Employee’s ‘Inappropriate’ Initials Become An Issue For HR, Netizens Are Cracking Up Over This
Since we’re already talking about sitcoms, here’s another hackneyed script thing for you – in the team you can always find a guy whose last name, either by itself or in combination with the first name, should, in theory, cause laughter. Just look at the list of characters in any Austin Powers movie and you’ll get it.
But, as it often happens, reality turns out to be a much greater inventor than any, even the most sophisticated and talented human screenwriter. Further proof of this is a video from the TikToker Samantha Hart, which rightfully collected over 616K views recently.
More info: TikTok
The author of the video found a new job recently and has mixed feelings over it
Image credits: thesam_show
“Well, y’all, it’s official, I have a new job, which means that I will be transitioning from my current position to a new one within the next two weeks”
“Amidst all of this excitement that I feel about this transition, and this move and this new opportunity, I am filled with dread over one aspect of moving to a different job that I always face when I do this, which is having to have the tough conversation about how my name fits into a company email structure.”
Image credits: Torsten Dettlaff (not the actual photo)
Image credits: thesam_show
“My name is Samantha Hart. And most companies use the email designation of first initial last name, meaning that my email would be ‘s.hart'”
“And I’ve had two professional jobs so far and at every single workplace, this has been the email company structure, and every single workplace, I have received an email from HR the week before I start letting me know that my name does not exactly fit the company email structure as they would intend, and would I mind if they gave me a different structure for my email, to which I always say: ‘Yeah, I don’t want an email that says ‘shart’. Yeah, fix it, give me something else.'”
Image credits: thesam_show
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)
“So now, as I transition to this new role, I did investigate the email structure at this new company”
“And they do, in fact, use first initial last name, which means I am going to have another very uncomfortable conversation with somebody. And at this point I feel like, do I just reach out right off the bat and say: ‘Look, you’re not going to want my email to be this. You’re gonna want to give me something else.’ Or should I let them come to me? Should I let them initiate the conversation?
What do you guys think I should do? The shart conversation, if you will, which, by the end of this, I will have had three times in my life. It’s such a blessing to be me. Live, laugh, love, baby, live, laugh, love.”
Image credits: Prateek Katyal (not the actual photo)
@thesam_showsorry if i talk about this problem too much but it is HAPPENING AGAIN!!♬ original sound – Sam Hart
So Samantha Hart once again fell victim to her own initials and corporate email designation policy…
So, at the end of the last year, Samantha changed jobs and, in addition to the obvious excitement about the new workplace, she, as she herself admits, was terrified of expecting a fairly standard question from HR workers in her new company. It’s all about corporate standards for work email designations.
In fact, many companies use a standard technique to select a corporate email designation – the first letter of the employee’s first name plus their last name. Usually even without a dot in the login, because the fewer “extra characters” the better. But, well… not the case with Samantha Hart.
As you probably already understood, by this standard Samantha should receive an email address like shart@company.com and this actually looks pretty inappropriate. And funny. So in the original poster’s two previous jobs, she was invariably offered “some other” corporate email.
And now, on the eve of starting a new job, Samantha is wondering whether to wait for a call from HR, or to take the initiative and offer to change the email designation herself. After all, the new company – the woman has already checked – also uses a similar principle of wording for their addresses…
Well, corporate email standards, which appeared at the end of the last century, do suggest combining the employee’s first and last name, and the first letter of the first name is perhaps the most common option. As a result, however, we get an incredible variety of hilarious combinations.
Just look at the comments to Samantha’s video, where, in particular, such wonderful persons as Sara Hartman (s.hartman), Sarah Ober (s.ober), Chris Litmann (c.littmann), and even Sue Hartlove (s.hartlove) appeared. As we can see from the last example, Samantha Hart’s situation is far from being the most critical…
Yes, one of the women in the comments had an ex-husband named Paul with his last name Enis, and something similar used to happen to him too. And not only to him, in fact. “Worked with a guy named Sam Adcock,” one of the commenters confessed sincerely. By the way, have you also happened to meet people with similar combinations of initials? If yes, please feel free to share your own findings as well.
