Is it just me?

[Criiinge]

So I may be completely U but I've been thinking about this for far too long so need to know if anybody else feels the same and if not I'll get over it 🤣

I work in a professional job, office based, I cant be too specific about it as it would be outing, we don't deal with the public directly except occasional planned visitors etc and it is not a family run business or anything like that.

There are 2 managers, one higher than the other who are mother and daughter and the daughter always refers to her mother as mum, so she calls across the office 'mum' and if she's speaking about her its mum this and that and in emails its mum said this etc. I just can't help but find it a little cringey, is it just me!? I mean it's probably just as odd to call her by her name so there's no solution.

Complete non issue, just interested in thoughts?

Yeah,

I think I’d find that weird too. Like, sure, it’s your mum, so normal to call her that, but it does seem unprofessional to be calling someone “mum” when you’re at work, especially in emails etc. Like you say, it would probably be weird for them to use her name though, so I guess it’s just one of those things you have to live with. Yanbu to find it a bit jarring though, I think I’d feel the same. It’s like a blurring of personal and professional, feels over familiar, as an outsider.

But it is her mum, one of my team's mother's is a police sergeant for a team we work closely with, he wouldn't refer to her as mum in court or in front of offenders, but I will say to him is your mum dropping in this week there's a case I want to speak to her about, if not I'll give her a call etc, or he'll say mum's not coming to the briefing today, she's been summonsed to give evidence, she's sending John instead (mum will have also declined the meeting invitation). Do you expect her to say Joan do you know where client X's file is? That would be very odd.

For me I think in person it's fine but it's weird via email.

Not quite the same but my mum was a TA in my school and I had to call her Mrs _. Felt really weird and I never got used to it. Can’t imagine it feeling normal even as an adult.

I guess it would have to depend on the circumstances.

It is cringy I agree. In all honesty I actively avoid situations where close family work together. It’s always awkward and unbalanced.

Yabu, she is her mum!

I can see why it feels a it weird - my husband works with his dad and always refers to him by his first name at work, sounds a bit unprofessional otherwise IMO

Very unprofessional.

I have worked with my dad in various situations.

It's first name at work, dad out of work. Other people have referred to him as my dad at work but I always use his name.

YANBU.

My siblings went to DStepM's school for a while in Primary.

She was Mrs X at school and mum at home.

It's weird to call her mum but also weird if she called her her name. Maybe she could say mum when talking to her but Jane when talking about her, but you can't ask that of her

Yep similar here, I used to work at the same school as dc and they had to call me Mrs Mooloola, it was fine for both of us, we just got used to it 🤷‍♀️

I think it's OK for to address her mum as 'Mum' when she's having a passing conversation with her - 'Mum, do you know if that meeting's been cancelled?' for example.

But it's a bit weird to call her 'mum' when talking about her to other people. She shouldn't send an email that said, eg, 'Mum is working on a report about this' - that would seem unprofessional. In that context she should definitely say '[First name] is working on a report about this'.

@10HailMarys I think that's exactly it, the email just didn't seem right written that way, it just makes the tone of the email seem less serious, I have no idea if she does it when corresponding with other management from other departments, hopefully not!