DelilahDeb -> RE: Slang or casual talk, allowed? (3/16/2008 4:26:53 PM)
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It's been said well here already: when I don't know someone, that form of address in person, in email, on the phone is going to get the frigid clavicle from me. A zillion years ago I worked in financial broker back office operations which required me to call my opposite number at dozens of firms, mostly located in NYC, where I would introduce myself to someone as Deborah and instantly have them call me, in their very next breath, "Debby." Whereupon with the ones I didn't know, I would calmly correct them to say "no, Deborah; I don't answer to Debby." And the ones whom I did know well enough to chat with, I would correct with a little humor, or remind them that I got grumpy when addressed so...and did they really want to deal with a grumpy Deborah. One of the letters to an employee newsletter that I wrote once spoke of the fact that it is not very many years since calling someone by their first name was a privilege and not a given, and until then, one called folks Mr. X, Mrs. Y, Dr. Z, or Rev. A. ...and not Father Ted, dude, baby, sweetings, pooky, bitch, snookums, broad, stud, or other forms of barroom or bedroom speak. Err on the side of formality and you're likely to be regarded as having manners, and maybe being a little old-fashioned. Err on the side of intimacy and you're apt to get the aforementioned cold-shoulder...in business as well as scene and romance. Delilah Deb
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