It turned out, according to people in the comments, that such amusing situations are far from being rare
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I uses to work at a retailer where the logins were the same as this, and we had a Mum and daughters with the surname Lapper. They were named Sharon, Collette and Felicity, so we had Slapper, Clapper and Flapper on our system.
That has made my day. I thought I saw a funny one the other day. Arshit. But apparently it’s a real name.
Load More Replies...
I never understood the idea of having the first name initial first rather than the last name followed by a period and initials. Hart.S. When you look at the global email list, it will also put everything alphabetically in order of last name so it's easier to find.
*Tom Shar* enters the chat....would still happen lol
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Heheheh. Initials are amazing. One girl I knew was S.T.D. Top it off, our business accountant's is B.B.C
I knew Jackie Cøx who married an Alcock...
Load More Replies...
My previous company used 3 initials. Which was a HUGE problem for the unfortunate but sweet lady whose initials after marriage, were KKK.
I worked in the 90s in Pennsylvania in a town where Uckermann was a common last name. This was when e-mail addresses were just being rolled out. Corporate decided on the first initial, last name thing. There was a Franz, Frederick, and Frida. Corporate just added numbers after their e-mail address names. I was in my early 20s so I looked for reasons to send them e-mails because I thought it was hilarious.
“Uckermann” and any other name beginning with “F” would create many, many very hilarious and Cartman-like email addresses! 😆 While I’ve often been frustrated about my name (my mom didn’t know it was a boys’ name), I haven’t EVER been flummoxed creating email addresses, user names, etc. That’s the one benefit of it: very, VERY few others have had to wear this name around their necks. 😕
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My mother blessed me with a j instead of a p... PMS avoided. I am JMS
Last year I started a job at the place my older sister used to work at (she left a few years prior). She and I have the same first initial, so they just gave me an email with my full first name and that was that. It's really not that complicated.
Some companies with their rigid policies who seem unable to deal with exceptions. 🙄 Sounds as if your workplace isn’t one of those; good for you! 👍🏻👏🏻
Load More Replies...
My first initial and last name spell a word as well. It's not particularly funny, but it confuses people because they think the email is coming from the local government. Also, my full name is one letter off from a famous murder victim. And my initials spell a word as well. My parents really screwed me over when they chose my name. :) Granted it was before email was invented so they had no idea, LOL.
“the email is coming from the local government”: That sounds incredibly confusing, boring, and hilarious! Just the words “local government” are funny all by themselves because local government is famously boring and often inept, and then you add the murder victim info on top of it? Two ends of a spectrum? This is all hilarious without even knowing the names involved! 😆 Big ups to your family!
Load More Replies...
Most companies I know have firstname.lastname@company.com. never seen a problem with that
A hospital I worked at assigned short signatures: 1st letter of the first name + 1st letter of the last name. Mine was "SS". I was allowed to use the first two of my last name 😅 although my boss was a little too fast and ordered L and R signs to put on x-rays according to policy. So: x-ray was made by SS. 🤦🏻♀️🙈
I work for specsavers and we use SS as an abbreviation in our notes all the time. So yes, I work for the SS
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I was lucky my parents didn't give me a middle name starting with 'A'. Even though I am half-Japanese, I still don't think I'd want my initials to be J.A.P.
You mean you’re *not* a Jewish American Princess? I think those’d be hilarious initials to use; I’d giggle any time I had to initial something!
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We had a similar "problem" at my command before we changed naming conventions XD I distinctly remember such gems as Krapp, Chicks, and Fhart
I worked at a company where the role and full initials were part of your company ID so for a DBA it would be DBAXXX, my initials are FCK, so you can imagine the consternation when HR saw this and decided to change it without telling me to FXK... I asked how many permutations they went through to come up with X and they told me it took several tries to come up with something that didn't shout obscene.
The Slitts and Clitts family made a little spit go down the wrong pipe and caused a coughing fit, and it’s not easy coughing like crazy while laughing! 🤭😆 While I haven’t any similar problem with my name, my initials always embarrass the snot out of me. I’ve only had a couple comments on them in my life, but every time I hafta initial something, I die a little inside. 😰 — BM.
That one caused me to spray a mouthful of watwr in my lap!
