Woman speaks out after company refuses to use her initials in email

A woman with an unfortunate set of initials has gone viral on TikTok after explaining her HR department refused to use her name in emails.

Naming a child is a big responsibility and it seems some parents may not have thought their choices all the way through. One woman legally named her child after a class A drug as part of an experiment, while another was criticised for naming her son “Alpha Mael”.

But another woman’s more innocuous-sounding name became a problem when she entered the workforce. TikToker Samatha Hart explained she got a new job and would be moving companies.

She said: “Well y’all it’s official. I have a new job which means that I will be transitioning from my current position to a new one within the next two weeks.

“In amidst all of this excitement that I feel about this transition and this move and this new opportunity I am filled with dread over one aspect of moving to a different job that I always face.”

She elaborated on the “tough conversation” she often has to have at a new job when it comes to getting a company email address and how her name fits into the traditional “company email structure”.

Hart continued: “My name is Samantha Hart and most companies use the email designation of first initial, last name.

“Meaning that my email would be ‘Shart’ and I’ve had two professional jobs so far and at every single workplace this has been the email company structure.”

She revealed that, at her previous jobs, HR had emailed her before she started to explain that her name didn’t “fit” the company email structure and asked if they could give her a different email.

Hart asked whether she should contact HR herself this time and face the issue head-on, or wait until they say something.

Based on the comments, it seems Hart is far from the only person to have struggled with the company email address structure.

One person with the username “chris.littmann” commented: “clittmann has entered the chat. Have been dealing with this since college.”

Someone else said: “This happened to my ex-husband Paul Enis!”

Another added: “My name is Sue Hartlove so my work emails are always shartlove.”

“Rkelley has entered the chat,” one TikToker added.

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