Boss keeps calling employee by the wrong name, even giving a promotion to this nonexistent person: '[HR] had to inform my boss that such a person doesn’t exist'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 16, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

Some employers do not know how to take feedback, even if it's as simple as telling them the right name for their team member. It's always hard to know whether or not you're being a nuisance by trying to correct your boss, but if they keep getting your name wrong, you'd better keep bothering them until they get it right. You might sound like a broken record, but they should know your name. If they get annoyed, it should be because of their own mistake, not because you're advocating for yourself in the simplest of ways. 

The long-term consequences of your boss getting your name wrong could be bigger than you might think. Sure, today, it's just an innocent error, but tomorrow, you might miss out on an important opportunity simply because your boss emailed the wrong person by accident. In this case, this employer even went so far as to give a promotion to a completely made-up person.

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    Cheezburger Image 10505800448
    via Unsplash+ (Andrej Lišakov)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • The author of this story was not the mistaken employee but an objective third party who watched as their boss continued calling Katie “Kayla” for the better part of a year. Eventually, HR and payroll needed to step in after their boss put “Kayla” all over the paperwork designed to give Katie a promotion. At least it was all sorted out in the end, but it's pretty surprising that Katie—a very common name—was so easily misconstrued. Keep scrolling below for the full story!

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    Boss has been calling my coworker Katie as Kayla for over a year now. We've corrected him so many times but his own imagination trumps over the truth.
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    When it comes time for Katie's promotion, he actually wrote the promotion letter and corporate announcement as Kayla.
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  • 04
    Petty revenge time.... Katie signed all the documents as Kayla and payroll had to inform my boss that such a person
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    doesn't exist. Katie told payroll that my boss has been insisting on this new name this whole year.
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    The whole company knows and is extremely embarrassing. I don't know if he learned his lesson though.
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  • 07
    LondonlsMyHeart ⚫ People call me something besides what I've told them, then i start calling them the wrong name too. It gets their attention, and shows them how it feels.
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  • 08
    LadyHavoc97. I had a supervisor who continued to mispronounce my name after multiple attempts at correction over a period of several months. I just started mispronouncing hers. JessSYKEuh. She just stopped talking to me.
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    nightshade00013 While working at a kiosk in a mall I would often see the manager of the bookstore on the way to the bank to make deposits and whatnot.
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    For about three months he would walk past and I would say hello but use a different first name each time. One day he stopped and asked me about it and I told him that basically I was wondering how long it would take him to notice.
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    From that point on it was a running gag between us that no one in the mall understood because even time we would meet we would use different first names for each other. The looks we would get from people who knew our actual names was priceless.
    via RevolutionFriendly56
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    Cheezburger Image 10505800704
    via Unsplash+ (Andrej Lišakov)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 13
    ckosacranoid. Just refer to the boss as Mrs from now on.
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    LionInTheDancehall If you know someone's name it suggests you value, or at least recognise, them as an individual.
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    I once worked with an hole who, having to work until his trust fund matured, absolutely couldn't bring himself to calling any of his colleagues anything other than 'Matey'.
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    It had a real 'i can't be bothered to know your name' vibe.
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    Party_Thanks_9920 · In my last year of school, we got a new Electrical teacher. He went around the room, we all had to give our names. He got to "Mick",
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    NO, there will be no shortening or nicknames in my class, you will go by your proper name, Michael!
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    So for the rest of the year in that class we all called Mick, Michael. Mick was a nickname alright, but his "proper" name was David. Mick was an inherited nickname, from his Dad.
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    night-otter. Admittedly, I'm a member of the difficult last name club, but my given name is simple and common.
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    However, a co-worker could not consistently get either one of them right. "Dude, at least for written communications, please use Copy-n-Paste to get my name right."
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    So I responded in kind, but I worked on it. I looked up every variation in spelling, the older forms of the name, and, what turned out to be the best part, other languages.
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    Several coworkers picked up on it and fed me other variants and language- specific versions of his name.
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    Drove him up a wall. Finally, he asked me why I was doing it. "How many times have I asked to learn my name?" He got my name correct going forward.
    via RevolutionFriendly56

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promotion workplace-stories employee work stories toxic-workplace job work toxic-boss human resources Horrible Bosses reddit thread bad bosses Reddit company toxic-work-environment
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