Things My Boss Said To Me

It's Friday and time for another installment of Things My Boss Said To Me.

This time it was a female boss and this was fairly early on in my career at a mutual fund company. My boss and I had the same first name. She went by Debra and at the time everyone called me Debbie. I was Debbie Conn. Nice ring. Two syllables followed by one.

But this boss pulled me aside and said Debbie didn't sound professional. I should use my given name Debra. Never mind that now there would be two Debra's in the department and that could be confusing. Not wanting to cross the boss, I went along with it and from thence forth I was known as Debra.

Now I understand Debbie sounds like a nickname, and I endured plenty of Debbie Does.... snickers (ala the porn film) and plus its dated (50's sounding), but its kinda weird changing your name in your 20's. Looking back though, should I have let this person influence the use of my name? There are plenty of successful women named Debbie. Did anyone ever really treat me differently as a Debra? Would it have ever kept me from a promotion? Doubtful.

But because of that one boss, my professional name changed.

My family still calls me debbie.