DM Dilemma: meet nickname "Nicholas"

0:00DM Dilemma time. If you've got thoughts on this DM Dilemma from nickname Nicholas, give us a call at 601-995-1017. He says, I'm mad at my coworker that keeps calling me by my birth name rather than my nickname. And they think I don't have a right to be angry. Long story short, I'm a mechanic, and I've been with the shop for three years. Everyone at the shop calls me spider. It's a nickname I came up with at 16 and it's stuck. There's a new shop manager. He's way better than our old manager, but he calls me by my birth name. I've asked him to call me spider, but he says that's not on my time card. The guys in the shop think me being mad is ridiculous, but I feel like I have a right to be angry about it. What do you guys think? 601-995-1017. I completely understand the anger. I don't think that that's going to get your manager to change though, just because I've had this experience, but in reverse, growing up my family liked to,

1:01they like nicknamed me. I did not choose this nickname like you did spider of Allie. They wanted to call me Allie and so to Allison. And I always felt like that was a baby's name. And I didn't want a baby's name. My name is Allyson. I want to be called Allyson. And I would. And my family thought it was so funny to watch me get flustered and angry because they were calling me Allie. And I was like, I don't like being called Allie. That's a baby's name. So I was giving them the reaction that they wanted. It wasn't until like I started to grow up and mature and realize if I gave them less of a reaction, they would probably use the name less and I was right. So I think that's what you've got to do. You've got to calm down a little bit, have a mature conversation with him and just be like, hey, man, I'm not going to respond to you if you don't call me spider. Fun fact about our show. Two bosses in a row had tried to get us to name the show Adam and Allie. And you refused to both times. It was so funny. That is a hard line for me

2:01because it brings up so much like a trauma from growing up. Spider, I'll call you spider. I don't mind calling you spider, but we're not in a work environment right now, spider. So plus this is your boss. You can't be barking at your boss because he doesn't want to call you spider. He's a professional and spider is a silly nickname. Even worse, you came up with it on your own. You were just sitting in your bedroom at 16 years old or however old you were and you were like, I want to be spider. It reminds me of several people I used to work with at my last retail job. This one woman, she was hired. She introduced herself to me as Christine whenever she was trying to get the job. Then she was hired and she was like, actually, I go by Amaya or Amaya. One of the two of those. I think it was Amaya because I told everybody she made it up. She called it her spirit name. And I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Then there was another girl named Samantha. I had called her Samantha for months.

3:02And then out of the blue one day, she decides she wants to be Daisy. Oh, equally ridiculous. So like Amaya started a trend at that store. Everyone was like, oh, you know what? I've always hated my name too. I'm going to make up my own name. And then Brandon decided he wanted to be a dusk to make slider. You want three people? Three people. Stupid names. Each one dumber than the last. The dusk one really drove me nuts because he posted on Facebook one time a picture of like the sky and dusk. And he was like, I want my presence to make you feel the way this picture makes you feel. It's like you're a loser. Like you're a loser, Brandon. 601-995-1017 is our phone number. If you've got thoughts on a spider boy here who wants to be called spider, the boss isn't calling him spider. The boss wants to call him his birth name, I think of a Spencer. Yeah, 601-995-1017. Who's right? Who's wrong? Eric makes a good point. He says, all I can think of with this DM dilemma

4:04is stepbrothers. You have to call me Nighthawk. You have to call me Nighthawk. That's really funny. It's because we called this guy nicknamed Nicholas, but the name he wants to be called is spider. Yes. His birth name is Spencer. Yes. He is upset that the boss refuses to call him spider because it's a stupid name. Well, but it's what everyone else in the shop calls him. And he doesn't understand why this new manager just won't call him spider and instead keeps calling him Spencer. 601-995-1017 is our phone number. Is he makes a good point? Most people, including me, are only called by their nickname, whenever it's from their full legal name. So I'm imagining Izzy is Bella, right? Something like that, yeah. So she's saying, and the argument could be made that spider kind of sounds like Spencer. There are some similarities to the SP. But the same number of syllables. You're not shortening anything.

5:06You know, Spencer, spider. So Izzy's saying he'd have to be Spence. Go by Spence, spider. That's not what he wants. Marie says, most job applications have a section for your preferred name. If he put spider in there, he could have a point with the boss like, hey, it's on my application. Call me spider. This person says, I go by my middle name, but my first name is on all my government paperwork. So it either say, I go by my middle name or move on. Most of the time, the doctor or whatever will write on their paperwork. My middle name as AKA payroll only knows me by my first name, but my dentist has both. Oh my gosh, I am laughing at Izzy's follow-up that says he's too average for a nickname like spider and getting angry. He's not called it is telling to me. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. Like I just went through dusks, Brandon Dusk's Facebook page. He had like this big rant that he just posted

6:08like a couple weeks ago about how four years ago, I decided to go by the name of dusk. This wasn't a decision I took lightly or something I did on a whim. It's like, shut up. You're not that important. Good morning, what's your advice? Hey, baby. Mildred is here. We love it whenever you call Mildred. And it's been a while. What's your advice for nickname Nicholas? I was thinking, baby, if he wants to be called spider, it's got to be a euphemism to something. I think he likes bread and webs and certain traps to work, baby. Ah, could take that a couple of different ways. I'm not really sure where we should take it. But that's a good point-ish, Mildred. Yeah, yep. All right, well, I will let him know, and I love you, sugar. I love you. Bye, bye, baby. Bye, love you too. All right, there's the DMs of Lama.