Sure thing sweet cheeks

[Blueberry]

I am NOT your Sweetie, dearie, dear, darling, honey, or sweetie pie.
I don't know you and only one person in the world is allowed to even CONSIDER calling me one of those. And he doesn't even do it.
A caller annoyed me by ending every sentence with those endearments.
'Hi sweetie! I'm looking for these books.'
'Well honey, I will probably pick them up tomorrow.'
'Why thank you dear'
Etc.
Now if she was some sweet little old lady who sees everyone as a grandchild, sure, no problem. But no this was some lady probably about the same age as me.
I hate that.
When I worked at a 411 call centre for a disastrous 3 weeks, I had one guy end his call with
'Thanks sweetcheeks!'
Which earned him the retort of
'No problem PINKIE!'

[Rapscallion]

How does 'Lady' fit into the scheme of things? I've gotten away with that one for some time.

Rapscallion

[Blueberry]

How does 'Lady' fit into the scheme of things? I've gotten away with that one for some time.

Rapscallion

Well 'Lady' isn't so bad as long as it isn't in a condescending tone.
After I told my colleagues they called me 'Peaches' and Honey bunny pie' the rest of the day.

[ladylabyrinth]

You have my sympathies. I do use terms of endearment, but only with my friends. People I don't know get Sir or Ma'am. If you're especially nice and I like you and you seem like you have a sense of humor and you're under 40, you might get Nice Lady or Nice Mr. Man, and that's if your name isn't on a tag or not given to me. But otherwise, it's Sir and Ma'am. Always.

[Zinjadu]

I don'y usually mind lil old ladies calling me dear.

It's the men who repeatedly call me kitten, honey, sweetie, etc that tick me off, and I tell them: I am NOT your sweetie, kitten, honey, whatever. I flash my engagement ring and say I'm T's sweetie and don't you forget it. You can call me ma'am and be polite about it.

Those guys make my skin crawl. ::shudders::

[myswtghst]

I think I mentioned this on another thread, but given that I'm a girl with an admittedly sexy phone voice who works with a lot of techs out in the field, I've kind of gotten used to the endearments. As long as they're coming from friendly techs, it's cool. If it's being used in a creepy or condescending tone, though, you're on my $hit list immediately, and I will probably start calling you honey or dear in the exact same tone.

It's generally from the techs down south (Louisiana, South/North Carolina, Alabama, etc) who are some of my favorites as they're always low key and friendly, never in a big angry rush. The ones I get most often? Sweetie, sweetheart, darlin', honey, and sugar.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm really back and forth on this one.

On one side, I actually dislike endearments in general. Can't tell you why, but they've been an irrational annoyance to me since I was little. I had a stewardess call me "honey" once and I felt my hackles go up. For her it was almost the same as saying "miss" (I was a teen) but to me it felt like an insult.

My ARC (Across-the-Room Coworker) had one guy being all condescending and smarmy and called her something like honey or darling prefaced by the word "little" and she went off on him. She semi-autonomous, and I love to listen when she's had her fill of some idiot.

There are a few people out there, however, that use cute little endearments just as a matter of course, and with them, it's fine. But those types are very few and far between.

^-.-^

[Witch of Endor]

Oh, man... this reminds me of a woman who works in a Chinese restaurant I like. She has a very strong accent and doesn't seem to speak English very well beyond what she needs for taking people's food orders. She's very professional and friendly and calls female customers 'lady' in the same tone that most people would use 'ma'am' or 'miss'. 'Can I take your order, lady?' 'Would you like chopsticks, lady?'

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, it's pretty common in the south, but you can tell when someone's doing it to be a dick.

I had one guy who was my age or younger doing it to be a dick to me.

So I just did it right back.

Man, I thought he was going to pop a gasket right then and there. His face went purple, his voice shook, and a vein in his head started throbbing.

And you know what? He didn't complain word one. Not to me, because then he'd have had to admit what he was doing and that he'd lost the game. Not to the boss,either. What was he going to say, "your employee adressed me the exact way I addressd her and it was disrespectful" ?

He'd been owned. He knew it.

Dick.