Jeremy Stein - Journal
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Name Pronunciation
My boss for 5 years was named Jonathan. I called him “Jon” all those years. It wasn’t until my last month in that job that I realized that he always called himself “Jonathan”. I don’t remember if I had learned the dimunitive from others or if I had just made an assumption. That embarrassing memory drives me to pay close attention to how new coworkers say their name when they first introduce themselves.People don’t say their own name nearly as often as other people say it. When you join an organization, you generally learn everyone’s name from how other people refer to them. As a result, it’s easy for a mispronunciation, if not corrected by the name owner, to be perpetuated and strengthened with each new member who learns it incorrectly. I’ve been in multiple teams where some pretty egregious mispronunciations had become ingrained. It’s probably compounded by the unfamiliar cultural origins of names in a diverse organization.
Learn from my mistake. Be skeptical of how other people say a name and pay close attention when someone says their own name. And there’s no shame in confirming pronunciation when there’s any doubt.
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