Name Game

 

I've been attending a class to prepare me for a new job.  The class is comprised of just eight pupils of varying cultural backgrounds.  In fact, of the eight, I believe I am the only person who was born in Canada.  Others originate from as far as Vietnam and the Philippines, the Middle East and a couple from, what is described to me as The Eastern Bloc.  With all these varying backgrounds come all sorts of names, some of which are difficult for me to pronounce, let alone spell.  What strikes me as odd, is that the front office seems to spell all these wondrous names correctly, some of which contain more consonants than vowels, yet my name, a fairly simple Anglo-Saxon name, Jeffrey, seems to constantly be misspelled.  Even when I spell out my name with clear and concise letters, the people typing my name onto certificates or contracts or I.D. cards, seem to f*ck it up every time.

At first, I thought is was a small mistake.  Hell, even I f*ck it up from time-to-time, if my fingers get typing too fast, but I go back immediately to correct my faux pas, but these people fail to do so.  Now, when they do it, I'm viewing it as borderline offensive.  I find it's an insult, especially when one considers that in a class where there are seven other individuals with names that I can barely pronounce, let alone spell, receive perfectly spelled out names on their certificates, contracts and IDs.  Is this because the higher ups don't wish to alienate those with colourful names, but don't mind doing so to me?  Or are they just lazy in reference towards me?  Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but how many f*cking times do I need to correct them, before it finally clicks in their heads that it's RE, not ER?

There will be those who claim that I'm protesting too much, but those are most likely the same people who have never had their name constantly messed up.  Correct others once then never look back, but I've been dealing with bullshit like this my whole life.  Hell, today, the instructor called me Richard for the better part of the morning, then managed to f*ck up my name, Jeffrey, in the latter part of the day.  I mean... Come the f*ck on!! 🤨