Woman's First and Last Name Combo Causes Her Grief Every Time She Gets a New Job
This woman is always reminded at new jobs that her "name does not exactly fit the company email structure." You won't believe it.
Updated Feb. 15 2024, 4:49 p.m. ET
The gift that keeps on giving is a TikTok video with the story of an unfortunate name … because the comments are even funnier than the video itself! TikToker Samantha Hart (@thesam_show) took to the social media platform to share one of her eternal struggles when getting a new job. Many of us know that with a new job comes a company email, but some people don’t always have great luck with the company email.
Samantha is one of those people. She explains that companies often use a first initial plus last name format. So, what is Samantha’s first initial, plus her last name? It’s shart! Personally, I would love my email to be shart — the portmanteau of s--- and fart — but I get why it may not be safe for work. So, Samantha asks the viewers if, after two instances of this at previous companies, she should just reach out to HR proactively.
Woman lands a new job, but dreads the impending company email problem.
In her video, Samantha shares how grateful she is for her new job before jumping into the juicy (hopefully not too juicy) shart saga. “I am filled with dread over one aspect of moving to a different job that I always face when I do this, which is having to have the tough conversation of how my name fits into a company email structure,” she says.
“I’ve had two professional jobs so far and at every single workplace … I have received an email from HR the week before I start letting me know that my name does not exactly fit the company email structure as they would intend and would I mind if they gave me a different structure for my email. To which I always say, ‘Yeah, like yeah, I don’t want an email that says shart, yea fix it, give me something else.’”
“So now as I transition to this new role, I did investigate the email at this new company, and they do, in fact, use first initial and last name, which means I am going to have another very uncomfortable conversation with somebody.” Samantha may expect an uncomfortable conversation, but we sense the best icebreaker on her first day. Tomato, tomato!
Samantha asks if she should just proactively reach out to HR at her new job, to which we say, go for it. What better way to show self-awareness and be proactive than to be like, “Hey, I have a name that probably doesn’t work in your email structure, so it’s cool if you want to use a different structure. P.S. I promise I won’t shart at my desk.” OK, maybe don’t add that last bit, but there’s nothing wrong with reaching out.
The comment section on TikTok gave us a whole slew of unfortunate workplace names.
Samantha definitely has a unique problem, but she isn't the only one with an unfortunate name. A man named Chris Littmann commented, “clittmann has entered the chat,” referencing an important bit of female anatomy with his name. A woman named Shawna Harter added, “I have sharter. I love it!” So do we, sharter queen.
Someone else wrote that they went to college with someone named Tiffany Estes, whose workplace email would be testes. Another commented, “We had an S lutz at one company,” and Katie Hart added, “My cousin is a shart and my brother is a phart.” There’s nothing better!
Except there's something better. “This happened to my ex-husband Paul Enis!” Yes, Paul definitely has the funniest company email. Although the woman who worked with Sam Adcock could easily tie for first place. It’s all kind of like that SNL sketch about the earthquake at the Change of Name office with all those goofy names … but in real life!