Management still doesn't know my name

[cubefarmer]

I've been here 11 months and management still can't get my name right. Granted there are 3 of us with the same 1st name in a group of 20, but still. I don't get it. We get each other's mail, people calendar the wrong one, they ping the wrong one, they ask questions of one when it's really another. It's almost a daily thing. There are 2 others in the group who they can't get straight either because those 2 are of the same race and they are the only 2 of that race. Management can't keep their names straight either. I've never worked in a mega-corporation before. Is this normal cuz it's pissing me off.

[Tiny]

I guess it depends -- the guys call each other by their last names - so the 'Davids' become Jones, Smith, and Wesson. No confusion. Even email works ok because their last names start with different letters. The people with the same last name (boys and girls) ie the Patels all have different first names so they get called by their first names - but e:mail is a challenge because some of the first names start with the same first letter - 'C' for instance. If you use an email address shortcut you could wind up emailing the wrong person. The girls with same names can be a problem - it seems uncomfortable to girls to call other girls by their last name and the boys seem find it uncomfortable too... so dealing with the "Jens" and the "Heathers" is weird. We've settled on using last names. Email is a problem since the Jens and Heathers are in Accounting and all the Jens work together and all the Heathers work together and they all have similiar last names so Jen S or Heather B isn't enough to identify who you are talking about.... They often get refered to enmass as the Jens or the Heathers.
My first name is uncommon, but there are 4 of us with this name at work (the ONLY time I've ever met someone else with my name!) all of us go by different 'nick names' ( for example: Liz, Beth, Eliza, Betty) so the name isn't the problem- unfortunately some of our last names start with the same 3 letters so if someone doesn't pay attention to who they are emailing the emails go astray.

I work with alot of people who have foreign sounding names... and have for a long time. In the beginning it was embarrassing to not be able to pronounce a name - but I've found that an apology, a smile, and then asking for help pronouncing it helps. Sometimes a name is just too much of a mouthful and then usually the person with that name has some nickname they are willing to use...
FWIW: At work I get all the ethnic polish/czech/croation names right - you know the names that don't have enough vowels - as I grew up with all those kinds of names. It takes me a little practice to get the Middle Eastern/Indian names to a point that doesn't make the owner of the name cringe... we usually have a good laugh -- Sometimes it's hopeless... there's one guy who's got a name that's about 26 letters long who we all just call Oz.

So what part of your name is the problem? First or Last?
So are you guys with the same name male or female? Guys calling guys by a last name seems normal - I've seen guys avoid calling women by their last names... if you've got a tough name to pronounce can you just make light of it?

[Tiny]

I work for a company with offices in many countries. The US office I work in is very diverse as well.
I would think that a Mega Corporation would want to be accepting of 'diversity' as it could be seen as adding 'power' to company as a whole.... but hey that's just me and my experience of corporate culture...

[Apple]

When I started there was another girl that started at the same time (15 of us hired, 3 female, blue-collar type job). I'm a blonde, the other girl was a redhead. We were the same height, but she outweighed me by 50 lbs or so. She was outgoing and LOUD, I'm shy and very quiet. After about 3 months everyone would come grab her and say "I've heard what a great worker you are, come help us with this". This was whenever they wanted to let one of "the trainees" help. Pissed me off because all she did was stand around and talk all day, it was me and the others that would get the work done. Found out about 6 months or so later (so I'd been working there for 9 months) when the boss walked up to me and asked "how is --other girl's name here-- doing today?" I was in a bad mood and said, "I don't know, why don't you go ask her." That's when he figured out there were TWO of us. Before then, every time someone asked "what's that girls name, she was working her ass off" he'd give them her name. Things got better for me after that, but not by much so I chose to work somewhere else when my training was completed. She dropped out of the program the second year because she couldn't cut it.

[cubefarmer]

Yeah this isn't a diversity thing. We are essentially "Jennifers" - very common American female first name. Two have the same middle name and same last name/first initial. The third has a last name that starts with a different letter. The two Asian girls they can't keep straight have American type first names. No one in management takes the time to learn our names. I was there 10 months before they even realized I was one of the Jennifers. They called me the name of the woman who started the same day I did. It's just so odd. I've never encountered this before. I have worked in places with people with the same name, but people knew Heather Smith from Heather Jones. These people calendar another Jennifer and look right at the calendar entry and say, "I calendared you - see it's right there" and I have to say, "I'm not Jennifer Jones. I'm Jennifer Williams!"

