What do you think of this..the bank that my sister goes to calls her by her first name instead of Mrs. Whozit.

Question

They say "Thank you Sally, is there anything else today?" and my sister feels this is disrespectful. Today, she and her husband went to the bank and my sis deposited a large sum into her own account. At the end of the transaction, the teller said "Thank you, MR WHOZIT. Is there anything else today?" even though she hear my sis calling him Joe. She was really mad. She says it's disrespectful to call a person you don't know by their 1st name without permission, and especially calling a man MR but calling the woman by the first name. What to DO? What to DO?

My sister is 44 years old and the tellers are in their 20's. She calls them young whippersnappers. She feels it is too familiar and is ill-mannered.

Answer 1

I think the bank employees are exhibiting a prejudicial attitude, either towards gender or amounts of money. Either way, it sucks. She needs to talk to the manager of that bank--it's a symptom of a deeper attitude.

Answer 2

Firstly, I think your sister must live a charmed life if this is the sort of thing she finds outrageous. There are more important problems in most peoples' lives.

Secondly, If I were the bank manager, I would suggest that my tellers address a woman customer as "Miss or Mrs." especially if the woman is older than they are. It is possible that the bank employees did do that until some woman took offence to being called Miss when she was a married woman, or Mrs. if she was not married, or insisted on "Ms." Women can be pretty touchy. The use of first names may have seemed more diplomatic.

Personally, if a teller were nice enough to thank me and address me by name, I would be quite pleased. It is seldom that one encounters such curtesy these days.

Answer 3

Was it the exact same teller? Perhaps different tellers have the habit of calling people by either their first name or last name, and the husband just happened to get one of the last-name people. If it was the same person then I think there is reason for concern. Perhaps she should talk to the manager of the bank and explain that she was offended.

I personally don't feel that it's inappropriate for people to call me by my first name in a friendly setting.

Answer 4

I dont know, it doesnt bother me when people call me by my first name, I actually prefer it. Also I get people asking me all the time how to pronounce both my fisrt and last names, and I still do not get offended. And finally I never get offended when people mis pronounce either of them as well.

Getting in a huff over things like that only hurt the person who is offended.

Answer 5

Sounds like the bank wants to be on a more personal level with their customers, not so formal.

Answer 6

May be she does not show her displeasure openly...and how does it matter how you are addressed as far as the tone and intention of the person is good.

Answer 7

I've had this problem before. I think it is very disrespectful to call a person by her first name, particularly a married woman. When this happens, I say "Please call me Mrs. ____. I insist."

Answer 8

I think they are just being friendly but if she has a problem with it she should address them and let them know she is not comfortable with it.

Answer 9

It might be because Whozit looks hard to pronounce. Not to mention america is so full of immigrants with stupid-sounding multi-syllabic last names, it's impossible to pronounce most of our last names properly anyways.

Answer 10

Please contact the manager immediately that is disrespectful and any bank has to know that and implement that... i am as well disappointed