I work in higher education, where it is really important to address people appropriately. People with Ph.D.s spent a lot of years eating ramen, reading, and researching. They’ve earned their Dr. So and So status, and they don’t take kindly to being misaddressed.
Which means that I spend a significant amount of time coaching students on how to send emails to professors that they have never met. “Always make sure to address it to ‘Dr. So-and-So’ if they have a Ph.D. Be clear and to the point, they get too many emails as it is. Set up an email signature.” Wash, rinse, repeat.
My institution happens to have an email system wherein each faculty and staff member’s default email account is first.last@university.edu. My email, quite literally, contains my entire first name. I also have an automatic signature set up on every single outgoing message. Said signature has my name and my email address in it.
So: if you have emailed me, you have seen my name at least once. If you are replying to my email, you have been exposed to it a minimum of 3 times. DO NOT CALL ME AUDREY.
Why? Why is this such a terrible blunder?
- It causes me to fly into a rage which is not good for my productivity or blood pressure. (Ok. Maybe not quite “fly into a rage,” but I will at least roll my eyes and sigh, and at most tell all of my coworkers about the person who called me Audrey.. again.)
- You come across as lazy and sloppy; how hard is it to spell it right in both the ‘to’ line of your email and the salutation??
- It makes it seem like I am unimportant to you. Even if this is the case, letting me know in such a blatant manner is not doing you any favors. I have a good memory.
Don’t do it. Don’t be that person. Be careful. Pay attention to the emails you send. Be the person to ask for someone’s name 5 times rather than saying it wrong.
I did it once; I called a woman by the wrong name in an email. The second I realized it, I apologized and cracked a joke about also having a name people seem to enjoy misspelling. She was really nice about it. As am I, on the rare occasions that people realize what they’ve done and apologize. Moral of the story: if it’s too late, if you’ve already done the thing, just own it and apologize directly.
P.S. If you’re in my shoes, here are some tips on how to politely correct folks-that don’t include replying, “THAT’S NOT MY NAME” and attaching this GIF from Horrible Bosses to the email:
According to Aubs 
