Why Speaking English at Work Is Mentally Exhausting

Most people think international meetings are exhausting because of language level, but that may not be quite right.... In my experience, the real problem is cognitive overload.

When non-native professionals work internationally, they are usually doing at least five things at the same time - listening carefully, translating mentally, monitoring grammar, managing professional image, trying not to interrupt or sound rude, understanding inference, checking tone and inference, and reading between the lines..... while the meeting continues at full speed.

Native speakers often underestimate how much processing is happening in the background. Let's consider a senior engineer, lawyer, consultant or manager. This individual is expected to be completely competent in their chosen field, of course, and still leave a meeting feeling mentally drained after 45 minutes of discussion in English.

Remember that meeting you have been in recently? It was disorganised, unstructured, and perhaps, in your opinion, a huge waste of time.... You may have left that meeting mildly irritated, tired, and now planning to get the later train home from the office this evening.

And now you remember how you felt at the end of the meeting in your native language.

Now imagine that same meeting happening in another language, which incidentally is not a native one for the rest of the attendees, either!

The implications go beyond fatigue. Cognitive overload affects clarity, decision-making, confidence, perceived seniority and even how candidates are evaluated in interviews. Many talented professionals are underestimated, not because they lack ability, but because they are using too much mental bandwidth just to keep up.

This is a really difficult one to overcome, you'll need patience and you'll have to keep working at it.

So, what helps? Structure, predictability, frameworks for high-stakes moments and reduced linguistic friction.

That is a major focus of my work with senior professionals.

Tell me what you think and your experiences of this.

Originally published on LinkedIn →