clear problem you should stay away from it or you should try to coach the person or give them some additional training to improve the accent before you take any sort of radical action, but it’s, you’re treading on thin ice if you’re firing somebody because somebody can’t understand the accent.

Then you have to show that it is absolutely job required. You are on, you know, one of these call centers that you’re at the front desk of the phone company – the wireless phone company and you’re interacting with customers. And you have to weed out those people who have issues because somebody might be from a foreign country and just using that as an excuse to be difficult or complain.