Say my name
One thing I don’t think I’ll ever get used to is calling superiors — whether they be primary investigators, friends of people in my parent’s generation, or management — by their first name.
I understand that when my boss tells me to call him Jim, it’s heartfelt and kind. It’s signaling his approachability, and his willingness and desire to engage in a genuine conversation with me.
“Please, Ben, we’re equals; tell me what you think.”
It’s a very American/Western sentiment — this notion that everyone is equal. That things like experience and talent and position are not obstacles to our great innate equality.
But I can’t help but shake the feeling that it’s awkward and disrespectful. I wonder if this is a product of my more conservative upbringing, and I wonder also if it’s a common practice in another country (with more of a conservative culture around “respect”) — say Japan.
What does everyone else think?
