Getting people's name wrong is an inevitable part of life; like toast landing buttered side down, or tripping up in front of that guy you like. It's bound to happen, but hopefully not all the time.
Jessica is one of those names I suppose. I mean, as much as I hate being called Jennifer I suppose I can see it from their perspective. Jessica and Jennifer sound a lot a like. More so than Jeremy and Andrew and I always get those two names messed up.
When I first started working at this job there was a guy who I had to e-mail a few times about forms and such and despite that my name is at the bottom of the e-mail and even is the e-mail address, he would right back, "Jennifer," and go on with his message. It always just gave me a laugh because sometimes his e-mails weren't replies, so he would have had to type in my name in outlook to get it to come up. How many times must he have seen "Jessica" but still put "Jennifer"? The sad thing is, I always took it personal because it was usually after I had to ask him to fill out another form or to do something else. So, I felt like that was my punishment for being a pain to him. I think one of his coworkers finally informed him that he'd been calling me the wrong name and now he just doesn't talk to me.
Last night I went to play basketball (as I do every Thursday night) and there were three or four new people there. So we spent the first game trying to remember who was on our team and what their names were. At one point I made a basket (I know, I was just as surprised) and one of the new guys on my team was like, "Leslie?" and I shook my head (may or may not have made a face because where did that come from?) and corrected him. Then he said my name and that it was a good shot. Later I was guarding someone because I thought we were playing man but it turns out we were playing zone and I heard him but didn't connect when he kept telling Leslie to go to the bottom left of the key. I was the only girl on the team so I should have picked up on it, but Leslie isn't my name so it didn't get any type of reaction from me. I turned for some reason and we made eye contact and that's when it hit him, I'm not Leslie. He profusely apologized, but there really wasn't a need, at this point in time I didn't even know his name so why should he feel bad for at least trying to learn mine? Maybe I remind him of a Leslie that he knew once upon a time.
There were only two girls playing last night, so my favorite part was when someone (see how goo I am at remembering people's names?) told Erica to "guard the girl in green." to which I said, "That's me!" But Erica didn't hear that and she was reminded one more time to guard the girl in green and she laughed and said that she didn't catch that. I told her I was the only other girl, and she said all she heard was green so she was looking for people in green (there were two of us) and I thought that maybe they should have said, "Guard the girl!" But whatever.
Then today at work I passed by one of the girls and talked to her for a little bit and ten minutes later she called me to report a problem with the doors and she said, "Janet." I was confused but pretended I didn't hear her and went on with the conversation. We don't even have a Janet on payroll, so who knows where that came from. Aside from the fact that I've known her for over a year and she's always gotten my name right.
Just random. That and I'm trying to kill the last hour of work, thanks for putting up with me for this long. Only half an hour to go until the weekend starts!
4 comments:
Wow Jennifer, Janet or Leslie, you pick.... that was pretty funny. I think the only name (that's not mine) I've really been called was Julie which is pretty annoying since my name is Julia, so I totally feel your pain. I don't get really out of left field names though, that's gotta be pretty amusing and annoying at the same time. I think being good with names is a talent, either you have it or you don't, I have it, my husband does not.
I can't tell you how many times I am called Merideth or Margaret. Just yesterday I was at the dentist and the receptionist went in the back and told the dental assistant that her patient was here. She said, "Margaret?" The receptionist corrected her and so when she came out to get me she just pointed and me and then waved me to the back. (I guess she couldn't remember my name, but knew whatever she was going to call me was wrong).
Now see, y'all have complicated names, so I might understand the confusion on the part of some people. When people can't get "Ed" right, that's just sad. Years ago when I worked at MetLife as a Security Guard at the employee entrance, there was one guy who never got my name right. I corrected him every day for the first couple of months, but after that I just started answering to whatever he called me. That went on for a year and a half. On my last day on the job, I was standing there with my supervisor, and he walked in and said "Hello (pick a name) and I answered to it. My supervisor said "Wait, his name's Ed." They guy replies "Really? Why didn't you ever tell me?" I didn't bother to explain.
And let's not forget my 7 years at Chase Paymentech. There was an entire group of people that thought my name was "Don Brosky". Same thing as you, Jess. They had to find my e-mail address in the address book, but they would always start the e-mail calling me "Don". I actually had a new nameplate made for my desk. It read "Don Brosky- Agent of Evil." I would change it out with my real one depending on my mood.
I have no idea what you are talking about because I thought your name was D, I am still taken aback calling you that J word. Maybe you should try that go back to D, D it worked once it can work again.
But I feel ya, I HATE being called Casey, Cathy comes in a far way second, I get Cathy.
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