We should be able to legally have a different name just for work for better work/life separation
At least a first name if family name is too much administrative hassle.
Fun fact, you can use whatever names you want. All names are made up. Your "legal name" is just what the government calls you, but you can ask other people to call you something else entirely. The same goes with pronouns.
A guy I used to work with went by the nickname of "Womble", his name was actually Raymond.
One day I was poking through work orders in our system and discovered that it also officially knew him as "Womble last name" and there was no sign of Raymond in there.
That's the thing: if he went by Womble at work then that was his name. The fact that the government called him Raymond doesn't make that his only name, they are both valid.
Our IT intake asks "is there another name you prefer to be known by" - and I have gone by my middle name since I was 12, so I told them, and they cheerfully complied.... on half the things in their system, the other half use my first name - things like the name under my picture during Teams calls. But, my e-mail address uses the middle name, so that's nice.
I need that report on my desk by 3pm, xX_pu$$y_de$tr0yer_Xx. Otherwise that promotion you've been working for might go to JoeMomma69.
We're at work, you can just call me "Big Tuna".
Severance
I think they covered pretty clearly why that was a bad idea.
It Kind of felt like deal with the devil. Sell a innocent version of yourself to hell and torture and profit over it.
Thought this as well, lol.
But I guess the way OP means, it would be kind of the opposite. Me knowing everything about both worlds, the employer not knowing who I am in personal life.
Also, kind of a different story, but in my university town I'm mostly known by a different but similar name than my actual name, because one of my first friends forgot my actual name in the first days and just called me by that other name, and somehow everybody adopted that other name. But it's only in that town and context, because the social circles are quite separated.
I have always told work people that I prefer to be called a different shorting of my name then the one I do prefer. Like if I was Robert I would tell work I prefer Bob instead of Rob.
Huh. After decades of working with the public, I wish I'd thought of this years ago. If I encounter someone in public and they say hey Bob! I'd instantly know it was someone I met through work, so I should probably stay mildly professional.
For a long time I went by my full name at work but family and friends were always by nickname. Now I work with someone who was a friend and was used to calling me my nickname and would introduce me to others by it, so it started to bleed.
However at work, I still refer to myself by my full name with people I don't like or trust as much. If anyone ever figures out my system they'll realize how I feel about people in the office very quickly hahaha.
Do you work for ice?
There's a few people I know in real life, who I originally met online, and who call me "Chozo" more often than by my real name. Names are weird.
Same with me, and a few people who call me 'Tira'
I am perfectly happy to have it that way - just like OP suggested it's a nice separation. And while I have nothing against my given name and actually quite like it, Tira is a name I chose for myself.
Yeah, same, my d&d group calls me by my first character's name :)
I did that a few times, it was worst when the character name was just a standard name with one letter difference from the player's real name. I only found out that I had gotten the two confused after I looked more closely at the sheet a week of talking every day.
Or even better, lets change society and work to something that just fits well together and where work is not slavery with extra steps.
Bwahahaha
When I applied for a job at this company, my last interview was with "Joe". For everyone else I got the first and last name. And email addresses were also firstname.lastname@example.com. But not for Joe. Joe's was just joe@example.com.
Same company after I was hired. I got on at about the same time as Peter-Michael. Whom we all called Peter-Michael. Because he was introduced as Peter-Michael. A few months in he revealed that he's only Peter-Michael at work. Everyone else just calls him Peter. It just happened like that because he used his full name on his application and then went with it.
I know several people who go with their second name as their usual name when around friends. Either because they like it more or sometimes because the parents chose that order because secondname-firstname sounded weird.
I essentially do something similar.
My friends and family all call me "Ted". At work, people call me "Theodore".
One person at work asked me if I ever go by Ted and I had to tell them it's an easy way to know in which context someone knows me.
Both of my grandfathers went I.O. initials only, including when they were drafted for WWII. One would use his first name about half the time, but only reveal what the middle initial stood for maybe twice in my lifetime. The other: I.O. all the way, to his grave nobody I know ever heard what those initials stood for.
You can just ask people to call you by a nickname in your private life.
Or your professional life. My grandma spent her entire career going by the less catholic nickname she used with her first husband's family.
This is either a story of a Maria going by as Mina or someone going by as "that bloodthirsty removed" at work and I really can't tell which it is
Work/life separation is propaganda from the Capital class that wants Workers to each be uniform machine parts.
Some compartmentalization is fine, but don't forget to also be holistically you sometimes, and never substitute your employer's (or anyone else's) judgement for your own.
I'm totally over having a "professional self". I don't go around swearing as much at work but other than that I'm pretty much just being me. People still respect me and I don't feel as exhausted by masking every single day.
I'm also over corporate lingo and just call people/things out when they're overloaded with BS jargon. Its an accessibility issue and people need to learn to communicate in plain language.
Sex workers: Am I joke to you?
The idea reminds me of superheroes going by different names as superheroes than their personal names. Traditionally this is because of secret identities but in the MCU, most of the heroes don't have secret identities.
"Oh we're using our made up names. I'm Spiderman"
I'm reminded of someone at work who jokingly introduced himself as Nightwing. I genuinely cannot remember his real name.
I go by a different name at work and I do think it helps with the separation at times. Idk why people in this post are thinking it's weird to do this??? Do you all believe ppl at work are your friends? So many people must love their jobs I guess. lol
I have 3 first names and I'm legally allowed to use any of them.
This is like Minecraft YouTubers who go by their usernames in their videos, which is their job.
Aliases have already existed for a long time. I go by my middle name out of work and by my first name at work. I also work with a guy who does the opposite. There’s no reason to really have it be so official.
You just approached the Sovereign Citizen mindset from first principles.
Part of the reason cops and military use rank structure so they can simply address each other by rank instead of their gender or name and then go home and use their name and preferred gender pronouns there
Uh, what? When i was in we called each other by our first names if we were friends or last names if we were acquaintances. Hardly anyone used ranks unless you were being yelled at or had to report. I was in a combat arms unit so maybe its different for other types of units but i doubt it.
Maybe like the Severance tv show
I changed my name before starting my current job for this reason.
I read your username as the page was scrolling. Also I'm high.
I thought your screen name was "FlakeemBakeem@piefed.social"
So, you don't show up for your dates, and then you go get high.......at piefed.social.
My brother-in-law goes by his first name at work and his middle name with family and friends
I think someone in my team does that with family. I'm not sure if hes a fan though
You can.
I've done this! highly recommended