to not want to call CEO Sir?

[avivabeaver]

our CEO has been knighted in the birthday honours list.

do I have to call him Sir? If so, how am I going to do this with a straight face?

how am i not going to snigger out loud when others do?

A previous big boss I worked for was made a Dame - we carried on calling her by her first name - she didn't even ask us to add it to the signature on the letters we prepared for her to sign.

Practice your curtseying just in case

What do you call him at the moment?
Is he known as 'Mr X'?
If so, he will actually no longer be Mr at all and will therefore have to be known as Sir.
Maybe you could just use his first name and not worry about the title!

I call our CEO his name. It's even a shortened version of his name.

should add

he already has a major God complex and much prefers simpering yes people.

i really can't see myself not laughing

think i will have to look for another job

i'd really ham it up and enjoy 'sir' ing him - i'd do it at every possible opportunity

What do you currently call him?

The great thing about a knighthood ( in this circumstance) is that it is applicable to the first name so if his name is currently Fred Smith, his title means he is now Sir Fred and that is how you should refer to him, even in previously he was known as Mr Smith.
His wife (assuming he has one) on the other hand gets, to be lady Smith.....

He is known by his first name at the moment.

Will have to see what others do. I guess if he was a towering genius/quirky/interesting may be I could do it but I just can't!

I would just continue to call him by his first name - I work for a knight but have never used his title, and he has never asked me to.

I'd continue to call him by his usual first name, there's no way I could say sir. I don't believe in all that stuff.

Lets's hope he sticks to his first name as I presume he calls you by yours. I used to work for Sir Clive Sinclair. He's a very unassuming man and would get terribly embarrassed if he was called Sir. Conversely I've worked for 'commoners' who'd insist on being called Mr So-and-So with great self-importance. People are odd about names and particularly so, it seems, in Britain.

I'd keep calling him what I had done to date, with the exception that I would call him Sir on first congratulations, and whenever there are visitors around.

Stick to his first name. I had a boss who was made a Lady. Never asked to be called by her title, except to an American air hostess who was bullying someone, but that's another story.

I would continue to call him by his first name. 'Sir' implies that he is better than you. I really dislike titles.

My real bugbear is when managers expect to be called Mr/Mrs last name, but call the people working for them by their first name. Imo, either everyone should be called by their first name or everyone by their title and last name.

Could I change my first name to Lady by deed poll (ponders)

"My real bugbear is when managers expect to be called Mr/Mrs last name, but call the people working for them by their first name. Imo, either everyone should be called by their first name or everyone by their title and last name."

Ooooh yes! One of my very first bosses was that type. Everyone else called him Mr X, I called him Brian, reasoning that he called me by my first name. The ultra conservative office was shocked but Brian seemed impressed by this then youngster's gall. Unfortunately he took it as a cue to try it on with me, but that's another story!

Graham- my first 2 jobs, the office managers were called Mr. to the point that Bob, who had been there 15 years got promoted and then had to be called Mr Smith.
Thought that had stopped in the 1980s!

It might have stopped in the 80's, aviva, I'm old!

When I worked in the police the deputy chief was a right knob and on his first day he came into our department and referred to us all by our first names. My bosses called him Sir and when he was introduced to me he said hello Laurie and I said 'lovely to see you again Dave'.

He then smirked just the teensiest bit patronisingly and said 'oh it's probably best to call me Mr arsehole now'

I said 'of course I will just as soon as you start to call me mrs fairycake, I know how much you HATE hierarchy Dave'.

What could the fucker say?

My dh works for a lord, who was previously a knight and everyone just calls him by his first name. They do use his title for press releases and so on though. I would find it hard to respect someone who expects people to suddenly call them 'sir' when they've previously just been known by their first name - pretentious or what?!

I used to work for someone who was a Sir and then became a Lord. He would never have expected anyone in the office to call him by anything other than his first name.

Laurafairycake- am now saving that- hope i have the opportunity to use your line- especially as he is in the middle of removing layers from the business and making people redundant.