Terms of Endearment at Work...

[Mayonnaise]

There's a discussion in my office (office meaning room, not the whole company) about using terms of endearment in the workplace and whether or not it's offensive... by which I mean, co-workers calling people "Darling" or "Sweetie."

I thought I'd get a few more opinions in the mix, since we're evenly split, 2/2 over the issue.

Does anyone at your job call you by pet names? Do you feel it's appropriate? Are there conditions where it's ok, and conditions where it's not?

8^)

[svickersart]

Personelly, I dont like it. I work with all men except one woman who I have known since I was 7, I have on occasion called her babe by mistake but I apoligized for doing it. Sometimes I will get dispatcher from auto clubs call me "hon" or something like that but I really dont care for it. If one of my coworked called me something like that I would probably get a little pissed. I used to have a guy that worked for me, good driver, very nice guy but he was very touchy feely. I finaly had to tell him to step back, arms length and give me a little room. People need to be professional at work, first name is ok, or boss, nicknames are ok also. Everyone here gets a nickname at some point, usually because they say something and we stick it to them. Currently I have a "Skippy" because he said damn skippy one day. Had a guy we called Mr. Pink because we had tokens for a carwash that were color coded and he said he didnt want the pink ones so he got them and the nickname.

Steve

[hobie16]

This may not be a pet name. Our sales guy, Art, who covered FedEx had commissioned an extensive study on their data network. After six months the study came back and the day before he was to fly to Memphis he was doing final edits. He wanted to do a global replacement on one term but didn't know how so he called in Carlos, the ace word processing admin.

Carlos was told what was to be replaced. He ran global replacement but nothing appeared to happen. He ran it again and it did its job. Art saved and printed the file and went home.

After dinner he decide to read through the document one more time. It was a good thing he did because all the "c" had disappeared. He ran spell checker which corrected most of the problems but there were still words that were valid with out a c. He and his wife stayed up until 2 AM trying to find all the errors.

The next morning he came in and handed anyone he could find pages from the study to proofread. He finally had to enter what corrections had been found and jet off to Memphis.

From that day forward the poor admin was known as 'arlos.

[Sarah Magdalene]

I think that such names are sweet and often among close "friends" we call each other by names like Babe, it being a girl to girl exchange. I guess it depends on how close you are to your co-workers. With us, we are a very close knit group and are like best friends. So, I guess it depends on your comfort level with your peeps.

[GaTechGal]

I always consider the intent of the person using the nickname. If they are using it to put me down, I'd be upset. But otherwise I'd rather not sweat the small stuff.

[DisneyMom]

I use the word "Dear" for my co-workers a lot, have even used it by mistake on some of the Doctors, oops.
I blame it on my getting older....

[Purpura]

I call my co-workers by their names. Guests are "Ma'am, Sir, Prince Charming, and Princess." Some guests call me by my first name, due to seeing it on my name badge, and some call me "Honey, Sweetie...Hon" I don't mind...

[Widget]

Where I work it all depends on who is doing the talking. This has been the case in every job I've ever had. There are a few of us who can say anything to each other no matter how non-PC. We are all adults and get along great. Of course we do watch what we say around anyone else.
Some people just do not have a sense of humor and like to ruin everyone else's day by complaining. Sexual harassment, along with many other work complaints, just seems to be used as an excuse by those who want money but don't want to work. And those are the people who ruin it for those who have a legitimate complaint.

[Shorty82]

I call a number of my female coworkers dear, darling, deary, etc. Just being friendly. I try to only do it backstage though and not onstage in hearing of guests. That wouldn't be appropriate.

[sean1966]

I call a couple girls I work with "chica". That's about it.