My company hired a new guy to do documentation a few weeks ago, Rajeev. I've seen him walking around talking to the software developers, and attending meetings with managers in glass-walled rooms. I've heard several managers praising Rajeev by name and telling me that we need to get Rajeev to review prior documentation before we begin on projects. Everybody seems to like Rajeev.

So when I sat down across the table from him yesterday in front of a few other people, I took a moment to introduce myself. "Rajeev, right? I'm Scott, from development."

"Excuse me?"

I repeated myself.

"My name is Advik. I'm the new project manager. I just started a few weeks ago."

I apologized profusely for the mix-up and excused myself to go kick myself in the bathroom.

So just to be clear, my company, which hadn't hired anybody new in our part of the building for some time now, just hired two Indian guys within the last month, and I've seen Advik walking around but heard people talking about Rajeev, and I didn't know they were two people so I assumed they were one. I don't know if that makes me a racist, but it sure does make me a huge oaf.


One Reply to Documenting My Discomfiture

Scott Hardie | April 6, 2017
I changed their names here to be discreet. Hopefully nobody who knows them will read this and assume that I can't even be bothered to learn correct Indian names.


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