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Love the unsubscribe feature on posts
Another round of ogilvy layoff
Chief
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"post_content": "I've had a complaint made against me with HR because, when compiling names for a congratulatory launch announcement, I alphabetized the names.\n\nSomeone who worked very hard on the project had apparently put their own name on top of the list intentionally and was miffed when it was moved down the list by the bad luck of their last name.\n\nI offered to reach out and apologize 1:1 just to be gracious - they said no and requested a 3-way mediation follow-up.\n\nDiscuss.",
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Suggestion: attend the three way mediation but insist on bringing counsel. Your counsel should be a hand puppet who explains the order of the alphabet. Visuals, such as an apple for “A” are advised
Rising Star
Just have Sesame Street playing in the background in case they turn down the request to bring counsel.
This all depends on what type of launch announcement this is and who the audience is. There are some situations where name order can make a difference in your career (e.g., lead authors in journal publications).
Forgot to mention though... when order of authors matter, it's usually discussed and agreed upon by collaborators at the outset of the project (or at least well before submission). If this person didn't make it known that they expected to be named first, there's no way you would have known and alphabetical makes sense. And if they wanted to be lead author, they should be doing the bulk of the writing and also be the one who submits the report/announcement.
Well it was all a big nothing.
I was hoping to get yelled at, totally irrationally, so that I'd have a fun story to tell, but instead they just wanted to take me through their thought process of how and why they decided that I might secretly hate them. It wasn't obvious that I had alphabetized. They were looking at first names instead of last names.
Then HR thanked everyone for their bravery.
This is the most first world, privileged workplace problem imaginable.
Rising Star
I’m so glad I came back to this thread for this update.
Pro
Lmao now we gotta put a disclaimer:
“The order of this list is arranged in alphabetical order and it does not reflect the individual’s contributions to this firm compared to their peer’s. We are one team, one firm.”
.
Chief
I empathize with this person. If someone pulled this in my industry, people would be quitting. I don’t know the situation or what line of work you’re in, but in my world that’d start fights. Even big legal fights. Especially if this were a publication or patent or something. Name order is something you need to pay attention to in the professional world.
I’m just cringing thinking about a scientist doing this in a publication. Apologies can’t fix that sort of mistake. Oh man careers would be destroyed over this
Wow imagine being this easily triggered, it would be fun to bully you
Pro
Who puts themselves at the top of a list?
I'd like to thank myself and the academy for this award.
I once had an analyst write a few paragraphs for a whitepaper. A few paragraphs in a 25 page or so document. They filed an ethics complaint against me, two of my peers and the three partners (it was a Big 4 firm) who were involved because their name didn’t appear as an author. *My* name didn’t even appear on the document and I wrote about a third of it - per policy we just listed the partners as contacts for prospective clients to call, not the actual authors.
They were fired for other reasons a few months later and remain unmissed.
Chief
If you edited an academic paper and did this, I’d be furious. Might be annoyed here, but seems like a massive overreaction lol
Chief
Disagree. First author typically has done the most work.
Chief
It sounds like there’s a LOT more info going on in the background than what we’re seeing here
Gosh, sounds like there is more to this..
Chief
Not saying this is necessarily OP, but yeah it’s amazing how often the narrator is implicitly trusted even when unreliable
What level is the person who complained?
Rising Star
Bring this book with you to the meeting
Rising Star
I bought it for my SO as a gift one year. She loved it because her mom was an English teacher.
Chief
The order of this list is by "most discussed" and I'm upset no one is discussing my comments.
Chief
😥
Chief
I am a W and have dealt with that hardship all my life. 😉
Rising Star
I was - but then doubled down and married a Z.
Chief
If it really mattered that much, they should just get a name change or married into an A.
Alice Assington. Both ends covered… or not covered…
Maybe they should’ve worked harder
This is why I added a "*" to the beginning of my name.
That's why my last name is numeric
Chief
What’s HR doing in this
OP had better come back with an update
Rising Star
They did upthread.
Spoiler; the complaining party didn’t know the list was alphabetized because they were looking at first names not last.
How much you wanna bet that the sour sport is under 30.
Rising Star
Probably.
Also known as the Aaron privilege