I Don't Know The Real Name.

I just learnt something odd on a visit to the company’s overseas branch office. While having lunch with some new colleagues I casually asked this new guy who is who when it came to names on the emails I had received from them. As I had just popped into the new office and took a glimpse of everyone there and wasn’t formally introduced, I had no opportunity to learn their names. So the best way was link their faces to their emails as I had been previously corresponding with some before heading over. He looked at me and went ‘I only know their nick names. I do not know their real names’.

I looked at him and burst out laughing as I found the concept hilarious. Imagine you only know all your colleagues's baby names given by family members and when the courier guy comes and say I have a parcel for so and so, the receiving person will come into the office yelling do we know anyone named so and so. My new colleague went on to add his nick name is ABC but his real name is ……..a 250 letter worded name.

Told him his nick name is fine by me. I do not need to learn his real name nor that of the rest of the colleagues. All nicknames suit me perfectly over here! I figured it’s a lot easier to remember 2 to 3 letter names than their actual names with practically all the letters in the alphabet thrown in, some with the same alphabets appearing more than 5 times.

So I guess my previous theory of changing my name to something unpronounceable to avoid getting more work will have to go back to the drawing board. I thought I was a genius! With a difficult name to call the boss would just pick someone else to do the work. You…err…… never mind, Tom you go get this done. But now I know better. He will just probably give me a nick name and I still have to get the work done. Damn nick names.