Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Daniel? NO!

The definition of a "pet peeve" according to Wikipedia is a "minor annoyance that can instill great frustration in an individual". There aren't things that are "pet peeves" to me generally. Are there small things that drive me nuts like people who don't squeeze the toothpaste tube properly, leave the toilet paper roll empty, or talk loudly on a cell phone in a fancy restaurant? Sure, of course. Everyone has those things that annoy them. For the most part though, I'm able to get past these things and continue living my life. I "teflon" them, if you will, and just let them slide right off of me. Life is too short to boil over because of the small things like that.

In fact, I'm typically so hard pressed to find a pet peeve that I have to make one up for those surveys. You know the ones; you'll get them randomly in your email from your Aunt Mildred who you see twice a year and you're bored enough at work that you'll waste the 10 minutes to finish it and send it off yourself. Inevitably there's a field that says "Biggest Pet Peeve" or something like that. I usually fill that in with "People who complain about things and yet do absolutely nothing to better the thing they're complaining about". The thing is - while that's definitely an annoyance, it doesn't really make my blood boil over. I wouldn't call the feeling I get when I see people complaining and not acting as "great frustration".

I thought that maybe I was just one of those people who didn't have this kind of annoyance in their lives. Until today.

I discovered today that I do, indeed, have a pet peeve.

I hate... HATE... when people spell my name "Daniel". Daniel is a male name. I - very positively - am not male. I have no problem with the name itself. I have friends named Daniel. They're very nice people. I, however, am NOT a Daniel. I'm a Danielle. A female. With female parts and a female voice and all the things that come with being a female.

The problem is I have a lot of customers who do this. Regularly. It's like they can't take the time look at my email signature and see those 2 extra letters that make it a female name. Or - for that matter - READ. There are definite pronounciation differences between "Danielle" and "Daniel". But - because they're my customers I can't go ballistic on them and tell them that I AM NOT DANIEL. I have to drop subtle hints like slightly changing how I sign an email or something like that. My favorite is when I spell out my email address to them, they email me correctly in the email address - and then STILL say "Dear Daniel" in the body of the email.

Man... I hate when people call me Daniel.

7 comments:

kat said...

Man that must be annoying. I hate it when people don't check your email signature. I think it is a form of politeness, even when you are in a hurry, to check and get your converstation partner's name right. Mistakes do happen but from what you explained it is pretty clear that people are simply careless and I would hate, hate, hate that too.

Kimberly Pye said...

My Daniel has been called Danielle before. But that's a little more reasonable, since it's usually non-native-English speakers doing it out loud -- not on paper with visual cues.

HOWEVER, we're doing this big project at work right now, and Stephanie has been called Linda (in an email, with multiple visual cues and corrections), and Megan (or maybe it was Colene) has been called Jill, also with cues. I've been called Kimberley, but that's not so bad.

Kimberly Pye said...

Oh, BTW, your "currently reading" thinger says you're reading "Becoming a Woman of Excel." (With that period at the end, too.) I was confused. Thought maybe it was a super liberal computer course or something.

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean. I hate it when people call me "Marie" instead of "Maria". I guess I should be lucky that they at least have the right gender.

Missy said...

I've never gotten my first name changed, but I do get called "Carol" every once in a while and it truely does Irk me. but worse than that, Austin get's return emails to Carol more than once in a while...

Shannon said...

Tony occasionally gets stuff addressed to Toni, which makes me giggle. And sometimes people call me Janet.

Anonymous said...

I call her Shani, because it's freakin awesome :)

This inspires me to do my own pet peeve post. I'm not ashamed to admit I have lots! Far from being Teflon, I'm more like a rusty cheese grater.

PS People get mixed up and call us Bill and Jen a lot, but we think that's hilarious.