Britney Spear's Speculum: I never thought this crap was possible until the tea party came into existence.

Boy, you want to blame them for EVERYTHING, don't you?

Do you scream "Curse you, Tea Party" when it rains?

That is an appropriate tag subby, asinine would have been better though.

Britney Spear's Speculum: I never thought this crap was possible until the tea party came into existence.

Nope it's quite common in corporate "Show place" culture and has been for ages.

Disney, for example, lets cast members choose their nametags from a set of approved names, and has done for decades. If you're 'onstage' you're playing a part, even if you're a waiter or a maintenance worker; so at Disney a Mike, Joe, Jane or Paul probably isn't their real name. They're usually one syllable names too, easy to remember for the guest. And no 'overlap' is allowed in an area..so if two 'sams' are working, has to be a 'robert' or something.

Even call centers have Americanized names for the people that answer the phone. It's your stage name when interfacing with the public.

optikeye: so if two 'sams' are working, has to be a 'robert' or something.

Oh...thinking back at the "Adventures Club" all the male waters and bartenders had the same name tag. "Jeeves".

Does he have to wear a suit?

IronTom: Does he have to wear a suit?

Baaaaaahahaha!

optikeye: Even call centers have Americanized names for the people that answer the phone.

You mean like when our government decided that a US astronaut named "Ivan" should just go by the nickname "Gus"?

Not to mention all the scientific researchers who got government jobs that required that they anglicize their names.

My highschool bio teacher was named John, but his given name at birth was Irick.

optikeye:

Even call centers have Americanized names for the people that answer the phone.

Would probably be less of an issue if the call centers were, y'know, in America.

Britney Spear's Speculum: Kotbi said he complained and was told by a manager, "It's better to be Edgar than Mohamed today.

I never thought this crap was possible until the tea party came into existence.

Was this level of ignorance a learned trait. or was it congential, Brian?

propasaurus:
Would probably be less of an issue if the call centers were, y'know, in America.


In my call center days, I worked at a call center that was just a couple miles from the Salt Lake City International Airport.

Some of our clients had customers in Quebec, so fluent french speakers were in some amount of demand.

But the french speaking CSRs were in the english queue too.

I once took a cancellation call from a lady who was convinced that we'd outsourced our call center overseas because she'd called three times and, according to her account records, had spoken to two francophone africans and a vietnamese guy.

There was nothing i could say in my neutral english to convince her otherwise.

optikeye: Britney Spear's Speculum: I never thought this crap was possible until the tea party came into existence.

Nope it's quite common in corporate "Show place" culture and has been for ages.

Disney, for example, lets cast members choose their nametags from a set of approved names, and has done for decades. If you're 'onstage' you're playing a part, even if you're a waiter or a maintenance worker; so at Disney a Mike, Joe, Jane or Paul probably isn't their real name. They're usually one syllable names too, easy to remember for the guest. And no 'overlap' is allowed in an area..so if two 'sams' are working, has to be a 'robert' or something.

Even call centers have Americanized names for the people that answer the phone. It's your stage name when interfacing with the public.

I never heard that about Disney...I knew several cast members with five or six variations on their names which they used independently. Anyway, if you forgot your nametag, there were always spares in the drawer so you had a name for the day.

What wasn't allowed was anything that might be considered a double entendre. And yes, people tried to pull that one, too.

What do they call Jesus the busboy?

"Welcome to Mohammad's Restaurant. I'll introduce you to your waiter, Mohammad."
"Welcome to Mohammad's. Mohammad, the chef, recommends the Mohammad Deluxe."
"Mohammad! I need a drink refill!"
"I'm not your waiter, Mohammad is"
"Oh okay, sorry."
"I'm ready to check out, Mohammad."
"Alright, Mohammad will be with you shortly. He's the guy in the blue shirt."
"You mean Mohammad?"
"No, that shirt is more of an aquamarine. Mohammad is the blue shirt."
"Oh okay"

Nametags in the Middle-East, by God-is-a-Taco.
Man I'm bored.

Britney Spear's Speculum: Kotbi said he complained and was told by a manager, "It's better to be Edgar than Mohamed today.

I never thought this crap was possible until the tea party came into existence.

This crap happened in service industry jobs long before the Tea Party. It's just now that people care. (new window)

Here's another from 2003, where Hospital workers of color (new window) were told they could not enter a patient's room, as the patient did not want any people of color involved in their care.

davidphogan: Bingo. Some hotel chains have similar policies as well, so the Waldorf-Astoria doing so should be no surprise at all. I know some of their competitors do so as well.

This.

Heads in beds. Anything for the guest.

Worst...anagram...ever!

Sure, Lonny gets to keep his name tag but Mohammed and Jugdish have to change theirs. Super.

/it this isn't obscure, can I buy some pot from you?

Is the Milt name tag available today...no? How a about Bort?