He Started Working For His Dad, But His Dad Won’t Let Him Call Him “Dad,” His First Name, Or His Last Name At Work
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Imagine working for your dad. It’s his company, so he sets the rules.
In the office culture he has created, everyone calls him by his first name. Would you call him dad since he’s your dad, call him by his first name, or come up with another name to call him?
In this story, one young man is in this situation. At first, he naturally calls his dad dad, but then, per his dad’s request, he starts calling him by his first name. Eventually, his dad doesn’t like that either.
Keep reading to find out what he ends up calling his dad and how his dad is eventually confused by the name change.
Of course Dad I will not call you by your name as you request……
So in the mid 90’s I joined my Dad’s company helping in the office.
When I first joined the team there were about 12 main people in the business. So everyone knew I was my dad’s son.
My dad has always run businesses in a relaxed environment wanting workers to call him by his first name.
So because he was my dad I called him dad (duh).
Dad seems to have trouble deciding what he wants his son to call him at work.
So after a few weeks my dad pulled me into a meeting asking me not to call him dad while at work.
So I obliged wanting to placate him. So I started calling him Steve ( not his real name but I like Steve and Steve is a cool name.)
After a few day’s he again pulled me in to a meeting. This time he asked me not to call him Steve because it sounded weird for me as his to call him by his first name.
OP really wasn’t sure how to please his dad.
So I asked him if I should call him Mr Summer’s ( not his surname/last name)
He said no that it was to formal for him.
So I asked him “Well what I should call you?”.
He told me to figure it out but not to call him those.
OP came up with a pretty good workaround.
So here comes my very petty side for the next +/- 20 years while I worked for the business till I left.
Inside and outside of work ( I.E. when I saw him at home or out at dinner) I called him boss.
He kept on asking me then to call him Dad which I refused.
The day I left the business I immediately reverted back to calling him Dad.
His dad was a little confused.
It took him about 6 years after that for him to ask why I stopped calling him boss and started calling him Dad,
When I gave him my answer he was shocked he never put 2 and 2 together.
Which shocked me more than him because I was sure he figured it out.
My dad is very technically inclined but sometimes misses things that are right in front of him.
Surely, his dad at least understood why he started calling him boss. It’s odd that he wouldn’t eventually figure out on his own why OP reverted back to calling him dad; although, after 20 years of being called boss, I could see how it may not have been obvious to him.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
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This person was confused.
Another person was confused by the same thing.
This person thinks the dad was being unreasonable.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about siblings who don’t think they should have to give up their own sports’ seasons to help with their younger siblings.
Another person summarizes what happened.
Calling him boss was really a great solution. It’s appropriate but also generic enough that it doesn’t feel weird.
It’s funny that it took awhile for the dad to notice when OP reverted back to calling him dad. It’s also funny that the dad didn’t figure out on his own why OP stopped calling him boss.
I was worried he was going to come up with an awful or weird name when his dad told him to “figure it out.”
Working with family can have some interesting challenges.
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