Work Spencer on September 27, 2007 06:58 am
I Thought I Was Spencer
Ok, so this isn’t a huge deal, but it is annoying enough to post about it so here goes.
My first name is Spencer; it is not Stanton. I know, part of the curse of having two traditionally last names can confuse some people, but lately it seems to be confusing a lot of people at work. My work e-mail name comes through to recipients as “Stanton, Spencer” and recently most people are ignoring the comma and replying with Stanton as my first name.
Here is the problem I face: how do you politely correct someone over e-mail. It’s easy enough in person or over the phone because tone of voice will let people know that I’m not offended by the mistake, but still want to correct it. Over e-mail; different story. What’s the proper ettiquite over e-mail? Do I close out a message with, “by the way, my first name is Spencer”? That seems to come off a bit rude yet that is the nicest I can think of. If people look at my signature, I specifically have “Spencer G. Stanton” leaving no doubt what my first and last names are but people tend to ignore that and mistakenly go by the name displayed. If you have any thoughts, please let me know. Again, it’s not the biggest thing in the world, but can be a bit annoying at times.
