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. ...Nancy's behavior sounds like it was outrageous and over-the-top. The customers shouldn't be able to do that (I know, I know), but that goes double for the facilitator/helper. She has the right to pleasantly inform you that SHE doesn't like titles (Americans don't have titles???? Tell that to Doctor, Officer, Reverend, Sergeant, Sister, Mr & Ms -- "titles" are nothing more than terms of of courtesy and respect, and not necessarily hierarchical ingratiations. . If she sees them as elitist (or whatever), she should have quickly said so and asked you, "Please, in the future... just call me Nancy." End of story. . You say you were close to tears. Sounds like a pretty vicious response on her part-- one that employers should not tolerate from customers, but ESPECIALLY not from their employees. , Susan's reason for her request, coupled with your own experience, sounds like something upon which I would act. . On a lighter note, one of my friends didn't want his eight-year-old to refer to any adult by their first name. Having been raised like this, I was certainly OK with him calling me "Mr. FingerMom" instead of "Middle", but I asked my friend if I could call his son, "Mr. David". Mr. David absolutely LOVED this, and we bonded very nicely. We'd do this little silly dance when we first greeted each other. One night, arriving at a party at his parents' house, I saw Mr. David heading up the stairs to bed. I called and when he turned, I did our silly dance. He looked around at the party guests and very somberly greeted me without dancing. I was pretty heartbroken -- kind of an "our boy is too grown up to do that any more". He turned and kept going up the steps. I started in to the house but, the moment he was out-of-sight of everyone else, he hissed my name and, when I turned, did an EXAGGERATED form of our silly dance. . Life has its incredible moments. . . . . ALWAYS wanted to tell customers, "That's MISTER Asshole to you, buddy!!!"
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