Getting someone’s name right is a simple courtesy everyone should practice — especially in the workplace.

So when one French employee started a new job in the U.S. and a loud senior coworker continued to purposely mispronounce his name, he tried to brush it off at first.

But as his coworker grew more and more careless with his attitude, the employee contemplated whether going to HR would hurt his situation even more.

Keep reading for the full story.

WIBTA for going to HR about a coworker refusing to use my (foreign) name instead of an American one?

I’m French, been working in an American company for a few months as part of my post-grad studies.

My name’s Michel, pronounced the same as the American name Michelle.

Up until this point, he’s been careful not to rock the boat at work.

When I arrived in the US, I was worried to overstep boundaries, and I wasn’t confident in my English skills, so I let people speak over me a lot.

A few coworkers tripped over my name at first, but almost all of them learned the proper pronunciation quickly.

There was, of course, one notable exception.

All except John.

John is a senior employee, I guess in his 60s, with a pretty bombastic and loud demeanor, the kind who will slap your back hard and laugh out loud at his own jokes.

At first, he tried to give John the benefit of the doubt.

I’m not a fan of John.

Especially since he decided that my name is “Mitch.”

At first, I let it go because I thought John genuinely struggled to pronounce Michel.

But when John proved he was perfectly capable of pronouncing it correctly, this disrespect got harder to take.

But after a couple months, I heard him mention Michelle Obama.

I couldn’t believe it at first when he just pronounced my name perfectly.

I pointed it out excitedly, “This is my name! See, you can say it right!”

John still couldn’t understand.

But he countered with “It’s a woman’s name!”

I said I don’t care, it’s my name.

In my culture it’s not female—please pronounce it right.

John still continued to brush off his concerns.

He essentially waved it off with “Sure thing, Mitch, hahaha!”

Since then, as I grew bolder and more confident in this new environment, I have asked him a couple more times to call me Michel, not Mitch.

Both times, he deflected my request and kept calling me Mitch.

So the employee tried to put his displeasure in writing, but still John didn’t care.

I sent him a formal mail asking him to please call me by my actual name.

But that mail went unanswered.

It’s not the end of the world that John calls me Mitch, but it grates on my nerves a bit more every time.

The reason behind his refusal is somehow even more infuriating.

Especially since he’s the only one to refuse to use my actual name—and because he apparently tries to unilaterally “protect” me from being called what he deems a female name(?)

The employee wants to escalate the issue, but fears what might happen to his reputation if he does.

I am thinking about complaining to HR and forcing John to take the issue seriously by going through people whose requests he can’t just ignore to their faces.

At the same time, I am afraid to appear like a petty, belligerent jerk if I do over a “mere” mispronunciation of my name.

AITA?

Could John get any ruder?

Redditors chime in with their thoughts.

One final, stern warning would be more than enough as far as this commenter is concerned.

This just isn’t how professional people behave.

This situation is straight out of a workplace sensitivity training portal.

John really needs to be more sensitive about these matters.

This employee asked for one simple thing.

At the end of the day, he’s not wrong for wanting to be called by the name he was given.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.