Social Names

One day an employee was paged to the front desk of the clinic in which he worked. The person who did the paging, Sue (not her real name), said, "Tim Smith (not his real name either, of course!), please report to the front desk." A few minutes later Tim appeared. He told Sue that although Tim was his legal name, his social name was Wilson; and that he would like to be called by Wilson if at all possible.

Sue told everyone that she almost lost it when Tim/Wilson said this to her. She was, however, cordial to Tim/Wilson, and told him that she would try to remember that. What followed was a common scenario when something happens in an organization that falls outside the ordinary. Sue began assigning social names to anyone who requested one. In fact, the only way that one could get a social name was to go to Sue and asked her for one. You could not make up your own social name.

It was uncanny how appropriate this assignment of social names seemed to be. One of the most startling instances was when one of the staff doctors asked Sue for his social name. She immediately said, "Milford" (not the real name, of course!). The name was unusual for this day and age, although it was quite common in 50 years earlier. The amazing thing about this social name was that it was actually the middle name of the staff doctor's father. The father had specifically decided to not use this middle name for his son, the staff doctor, because he didn't want him to go through life being called "Junior." Now, some 40 years later, and in this absurd circumstance, that middle name of "Milford" was assigned to him anyway.

Needless to say, "Milford" was the highlight of the social name era. It provided a lot of laughs as well as curious speculations as to how such a coincidence could occur. No one ever knew whether Tim/Wilson ever became aware of the storm that he initiated. Although it is a great example of how a seemingly innocuous event can provide so much entertainment, it had a profound long-term effect on the organization.

It has been nearly 20 years, and stories of the social names still reverberate within the organization. They have become part of the culture. For those who were part of the organization back then, those stories represent a time when people were connected to one another in much deeper ways than simply doing their jobs. Those days represented a melding of personal and professional lives such that going to work was more than a paycheck or a meaningful job; it was life.