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dont cancel me for this but like- why was I thinking "SH" (s3lf-h@rm) was what they were referring to before I finished reading the paragraph-
yeah my moms initals used to spell VCR. She changed her name in her 40s and then they spelled VFW (she was not a veteran, it just worked out that way). my brother and i had the same initials (BSM) i changed my name out of high school to BSW and he changed his name completely to SSW. my current initials are BSJ and sad to say i goofed on my daughters name, didnt write out the initials and they spell ABJ.
How does that work with last names that are for example "le (random thing)" ?
What? What do you mean, “How does it work”? This article is about funny/embarrassing/dirty/offensive/etc combos. If “(random thing)” appended to a letter doesn’t turn it into any of the things I mentioned, then there’s nothing to comment on, unless I’m not understanding the question, which I may be because I don’t understand why you’re asking about any old word. For example, your name is “Ashley Collander,” so following the format, the email address is “acollander@companyname.com.” It works the same for “random” words as for embarrassing words.
Load More Replies... Expand a little, please? Your family name is “Regret”? Am I understanding correctly? If so, I simply MUST know the genesis of the name! Please tell me before I 💥 from curiosity! (And pleeease don’t tell me it’s just a foreign word that had a change to a single letter; I’m hoping to get a story that involves the literal word “regret”! I’m worried, though, that you’re referring to a forum or user name, one you yourself picked out.😕) (And just in case your surname really IS “regret,” please understand that I’m not laughing at the name but rather at its possible genesis! I’m thinking the story could be awesomely amusing, and am envious of the name. 😀) (I’ve always wanted to change my last name. I’ve narrowed the list to “Pierce,” “Winters,” “Fox,” “Wolf,” and “Collins,” the last of which is a name that only fans of 60s gothic soap operas will understand. 😉 I’m thinking I might add “Regret” to the list!)
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I didn't know some companies mashed the first initial and last name together like that, with no punctuation. At mine there's a hyphen between them, so in this case hers would have been s-hart.
Every company I've ever worked for, except my current one, has used that formula. Which is annoying since my first initial and last name together spell a word. :)
Load More Replies... I uses to work at a retailer where the logins were the same as this, and we had a Mum and daughters with the surname Lapper. They were named Sharon, Collette and Felicity, so we had Slapper, Clapper and Flapper on our system.
That has made my day. I thought I saw a funny one the other day. Arshit. But apparently it’s a real name.
Load More Replies... I never understood the idea of having the first name initial first rather than the last name followed by a period and initials. Hart.S. When you look at the global email list, it will also put everything alphabetically in order of last name so it's easier to find.
*Tom Shar* enters the chat....would still happen lol
Load More Replies... Heheheh. Initials are amazing. One girl I knew was S.T.D. Top it off, our business accountant's is B.B.C
I knew Jackie Cøx who married an Alcock...
Load More Replies... My previous company used 3 initials. Which was a HUGE problem for the unfortunate but sweet lady whose initials after marriage, were KKK.
I worked in the 90s in Pennsylvania in a town where Uckermann was a common last name. This was when e-mail addresses were just being rolled out. Corporate decided on the first initial, last name thing. There was a Franz, Frederick, and Frida. Corporate just added numbers after their e-mail address names. I was in my early 20s so I looked for reasons to send them e-mails because I thought it was hilarious.
“Uckermann” and any other name beginning with “F” would create many, many very hilarious and Cartman-like email addresses! 😆 While I’ve often been frustrated about my name (my mom didn’t know it was a boys’ name), I haven’t EVER been flummoxed creating email addresses, user names, etc. That’s the one benefit of it: very, VERY few others have had to wear this name around their necks. 😕
Load More Replies... My mother blessed me with a j instead of a p... PMS avoided. I am JMS
Last year I started a job at the place my older sister used to work at (she left a few years prior). She and I have the same first initial, so they just gave me an email with my full first name and that was that. It's really not that complicated.
Some companies with their rigid policies who seem unable to deal with exceptions. 🙄 Sounds as if your workplace isn’t one of those; good for you! 👍🏻👏🏻
Load More Replies... My first initial and last name spell a word as well. It's not particularly funny, but it confuses people because they think the email is coming from the local government. Also, my full name is one letter off from a famous murder victim. And my initials spell a word as well. My parents really screwed me over when they chose my name. :) Granted it was before email was invented so they had no idea, LOL.
