Employer insisting on name change

FBaby

I don't think this is odd at all. I am guessing this is a customer service dealing with people on the phone. The reason for everyone having a different name would be for customers to know who they've spoken to so they can either ask to speak to them again, or know they want to complain about.

Saves the:
'Hi, I'd like to speak to the manager, Sarah was supposed to call me back three times and still I haven't heard from her'
'Which Sarah would that be?'
'I don't know, just Sarah'
'Did she give you a surname?'
' I don't know, I can't remember, just that she was Sarah. It was Friday at 3pm, surely you can find out who it is?'
'Sorry Madam but there are 15 Sarah's working in our department, so it will be very difficult to know who it was. Don't worry, we'll investigate and call you back'

Sox77

Years ago I worked in a sales environment where this was enforced. No one seemed to mind really but I (luckily the only Sox) always thought it must be really hard to remember to answer to your new chosen name... the reasoning behind it was because it was such a fast paced office with phones constantly ringing, if you had to pass a call you could do it straight away; if you had to shout across the office everyone would know who you wanted; and you wouldn't have to give out surnames.... I actually thought about changing mine in the office because it rhymed with the person I sat next to so was sometimes confusing... but I wanted to be Gemma and then a Gemma joined so I gave up

Sox77

PS where I work now I am one of five people with the same name, and one of the others has the same surname as me before I got married - that was a bit weird when I first started because for a moment when I saw her desk I thought I'd put my previous name on the application!

hcb42

I would quit before I would agree to this, it is downright disrespectful and if the company owners think like this I spell trouble ahead.

I once worked in an office of 8 where 3 of us had the same name, including me. It wasnt a problem

Where I currently work, we have had 2 Jens 2 Bens 2 Helens in a team of 8 - again no problem

I also worked for a guy (in a major desirable brand!!) who suggested we use fake names, when we had a duplication of forename in the sales team of 8. Apart from telling him making up christian names would never happen on my watch, this lack of respect manifested itself majorly in other ways.

Your name is your name and if the company does not respect that - time for another job!!

SeduLOUs

FBaby wrote: »

I don't think this is odd at all. I am guessing this is a customer service dealing with people on the phone. The reason for everyone having a different name would be for customers to know who they've spoken to so they can either ask to speak to them again, or know they want to complain about.

Saves the:
'Hi, I'd like to speak to the manager, Sarah was supposed to call me back three times and still I haven't heard from her'
'Which Sarah would that be?'
'I don't know, just Sarah'
'Did she give you a surname?'
' I don't know, I can't remember, just that she was Sarah. It was Friday at 3pm, surely you can find out who it is?'
'Sorry Madam but there are 15 Sarah's working in our department, so it will be very difficult to know who it was. Don't worry, we'll investigate and call you back'

In those circumstances it could make some sense, but I understand that in this instance the 'fake' name is to be used all of the time in the work environment, not just when dealing with customers.

There are ways and means of identifying who customers spoke to. Telephone systems that staff log into with a unique ID. Customer file systems that keep audit trails of who has accessed the notes. People giving out their full name, or first name and last initial, or a call reference number, or their ID number, or anything else unique.

Asking people to adopt a new name is frankly ridiculous and just a lazy policy when there are plenty of other viable solutions.

What if a new starter chooses the name "Zoe" because she can't use her own name, but 6 months later a person actually called Zoe joins the company. Who gets to be called Zoe then? Does the fake Zoe get to keep it because she had it first, or does the real Zoe get to have it now and the old fake Zoe has to pick yet another name?

How long after someone leaves does their name become available again? What if I take the name 'Emma' but then 6 months down the line it transpires that someone called Emma made a right mess up of a customer order. How will they know if that was me, or the person who was called Emma before me?

Ridiculous, confusing, unnecessary, and makes me wonder what other bizarre policies they have up their sleeve. I wouldn't be hanging around to find out.

dacouch

Mista_C wrote: »

If they really want to enforce this I'd be adamant that my name on all company literature is to be Adolf.

I'd chose Ronnie Pickering as my name

welshbookworm

I'd say my name was Hathrylithoedd.
It means Genius in Welsh

theoretica

If a company is going down the route of enforcing alibis it seems only fair that noone should get to use their own name, including the directors.

Nick_C

Perhaps its a way of weeding out people whose personality doesn't match the profile the company are looking for.

I would happily use whatever name my employer wanted me to use. But then I am a co-operative member of staff, have no problem complying with reasonable rules, and don't tell my bosses how they should run their business (unless they ask for my advice).

I've had to implement policies and practices that I don't personally agree with throughout my working life.

Mrs_Ryan

When I used to work for a certain large energy company, we discovered there was another lady with the exact same first and surname working in another department. This caused a logistical nightmare with email addresses so we thoight middle initials. Turned out she had exactly the same middle name as me as well!!! :eek: I have two middle initials so it did go to that and luckily she worked in the other building on the customer facing lines and I did back office billing. I got her emails for a while but then they finally sorted out the email addresses and just put 1 and 2 in our email addresses.
I wouldn't really mind using another name but I can see why people would be affronted by it.