damn, i just joined a club that I never wanted to join

[smileyeagle1021]

... I am now among the ranks of people here who have called guys "ma'am"


... and to think i've complained about people doing that to me, now i'm just as bad as our fucktard customers

[Kittish]

Mistakes happen. I've called men ma'am and women sir. The ones that really bug me are the people whose voices are absolutely gender neutral, you literally can't tell just by listening if you're talking to a man or a woman. And those sorts almost never give you a clue with a first name or anything. Since I hate guessing I usually just avoid any sort of gender reference (Mr, Ms, etc) when talking to someone like that.

[Finduilas]

At the library, we call to let patrons know if they've got something on hold, or if they've forgotten to put the DVD in the case before returning it.

I got one of the missing-DVD people the other day... and the person was Indian. So I have the problem of an unpronounceable name and I don't know the gender. Usually, I look it up in the computer, but I had a brain fart and didn't this time.

I think I ended up calling that person a him when it was actually a her... but I didn't get yelled at, so I'm not sure.


I remember, there was one Indian man who came in several times a week... who had a many-syllablic first and last name. I still have no idea how to say it. He put a book on hold, but I luckily didn't have to call that one.

[smileyeagle1021]

I've got the problem that are calls are recorded and monitered, and i can get dinged big time for that... because he I asked the persons name at the beginning of the call I would have known they were a sir and wouldn't have made the mistake, so now I have calling the guest the wrong gender on top of not asking for name first (i'm going to fail quality this week, oh well I don't have enough revenue that I have to worry about them saying, sorry, you didn't DICE this week, no bonus).

[IHateStupidCustomers]

I once had to order something from an autoparts store, and they called and left a message on my phone when it was in. The person had one of those voices where you can't tell male or female, but they said their name was Gayle/Gail (however you spell it). So, I assumed it was a woman, because I had not previously heard of a guy with this name. I assumed wrong! I had to call them back for some reason, and the conversation when something like this:

Me: "Hi my name is ..., and a lady just called and told me my part was in, *whatever I was calling about*."
CSR: *pause* ... "A lady called you?"
Me: "Yeah, she said it was in?"
CSR: "We don't have any women that work here..."
Me: "Oh. That's strange. She said her name was Gayle."
CSR: "Oh, Gayle! He's a guy."
Me:

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

One of my friends is very butch and she has a Juno-esque build (for those who aren't up on their 18th century adjectives, that means broad-shouldered & broad-busted). She always feels sorry for the waitstaff who address her as 'sir', because then she lowers the menu & they get very flustered. She tries to reassure them that 'it's okay, I know how I look & I know it's an easy mistake to make' but it doesn't seem to work.