Retail Ranting

(I know this is maybe not considered a huge or serious issue on the Women's Studies front, but every now and then, I feel there are people that need to be reminded.)
To Retail Managers Everywhere,
Learn your employees names, please. I know it is a large store, but everyone who works there is forced to wear name tags. I don't really like to wear the name tag, it gives people we are waiting on the idea that they can call us by name even if they have no idea who we are, or anything about us. It creates an odd sense of power for the customer, I think to be able to call us by name when we don't know theirs. So I'm not sure who is to benefit from us having our names plastered to our chests- I know what my name is, I sure don't need reminding. Maybe it is for the employer...

I don't think it should be a huge deal for you to learn our names. If you don't know someone's name, feel free to glance down, around the left breastal region, there should be a name tag. Remember, we know our own names, the labels can only benefit you. If there isn't one, it's clearly okay to ask. Read the name and when you acknowledge us, call us by name. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, call us "hon", "sweetie", "dear", or perhaps most of all, "girl". By this "us", I mean women employees, who are usually cashiers under the age of 30.

We are employees, not your grandchildren. My Grampie was the only one I ever liked calling me "sweetie", because from him it was him being kind and a grampie. From an employer, it sounds condescending and demeaning to be called such things. With "hon" and "dear", the names I've found to be most commonly thrown around by managers in retail, it is not cool for you to call us that. I am not your significant other. I did not tell you it was okay to call me that, ever. In fact, I'm pretty sure every time you call me such names, I look away and cringe. Calling me by name should not create the same sense of power that it does with customers, but calling me "hon" does. Is this what you mean to do? By calling us by name every once in awhile, and NOT "hon", "sweetie" or "dear", it shows respect for us as people and as employees.

Do not, for no particular reason at all say "you go, girl" while you are passing employees. That is just creepy and weird. If we had, for example, saved a small child from disaster, still, you should never say "you go girl". It would still be creepy and weird. That one is not my experience, but one of a fellow employee, even so, I feel I can say that it is not okay to label me by a gender, don't call me the label you have given me.

Marianne