“the email is coming from the local government”: That sounds incredibly confusing, boring, and hilarious! Just the words “local government” are funny all by themselves because local government is famously boring and often inept, and then you add the murder victim info on top of it? Two ends of a spectrum? This is all hilarious without even knowing the names involved! 😆 Big ups to your family!
Load More Replies... Most companies I know have firstname.lastname@company.com. never seen a problem with that
A hospital I worked at assigned short signatures: 1st letter of the first name + 1st letter of the last name. Mine was "SS". I was allowed to use the first two of my last name 😅 although my boss was a little too fast and ordered L and R signs to put on x-rays according to policy. So: x-ray was made by SS. 🤦🏻♀️🙈
I work for specsavers and we use SS as an abbreviation in our notes all the time. So yes, I work for the SS
Load More Replies... I was lucky my parents didn't give me a middle name starting with 'A'. Even though I am half-Japanese, I still don't think I'd want my initials to be J.A.P.
You mean you’re *not* a Jewish American Princess? I think those’d be hilarious initials to use; I’d giggle any time I had to initial something!
Load More Replies... We had a similar "problem" at my command before we changed naming conventions XD I distinctly remember such gems as Krapp, Chicks, and Fhart
I worked at a company where the role and full initials were part of your company ID so for a DBA it would be DBAXXX, my initials are FCK, so you can imagine the consternation when HR saw this and decided to change it without telling me to FXK... I asked how many permutations they went through to come up with X and they told me it took several tries to come up with something that didn't shout obscene.
The Slitts and Clitts family made a little spit go down the wrong pipe and caused a coughing fit, and it’s not easy coughing like crazy while laughing! 🤭😆 While I haven’t any similar problem with my name, my initials always embarrass the snot out of me. I’ve only had a couple comments on them in my life, but every time I hafta initial something, I die a little inside. 😰 — BM.
That one caused me to spray a mouthful of watwr in my lap!
Load More Replies... dont cancel me for this but like- why was I thinking "SH" (s3lf-h@rm) was what they were referring to before I finished reading the paragraph-
yeah my moms initals used to spell VCR. She changed her name in her 40s and then they spelled VFW (she was not a veteran, it just worked out that way). my brother and i had the same initials (BSM) i changed my name out of high school to BSW and he changed his name completely to SSW. my current initials are BSJ and sad to say i goofed on my daughters name, didnt write out the initials and they spell ABJ.
How does that work with last names that are for example "le (random thing)" ?
What? What do you mean, “How does it work”? This article is about funny/embarrassing/dirty/offensive/etc combos. If “(random thing)” appended to a letter doesn’t turn it into any of the things I mentioned, then there’s nothing to comment on, unless I’m not understanding the question, which I may be because I don’t understand why you’re asking about any old word. For example, your name is “Ashley Collander,” so following the format, the email address is “acollander@companyname.com.” It works the same for “random” words as for embarrassing words.
Load More Replies... Expand a little, please? Your family name is “Regret”? Am I understanding correctly? If so, I simply MUST know the genesis of the name! Please tell me before I 💥 from curiosity! (And pleeease don’t tell me it’s just a foreign word that had a change to a single letter; I’m hoping to get a story that involves the literal word “regret”! I’m worried, though, that you’re referring to a forum or user name, one you yourself picked out.😕) (And just in case your surname really IS “regret,” please understand that I’m not laughing at the name but rather at its possible genesis! I’m thinking the story could be awesomely amusing, and am envious of the name. 😀) (I’ve always wanted to change my last name. I’ve narrowed the list to “Pierce,” “Winters,” “Fox,” “Wolf,” and “Collins,” the last of which is a name that only fans of 60s gothic soap operas will understand. 😉 I’m thinking I might add “Regret” to the list!)
Load More Replies... I didn't know some companies mashed the first initial and last name together like that, with no punctuation. At mine there's a hyphen between them, so in this case hers would have been s-hart.
Every company I've ever worked for, except my current one, has used that formula. Which is annoying since my first initial and last name together spell a word. :)
Load More Replies...
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