Sure, sure, HR is important. No disrespect, we all need to have the department in our workplace.
But there’s sometimes a reason some employees refer to HR as the ‘fun police’.
They can often be a real stickler for the rules – including the rules that only they seem to know exist. And in this woman’s case, it seems there were rules put in place specifically for her.
Yep, because apparently HR won’t use her name in emails due to the way the rather unfortunate initials read.
Before we get into it, no, her name isn’t Beth Jones. Instead, her first name is Samantha and she has shared TikToks detailing just how difficult being this Samantha is in the world of corporate emails.
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Samantha explained discussing her email address ‘fills her with dread’. (Getty Stock Image)
In one video, the woman announced she had bagged herself a new job and that she would be ‘transitioning’ into the role within a couple of weeks.
The 28-year-old said: “Amid all of this excitement that I feel about this move and this new opportunity, I am filled with dread over one aspect of moving to a different job that I always face when I do this.
“Which is… having to have the tough conversation about how my name fits into a company email structure.”
Most of us would be worrying about what to wear on our first day, if we’ve made the right choice career wise and how we will gel with our new colleagues – but Samantha was more preoccupied with how the HR department will deal with the issue with her initials.
She said she has had ‘two professional jobs so far’ and has dealt with the same predicament each time, adding that she often receives a concerned email from the firm flagging the problem with her before she starts her employment.
She said her initials always cause issues when she moves jobs. (Getty Stock Image)
Samantha continued: “My name is Samantha Hart. And most companies use the email designation of first initial, last name, meaning my email would be ‘shart’.”
For those blissfully unaware of what this term means, ‘shart’ is a combination of s**t and fart – so it isn’t exactly the best foot to start an email exchange on, is it?
Samantha herself is all too aware that her initials are less than ideal and admitted she wouldn’t mind HR designating her a ‘different structure for her email address’.
She said: “I don’t want an email that says shart. Fix it. Give me something else.
“I did investigate the email structure at this new company and they do in fact use first initial, last name – which means that I am going to have another very uncomfortable conversation with somebody.
“At this point, I feel like do I just reach out right off the bat and say look, you’re not going to want my email to be this, you better give be something else. Or should I let them come to me? Should I let them initiate the conversation?
“The ‘shart’ conversation, if you will – which I have had three times in my life. It’s such a blessing to be me!”
Social media users had a lot of sympathy for Samantha’s email obstacle, although others couldn’t help but chuckle.
One said: “This happened to my ex husband Paul Enis!”
Another wrote: “Now parents need to think about corporate emails when naming their babies!”
A third added: “As S.Wallow, I feel your pain.”
And someone else commented: “As someone in IT – please reach out. When we have to rename a bunch of logins after someone starts, it can cause headaches for everyone (including you)!”
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@thesam_show
Topics: Jobs, TikTok, US News
