Nicknames are an inherent part of our life as they arose in the history of mankind even before names. Moreover, the nickname reflects the essence of a person much better than one's name - especially when it is given by other people.
There are also cases when a person utterly dislikes a nickname. Probably many of us have experienced this in school, but often, this situation continues into adulthood. In the end, it is a personal choice - to accept a nickname or not, to respond or not.
So, for example, a 28-year-old woman turned to the r/AmITheA-Hole community as one of her colleagues considered her to be one. As a matter of fact, because of a completely different person, which was quite annoying, by the way. Here is how things went.
More info: Reddit
A woman asked Reddit if she was wrong to not respond to an unpleasant nickname pushed upon her by her annoying colleague, who got herself in trouble for it
Image credits: RedCraig (not the actual photo)
The original poster is named after an obscure character from Greek mythology. The woman herself prefers a nickname based on the ending of her name, so that when she introduces herself she used to say: "I'm (my name), but you can call me (nickname)." Everything was fine until the boss' niece joined the company where the OP works.
The company is owned by two partners, "Jeff" and "Dave", with Dave usually running the business. Jeff's niece, 25-year-old "Megan", immediately told the OP that she would call her "Bessie" as soon as she was hired - firstly because the nickname is based on the first part of the original name, and secondly she liked it more.
Image credits: u/Office_Drama5686
Coworker told the OP that in her opinion the nickname she gave was more suitable
Image credits: u/Office_Drama5686
The OP told the new coworker that she was not going to respond to Bessie, but Megan objected that it sounded prettier that way, and that she just needed to get used to the new one. Over the next two months, OP regularly encountered attempts at calling her Bessie, but each time, she politely ignored these attempts.
Even on phone calls, Megan often used to to say "Please call Bessie" so the OP had to reply that there was no Bessie here. Megan also tried to get some of the employees outside the office to start calling her Bessie, but the OP quickly shut that down.
Image credits: Masa Israel Journey (not the actual photo)
One day Megan, sitting in an open office, once more started to call the OP an unpleasant nickname in a loud singsong voice - even despite other employees telling her to stop. True, one of the coworkers, 43-year-old "Lisa", told the OP maybe it would be better to accept Bessie, just to calm Megan down.
Image credits: u/Office_Drama5686
One of the bosses warned the annoying colleague he might write her up
As a result, Megan suddenly distracted Dave from a conference call with an important client. He immediately threatened to write her up if this happened again. Later Megan cornered the OP in the break room and her accused of framing her, calling her Bessie once more. Dave, passing by, heard this and said: "I warned you!" Then he went to the HR and had Megan's pay docked.
Image credits: u/Office_Drama5686
Another coworker told the OP she just shouldn't take that personally
Image credits: u/Office_Drama5686
As a result, Lisa suddenly called OP an a-hole as Megan was fined because of her, and if she hadn’t fought so hard on the nickname, Megan probably would have given up. Lisa's idea was the OP just shouldn't take it personally.
However, Reddit users massively supported the OP, considering Megan to be an a-hole. According to the most popular comment, the OP set personal boundaries, and her colleague suffered for regularly breaking them.
People online supported the OP, saying she was right as she established a boundary
Some believe Megan was pushed into the role just by her family and Dave knew perfectly well that she was. Folks online also told the OP that she behaved absolutely correctly, being as polite as possible, while Lisa was also absolutely wrong, justifying an abusive behavior.
The strangest thing is that, according to the OP herself, which she expressed in one of the comments - she thought Megan was actually trying to be her friend, but one of the Redditors supposed that Megan had probably never had a friend, expecting a Barbie doll. "You said she's 25 but I think she's probably closer to 5," one of the users stated.
Probably you have also faced similar situations, either in childhood or once already an adult. We hope they were not so weird, but in any case, we will greatly appreciate you sharing your own stories.