[Apple]

cube--some people just don't pay attention or don't care enough to bother. For a long time I was one of TWO women working in my current building/job area. The other one had been here for over 20 years and worked in a different crew. It was still a year or more before some of the bosses knew my name. Most of the guys on the crew learned it within the first couple months, but even some of them couldn't remember my name half the time. I don't get it either. Most new people think I'm an office girl--you'd think the hard hat, steel toed boots, tool bag and work clothes would give it away.

[buster]

Based on your username "cubefarmer", don't you have your name posted near your desk or on a wall somewhere? If not, create a little plaque and display it. I'd imagine it won't be too long before people start getting your name right.

[Tiny]

No one in management takes the time to learn our names.

There's the problem. Along time ago after I graduated college and got my first real job - I had trouble with my name. My mother insisted that everyone call me by my full name - Jennifer lets say. My friends shortened it to Jen (cause if they called me Jenny my mom would correct them!). My brothers (I assume to annoy my mom) stared calling me Fern... don't ask I don't understand it either. So, I get a real job and I introduce myself: "Hi! I'm Jennifer Last Name that's not pronounced how it's spelled". The response always thru me for a loop - I'd get "Hi Jenny! I'm Bob Smith" or "Hi Winny (as is in Winifred??) I'm Mary Pat Jones" or "Hi Nifer! I'm Bill". I'd often stop and so "No, it's Jennifer or Jen" which was followed by "Oh, OK, Jenny". If someone introduced (or was introduced) to me as "Robert" I'd call them Robert - not Bob or Rob or Bert.
I got tired of correcting people over and over and over and since I don't respond to "Jenny, Winny, Nifer" and since people in the same office were calling me different things! I started saying my name was Fern...
I always found that weird. I'm old now and it still happens.... often. I started using 'Jenifer' again in introductions and it gets shortened to who knows what - I do correct the person twice and then give up. It's created some confusion at work and in my personal life - mostly amusing to me and the people who name me correctly who know my 'problem'. I'm like a spy with lots of alias-es.

[Tiny]

No one in management takes the time to learn our names.

A solution might be - when someone comes over and calls you Winny - jump in immediately and say 'oh, I'm Jen'. If they keep it up after you get called the wrong name you can jump in immediately with "Who? I don't know that person!" I've done that. Talk about making someone instantly uncomfortable and embarrassed....

[TD2K]

My mother insisted that everyone call me by my full name - Jennifer lets say. My friends shortened it to Jen (cause if they called me Jenny my mom would correct them!). My brothers (I assume to annoy my mom) stared calling me Fern...

LOL on your brothers

So, I get a real job and I introduce myself: "Hi! I'm Jennifer Last Name that's not pronounced how it's spelled". The response always thru me for a loop - I'd get "Hi Jenny! I'm Bob Smith" or "Hi Winny (as is in Winifred??) I'm Mary Pat Jones" or "Hi Nifer! I'm Bill". I'd often stop and so "No, it's Jennifer or Jen" which was followed by "Oh, OK, Jenny".

I don't get that. If someone 'corrects' me and says in effect not to abbreviate their name, I definitely try to use what they want. It's your name, who am I to change it? I use my second name and I get asked not infrequently why I don't use my first name? I tell them to talk to my mother , she's the one who preferred my second name and used it and everyone followed along.

[Apple]

Lol, TD. I dated a guy once who HATED his first name (got him beat up a lot as a kid). He didn't have a middle name so he made one up. Started putting it on everything instead of his real name and eventually it became his legal middle name. I don't think he ever paid to change it though, he just started using it and it's on his driver's license and everything. Post 9-11 I doubt you could do this, but he did it years and years ago. No one knows his real name until they try to send him an email, his new name shows as his middle name on that.

[TD2K]

LOL. I've just finished getting all my frequent flier plans and credit cards updated to my legal name because of the hassles with Homeland Security wanting everything to match.

If my name was Dick Richard Smith, I had credit cards for Richard Smith, Richard D Smith, D Richard Smith, etc. The current systems simply assume that everyone uses their first name. Some want your second name, others just your second initial.

