Do you remember our recent post about an employee whose every job started with HR politely offering to change her work email because her name was Samantha Hart, and the corporate email structure imposed the “first letter of name + last name” standard?

Well, today we have Greg Roper with the same problem… Moreover, Mr. Roper was a schoolteacher, and personally, as a parent, I would be damn concerned if I received an email from such a contact at the beginning of the school year. Anyway, let’s get to the story now.

More info: Reddit

The author of the post once worked as an IT guy at the local school many years ago

Image credits: Stephen Phillips – Hostreviews.co.uk (not the actual photo)

Among their work responsibilities there was making work emails for the new teachers

Image credits: u/Worldly-Leg-74

And here comes Mr. Greg Roper, a decent new teacher with a not-so-decent email, according to the school standards

Image credits: Malte Helmhold (not the actual photo)

Image credits: u/Worldly-Leg-74

The IT guy tried to fix everything by giving him the email roperg, but the vice principal emailed back soon demanding to follow the rules

Image credits: Sarah Cervantes (not the actual photo)

Image credits: u/Worldly-Leg-74

Needless to say that when the new school year started, the parents got outraged, so the principal started an investigation here – and the VP’s email came in handy to the author!

It was many, many years ago, when our Original Poster (OP), the user u/Worldly-Leg-74, worked as a junior IT guy in one of the local schools, and among their responsibilities was, in particular, making work emails for the new teachers. And for Greg Roper too.

No, don’t get me wrong, Mr. Roper was a completely decent gentleman, and it wasn’t his fault that his parents gave him such a name, and then, many years later, the bureaucratic machine of the education system developed a unified concept of work emails. Yes, exactly, “first letter of the first name + last name.”

But the author had a rough idea of what would happen if they made such an email, so they took responsibility and personally swapped the elements so that the teacher received the completely sane email roperg@domain.org. However, not for long – after some time, the OP received an angry email from the vice-principal, who demanded that everything be brought into proper shape. Well, malicious compliance had never been so easy…

Time passed, the school year began – and the principal received tons of indignant letters from parents saying something like “who did you hire there to teach our kids?” Of course, the OP was urgently called to the principal’s office, where the vice principal, who had just returned from vacation, tanned and happy, was already present.

Then everything unfolded like in the best sitcoms. At first, the higher-ups yelled at the IT guy, but after they proudly presented an email from the vice principal, the big boss abruptly changed the vector of their anger. The vice-principal left the office with his tail between his legs, and Mr. Roper received his old, ‘decent’ email back that evening, and treated the OP to lunch in gratitude. But that, as they say, is a completely different story…

Image credits: Cherrydeck (not the actual photo)

In fact, corporate standards in many business sectors very often imply the use of various combinations of the employee’s first and last name for the email to make it really unique (works perfect if you have some Smiths or Johnsons among the staff).

“Combining your first and last name to create an email address is a common practice that can be a great choice for professionals who want to project a personal touch,” such wise words are said in an article on making a proper email on Management.org. So such policies seem really reasonable – however, until the first appearance of any Greg Roper or Samantha Hart.

And, of course, people in the comments laughed heartily at this story, at the hapless vice principal, and at the funny combination of the teacher’s first and last names as well. “Did you survive that lunch ungroped?” for example, one of the wittiest commenters wrote. Well, we do hope so.

And, of course, commenters cited many similar stories from their own experience about how, for example, such decent people fell victim to blindly following bureaucratic procedures: Tracey Cunningham (last name’s first three letters + first name’s first letter), Megan Finger (last name + two first letters of the first name) or Don Gregory (first name + last name’s first letter).

However, Mr. Gregory was the boss himself, so the very next day he actually received another work email… In the meantime, if you also have some similar and no less laughable tales under your belt, we really look forward to you sharing it in the comments below this post.

People in the comments just cracked up at this tale, and shared many similar cases from their own experience as well

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