What’s the protocol with nametags? If someone (say, in a shop or restaurant) is wearing a nametag with their first name on it, is it polite to use that name when talking to them?
I’ve always felt a bit uncomfortable doing that…I mean, we haven’t been introduced or anything and they don’t know my name. It always seems to me to be a bit rude to call a perfect stranger by their first name. Then again, what other reasons would there be for wearing a nametag?
The other reason for wearing a nametag is because your employer is forcing you to in an effort to appear friendly. Also, says the cynic, so the customer has your name when they complain that you weren’t nice enough to them.
Speaking personally as someone who is forced to wear a nametag at work… I don’t really get pissed off if somebody calls me by my first name, but I prefer it when they don’t. I’d rather be called “miss” or “ma’am.” If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have my first name on my badge. I like to keep my first name as something for my friends and more intimate acquaintances to use. I compromise by using the full form of my name on the badge, and allowing my friends to call me by a shortened nickname.
I don’t get to know your name, so I don’t want you to use mine. Then again, even when I am told the customer’s name, I don’t like to use it - it just seems disrespectful to leap to a first-name basis with a complete stranger, thirty seconds into your first meeting.
I am, I think, a very reserved customer service representative. I call everyone “sir” or “ma’am” and act as respectfully as possible. More friendly CSRs, the type who are more towards the “friendly” end of the spectrum as opposed to the “strictly respectful” (you can be both, and I try ot be, but I am very much on the “respect” end and not as friendly as I could be - it’s not in my nature)… anyway, the more friendly, ebullient ones could be called by their first names. You can generally tell from the way they act towards you.
My rule of thumb is not to use the name because it’s safer that way.
When I waited tables I never had a problem with people calling me by the name on my name-tag. But, then, it was never my real name.
I started doing this because I worked 2 jobs (both serving) and only lived in the town for a few months. So I met a lot of people all at once, and I had a hard time keeping them straight. When Sami was on my name tag, and someone called me Sami, I was never really sure if it was someone I had actually met, or just a stranger who could read. So, I became Alice (as in “you can have anything you want…”) at one place and Betty (just because) at the other.That way, anyone calling me Alice or Betty was a customer, and anyone calling me Sami was an acquainence.
As far as calling others by their first names, I don’t do it unless it’s a place I frequent and they’ve worked there for a while. If it’s someone I’ll never see again then it’s “Sir” or “Ma’am.”
That’s how I feel. I’m not really angry that someone I don’t know and haven’t been introduced to uses my name, but I’m not really happy/comfortable about it either.
huh…see, I actually make an effort to use the person’s name when they’re waiting on me. Because I was taught that it’s impolite not to. They’re a person not a nameless automan there to serve me. However, they are there to wait on me, so I don’t think it’s proper for them to use my first name. Much the same was as the Director of Operations will call me “Kris”, but he’s always “Sir” from me.
When I’m working at Target, I hate it when people use my name. If I don’t know the person, I certainly don’t want him or her calling me by my first name. It’s uncomfortable, especially since I’m called Mr. S or Mr. Myfulllastname at my other job (substitute teaching). I guess it might be a power thing, looking at it like that.
Oh well, five more months of Target, but it’s been five and a half years too long!
It could have been because the customers at the store I worked at were particularly rude and patronizing, and I found their use of my first name - when we hadn’t been introduced - to intensify these effects.
It’s a power thing: you know my name but I don’t know yours. You have the advantage over me. And since you already have the advantage over me because you could get me fired with a quick word to my manager, I don’t really need it pounded into me all the time, as you shrilly wave your hand and call my first name as if you are a friend of mine.
Also there’s the fact that often the pronunciation of a first name isn’t obvious from reading it, and having your name massacred by someone who is trying to get your attention because they don’t think they need to wait in line is particularly unpleasant. You know that they don’t care how your name is pronounced, and if you try to correct them you are, in a way, authorizing them to use it.
When I worked at a movie theater at 16 years old, the only people who insisted on using my name were yuppie scumbags who wanted to humiliate me in front of their dates. It generally produced in me the urge to gouge out their eyeballs.
I never use the full version of my first name and I never have unless it’s a legal document. If you call me by that name I’ll assume you’re talking to someone else.
I don’t have to wear a nametag anymore, but at the employer from hell, we were required to shake hands with the customer (BAD IDEA… I get sick easily) and get their name and call them by it at least three times.
I quit that job. That was just one of the reasons.
I never call people by their names, even if I know them intimately. My boy is Hon or Babe. I rarely call him by his name.
When I worked at a restaurant down the street from my house, I hated it when customers would call me by my name because I was never sure if they were reading it off my nametag or if they were parents of a person from school that I may have met at one point or something else. It made things awkward. I always called customers “Sir”, “Miss”, or “Ma’am”. (Which was also awkward at one point when I called a rather butch-looking woman “sir”. In fairness, I was looking at her back at the time…)
I would prefer that a customer, a cashier, or anybody whom I don’t know and have not been introduced call me “Miss,” (or Miss Lastname, when appropriate). I don’t like being called Ma’am because it seems to me that should be for older women (I was 17 working at that restaurant and occasionally getting called ‘Ma’am’), although I know that can be a tough line to draw – I generally stick to miss unless the woman is obviously married or a generation or two older than me.
For awhile at my workplace here in the library they wanted us to thank anyone who checked out a book, by their first name which was on their library card. I refused to do it, and everyone I asked (I started a thread about it here, too) said they would be totally uncomfortable with that and would not want someone to do it to them, and the policy was quickly dropped.
Gee, it appears we have a consensus here! I always hated it as well. When I worked at McDonalds, employees would frequently switch tags with each other, and I especially enjoyed switching tags with a male person (I am a female person) so that the jerks trying to hit on me in the drive-thru would right away see that they were not getting the real name. (Also they probably thought I had a boyfriend somewhere in the vicinity.)
Agreed. I always hate it when a store clerk says “Thank you, Firstname” after swiping my credit card. Especially when they’re young enough to be my grandchild.
My comments pretty much echo what cowgirl said, very patronizing at best. I used to work at OfficeMax and before that, at Burger King. One time a customer at OM must have been able to tell that I was mildly annoyed by his calling me by my name, so just to be a jackass, throughout our entire conversation he spoke my name with every question and comment. “So tell me, dwc, how much RAM does this computer have?” dwc, what do you know about the software that comes installed with it? Who do I call, dwc, if I need to get it repaired?" On and on and on… The only ones I didn’t mind calling me by my name were the regular customers whose names I also knew. I’ve never called a store or restaurant employee by his or her name unless I got to know the person through repeated visits.