What are you basing that on? It’s not rude to be identified by a name tag anymore than it’s rude to be identified by getting someone’s name from any other means. Just because you don’t like it, doesn’t make it rude.
rude
/ro͞od/
Adjective
Offensively impolite or ill-mannered: "she had been rude to her boss".
Referring to a taboo subject such as sex in a way considered improper and offensive: "he made a rude gesture".
Synonyms
rough - coarse - crude - impolite - uncivil - rugged
It’s an uninvited intimacy. We have not been introduced. I certainly did not introduce myself. And many people who call you your name from your tag are doing it as a tiny little threat.
It is counter intuitive, but it is rude to call a person in the service industry by their name if you aren’t on a first name basis with the person. The proper etiquette is to say. “May I call you John?” before saying their name.
I am not sure if that applies to coworkers though or people you work along with. I would imagine it does unless the person being named is a subordinate (doctor and tech, pilot and stewardess, etc.)
I’ve heard that using an employees name, taken from their nametag, is a good way to get them to think you’re a secret shopper - if that’s something you’re going for.
This is Bizarro-world. Name tags are there for the very purpose of giving customers the ability to use their names without asking.
Just like your bed sheets maybe, but not like mine.
I thought I was the only one who thought this way!!
Its just a matter of asking first. I don’t call anybody by their first name without some introduction. Work or no work.
What do you mean by this?
“I’m sorry, I can’t let you do that…” “May I speak to your supervisor, ZSOFIA?”
Depends on the context of course. But I could see if you’re having a somewhat contentious exchange with a customer and they suddenly start calling you by your name, how that could be perceived as a veiled threat to report you to your supervisor.
Kind of like when a driver asks for a cop’s police number. The implication is that they are going to file a complaint against them.
If you’re wearing a name tag with your name on it, I am free to use it. Otherwise, what is the very point of walking around with your name on your name tag?
I do it from time to time: “Thanks Muffy!”
You need to eat more Smurf ice cream.
I think she means, in general people don’t address service workers by a first name in service encounters, except in conjunction with a threat.
As in, “won’t take my coupon, we’ll see what your manager has to say about that… BOB.”
Edited to recall: I worked a service job in which there was a sort of house rule that you couldn’t have more than one person with the same name. If there were doubles, one got to choose a pseudonym. The idea is that if a customer mentions speaking to “jane” that can only refer to one person. I can’t say if it was helpful to management or not, but it was kind of fun having a secret identity.
In part yes. All in all I will take my shitty uniform today over the stresses and pressures of the finance world gladly. I am in training to be a respiratory therapist and once that is done, it will grey scrubs and that’s that. But that will be a while.
Anyway, as far as you’re concerned my name is Ms. Zsofia. I feel we lost a lot of respect from the library patrons with this whole first name thing. This is the South; you call teachers and librarians and people at the very least by Miss Firstname.
(Yes, you probably are nasty. This is a public library, everybody’s nasty.)
It’s a term specific to medicine, just like the Oxford Comma is a term specific to grammar, and the Oxford Colon is a term specific to both.
Then shouldn’t your name tag say “Ms. Zsofia” as opposed to “Muffy?” It’s not my fault if I call you by the name you’re publicly displaying.
Name tags exist to identify the employees AS employees, and not other customers, and also so that a customer can identify an individual employee. They exist as a way of trying to promote a friendly, more personalized atmosphere as a third benefit. That’s what I was taught in college business classes, and it’s also what I’ve learned in working retail.
If you have two women who work in the same department, and both have long black hair and are about the same height, if a customer has a problem with one of them, then if the customer complains and mentions the name, the employee is far more likely to be disciplined.
This is also why restaurants started requiring their servers to introduce themselves by name…so that if a diner has a complaint, s/he knows just which server brought out the wrong dish, or spilled ice tea all over Grandpa, or whatever.
Look, I didn’t make the policy. When we were asked what we wanted on our name tags I asked for “Bites When Provoked”.
As far as I’m concerned, service people are named “Excuse me” or “Ma’am”.