Office is a space where you are supposed to be known by your real name, and never by your nick name. Nobody calls you Chintu, Mintu or Bablu at office but as soon as you step out of office you want to be called your swanky nick name leaving behind your outmoded name which perhaps your parents chose for you on consultation of many astrologers, pandits and a few overpriced books something titled like “An Encyclopedia of Indian names for your child”.
What’s in a name? A question that’s been asked ever since one bald man (They call him seks’sphere or something) put forth it to the world. Let’s justify it ! What if a guy named Padmalochan suddenly becomes blind — are you going to call him Andhalochan ? You can’t ! You at least need an affidavit, a newspaper ad, and of course a good amount of money to do all these. And you need to carry that proof throughout your life notwithstanding its having any great purpose . My wife is supposed to carry my surname, but I intentionally have avoided making it, coz she has to carry this proof which is again I am sure would be a piece of paper that she has to carry along with her certificates, passports, any piece of document which will bear her former name. And of course, while filling a visa form she can’t escape from a section titled “Have you ever been known by any other name?” !
In my work place, a product based company with too many number of products and different clients, you have got another surname, an addendum to the original one. And that second surname is nothing but the name of the product/client you are working with. Often at my work place, people are known less by their name and more by the team they are working with.
“Where can I find Mr. Sushant?”
“Hmm…Well there are two Sushants here, Do you know which team he works with?”
“I guess… SyncML”
“Oh.. SyncML Sushant.. must be that corner cubicle. Please check it out.”
So SyncML Susant! Sounds nice! ain’t it ? Often product or company names are decided just like we decide baby names — after a good amount of research, polls, feedbacks etc. So they ought to be nice names. When those nice names becomes suffix or prefix in your name you become a altogether different entity. When you have two people bearing same name, then it really helps in distinguishing them. Most of our names are very common — Srinivas, Manjunath, Mani, Kumar, Senthil, Suguna, Archana, to name a few. And Rakesh, Suresh, Mahesh, Ram, Hari are most common Indian names. You will surely find one of them in any organization.
A new GM in my company instructed management to put employee name in the respective cubicles so that the latency period becomes less! I am not sure how successful he was, but candidly speaking; product or team names really comforts the other person to identify—at least to me. Take for example, If I say Mahesh, two persons come to your mind. Gateway Mahesh or Testing Mahesh. You can discover so many people around you. Developer Suguna or Suguna from QC. Browser Kumar or Accounting Kumar, VijayLakshmi from Marketing or VijayLakshmi from TSG. HR Veena or Development Veena. And just think, how do you differentiate two Manis from same dept?. Well, you still have good options. Customization Mani or Core Mani ? Of course, it eases your trouble when you have more than two persons in the same name. Take that — Marketing Naveen, TTPCom Naveen , SmartPhone Naveen. Whom do you want to meet ?
The naming rule is very simple. If two persons are from different dept, then they are known by their departments. If both from the same dept, then they are known by their teams. What if both are from one team, then by their actual surnames. Now what you are going to do, if even their surnames match. Well, you decide? You are the best to judge at that point of time.
Unless you have got a unique name/surname say for example, Shaddhaksharaya, Zunder, Lumitaswa — the product/team name is the second surname for you. But don’t let down yourself for not having a very unique name. In a perfect team work, you are known by your product, and never the product is known by your name. Just think, you are part of a great product or a great team. There’s a little bit of ‘you’ in that. That’s your best identity in a working place. That’s a supplement pride you carry along with that of your native and family.
~Swarup
