thank you ms. buzzkill

[smileyeagle1021]

OK, so as many of you know, back in December I changed my name badge to say "smiley".
Now, all the guests thought it was funny, my coworkers thought it was funny, hell even the managers thought it was funny.
Well, I can no longer say all the guests. Last week we had one guest who called corporate to complain about how we were all so unprofessional for having the gall to have a sense of humor at work, how it would be impossible to track down employees if we didn't wear our proper names on our badges, etc etc. So, because one person decided that it was inappropriate and unprofessional, despite all the countless other people who thought it was great, corporate has forced us to return to using plain old name tags with no nicknames (I can't even used a shortened version of my name, it has to be the full spelled out version, which I don't particularly like).

So, thank you Ms. Buzzkill
*ftr- we do know it was a lady that complained, corporate did tell us that much.

[Gerrinson]

That sucks. But, as was suggested in another thread, you could legally change your name to 'Smiley'. Then, given that corporate requires your full legal name on your tag, you would have to have it read Smiley. And wouldn't that just piss off the SC next time she comes in?

And it's usually pretty cheap to do, as well. Last I knew is was only about $150 and time in court to explain to the judge why you want to change your name. Of course, I'm not in UT, so maybe it's different there.

[smileyeagle1021]

time in court to explain to the judge why you want to change your name.

do you think that saying that I'm tired of having one of the 10 most common names in the country and probably up there in the fracking planet would suffice

[Darkwish]

do you think that saying that I'm tired of having one of the 10 most common names in the country and probably up there in the fracking planet would suffice

Just tell the judge you're doing it to annoy ms. buzzkill!

[Amina516]

I have a friend who has been named Smiley for freakin ever, He got a job in my dept at the hospital and they happily put Smiley on his tag. No ones ever said a word. If you call him by his first name (which he hates telling people), he gets all weird. LOL. Theres also a Sporty in my department, and hes worked there for almost 10 years with that on his badge. Doctors, management, everyone calls them by those names.

Sorry Ms. Buzzkill is a .....buzzkill. (I couldnt think of a better word.. LOL.)

[Hobbs]

do you think that saying that I'm tired of having one of the 10 most common names in the country and probably up there in the fracking planet would suffice

My excuse was 'revenge' XD

[PepperElf]

you could legally change your name to 'Smiley'.

Hey why not. People have legally changed their names to things like Spock and Obi Wan... some without last names too!

so why not Smiley?

[QASlave]

Ahh, don't you love people who's lives suck so much that the mear act of you having any type of fun causes them pain. As I frequently tell my wife, "I will not be normal, it is absolutely no fun."

[Golden Phoenix]

I got bored at work one day and searched the electoral roll and found several "Jesus H Christ"'s living in the UK. And one I P Freely, and also a Jack N Mehauf.

Personally i go by Pepper.

[Kiwi]

in my younger wilder days we were allowed to "be creative" at the craft store, I used to wear a blue wig (a proper one made of real hair) and wear a name tag that read "blamange". All of the staff sewed their own clothes and most of us were young and into fashion design or a little "out there".

most of the customers loved it, they liked that people working in a craft and fabric store had creativity and they could see we were skilled. So they respected our opinions or recommendations somewhat

when I came back the second time, they had installed a uniform (ugly tacky polyester blue shirt) because of so called complaints from customers (bullshit) and we had to wear name tags. We had to wear black pants or a skirt and black leather lace up shoes. It was horrible, it made us all into autonomus drones and I swear the customers saw us as less than human.

[InaHandbasket]

Awww ... no fun at all! Some years ago I was an assistant manager at a department store. One day I arrived to work to find two of my most capable and best employees (cash office and customer service supervisor) wearing name badges which read "Incompetent" and "Incompetent Too." Huh? It turned out someone called the cash office woman incompetent and then when the customer service supervisor tried to help her, he was called incompetent, too.

I let them wear the badges for a day. The odd thing is I think I was the only one in the store who even noticed the new names!

[Peppergirl]

Can you seriously imagine how pathetic and empty her life must be, that she has the time on her hands to complain about someone's name badge?

Man, I'd KILL to have that much time on my hands.

[Wenchie]

I've gone by Shay for over 10 years, but it's not my legal name... I've just never had the time or money (mostly money... it's about $300 by the time you add up all the court & processing fees) to change it.

My work calls me Shay.... but for some reason the office manager INSISTS that the "dot in/out board" up front have my legal name.

A walk-in customer came in once, was told that Shat would be assisting them, and they looked at the board and said "You don't have a SHAY here" in a nasty voice. I walked up and said "I'm Shay" and he refused to call me that because he stated that it wasn't my "real" name.

Yeah... this is a company where the CEO hands out the checks every two weeks... and still gets confused by the legal name on the paycheck, because EVERYONE calls me Shay there. I think that's my name by now, even if it's not on the stupid board!

[thehippie777]

Stupid. Ironically I was speaking to one of my other friends the other day who also works a front desk about how we are expected to always be upbeat & sometimes downright perky. Well, guests don't want to see someone who is clearly upset about being at work, but they also don't want someone happier then they are. So, as professional slaves, we have to go from happy to see a guest to sympathetic and nearly faking sadness just to make them "happy". I have had people down-right angry that I greet them with such gusto when they come to check in....so it is true that we can not please everyone, everytime. These people, also, have clearly never worked in the service industry.

[Evil Queen]

Meh, I'd keep the stupid name tag.

Actually, that's a great idea. Keep the name tag, you'll get a new one (that says Smiley) after I hire you on at my Furture Hotel.