[qofcc]

There is another girl in my office with the same first name and her last name starts with the same letter. I've been with the company almost 9 years and she's been there longer. We still occasionally get e-mails addressed to each other. Not as much as when we worked in the same department, but I got 3 last week. I get the fact that it's a large company and there are people we don't know well and they're excused, but the other day I got an e-mail from a co-worker we both know very well saying she appreciated the invitation but she won't be able to meet me at the gym at lunch. I wrote back that since I've never been to the gym at lunch and I didn't invite her, I assume she meant the other girl. She did, and she apologized, but sheesh, this is annoying.

[Elizabeth]

People call me by my initials or my first letter and last name. Some people just call me E. I started that trend because I sign all of my e-mails with my initials, because writing out "Elizabeth" after typing an e-mail is a PITA.

[Wisconsin Beth]

"No one in management takes the time to learn our names. I was there 10 months before they even realized I was one of the Jennifers. They called me the name of the woman who started the same day I did"

Do you have a lot of turnover there? Are the bosses just lazy?

Personally, I truly suck at remembering names. But I make an effort to those who reported to me and those I work with.

[thyme4change]

When I worked at a mega-corp the management was so far removed if one of them walked past me and called me Jen, Jenny or even Ralph - I would have been so excited to have even a scrap of attention that I wouldn't have bothered to correct them with my real name.

I'm sure someone knew my name - but I'm not really sure who it was. When they moved my position to India the elimnated position was marked "Financial Analyst #2" on the chart.

[soon2bmomof3]

I have a coworker with the same problem. He actually has the same first and last name as someone else, on the same project, different departments. The only difference is their middle names.

I also have another coworker that started at the company a few years after his female cousin did (30 years ago) and back then it wasn't a big deal b/c they were at different offices. But when the started using email, our company made our email addresses first initial, middle initial and so many letters of the last name (up to 6). They had the same letter for their first names, same for middle and short last names, so his cousin was [e-mail] and he was [e-mail] and the would get each others emails all the time. He finally got IT to give him a new email address with a different format.

For abbrieviated names, I also go by what people have on their emails or voicemail (if I've never met the person). So if your voicemail says "Hi, you have reached Bob (instead of Robert) Smith", that's how I'll greet you.

[thyme4change]

soon2b - certainly the voicemail trick is great. I can only think of one exception. I knew a guy that went by "Dick" for a long, long time - but then he decided that word just isn't a great name - so he put Richard on everything - emails, voicemails, etc. But, we all still called him Dick to his face. I think that was a special case. He responded to both - and we all knew why.

[CarolinaKat]

Well there was another person on my project with the same first name. She has since been fired, but that's irrelevant.

The 'guys' would call me "Lizzie" and her "Elisabeth" even though I go by "Elisabeth" and she GOES BY "LIZZIE." I spent forever trying to correct this because I hate the shortening of my actual name. So one day I asked them why do you call "Lizzie" "Elisabeth"?

The answer: "We don't like her enough to call her a nickname. She's too D@&% prissy. We like you, so you're our Lizzie."

It doesn't bother me as much now. Although it still bugs me when other people do it.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Apr 4, 2011 11:25:39 GMT -5 @soon2bmomof3 said:

I also have another coworker that started at the company a few years after his female cousin did (30 years ago) and back then it wasn't a big deal b/c they were at different offices. But when the started using email, our company made our email addresses first initial, middle initial and so many letters of the last name (up to 6). They had the same letter for their first names, same for middle and short last names, so his cousin was [e-mail] and he was [e-mail] and the would get each others emails all the time. He finally got IT to give him a new email address with a different format.

We continue to use the standard formula but we create an alias in your account and tell you that it's your account. Microsoft actually makes it really easy to do this with Outlook. I can't speak for any other product though.

[thyme4change]

We had two people with the same name and they made their outlook name specify their title or department.

Joe Smith, CFO
Joe Smith, Brand Manager

[simser]

My problem isn't that my name is unusual (because I suspect it's the same as yours!), but I work in a place where there are no Americans. So I introduce myself by one nickname, and people call me whatever they can handle. Some people can only do what's on my name tag (so my full name which I hate), some people call me by another nickname, and some just make stuff up. But you can't appear too OCD in my life so I just live with it.

My bigger problem is learning everyone else's name. They all have their name, and then nicknames that don't have ANY correlation to their real name, or English names, or what they think are English names. I work with one guy who has a Chinese name, and then his nickname means "big head" in Chinese. Right I'll remember that... Another guy went by the nickname Kelvin (like the temperature scale) thinking it was Kevin.