1 min read
Nigel Farndale is bang on the money with a piece about being addressed by one's first name. It's here.
I loved this:
[P]upils at a primary school in
Kent have been told to use their teachers’ first names. You have to wonder
how this idea came about. Were the teachers sitting around in the staff room
saying, “Do you know what our problem is? Our pupils show us far too much
respect”?
I cannot tell you the number of emails I get from PRs flogging some rubbish, or even people approaching me for a column, who, even though we have never met or corresponded before, call me Stephen. A word of advice to anyone doing just that: it doesn't make me especially receptive to your proposal.
And as for people calling me 'Steven': if you can't be bothered to check my name, I won't be bothered to read your email. Straight into my 'deleted' folder.