To ask if you've ever been mistaken ...

[haveyoueverbeenmistaken]

Have you ever been mistaken at work for doing a different role, eg you're the CEO and someone thought you were the office junior and asked you to
make coffees for the meeting?

Not at work but out and about town. I dress professionally at work so on weekends I just have a messy bun and a hoodie on when out shopping.

Coupled with looking foreign, so many people assume I don't speak English or that I must be a bit dim.

What a compliment though!!

My DD is a teacher and had just started working at a large secondary school. Another member of staff assumed she was a sixth former and ordered her out of the staff room.

I was a TA for many years and on a few occasions was approached by outside visitors to the school assuming I was the Head!

@WiddlinDiddlin is your real name Angela Hernandez?

I'm a university teacher and have on several occasions been mistaken for an undergraduate. My favourite occasion was when I was talking to a colleague in her office, and another colleague (who had been in the same department as me for 8 years) came in to ask her something, saw me there, and said to her, 'Oh, I'm sorry; you're teaching; I'll come back later'.

Years ago I was in Millets hovering next to the queue for the till whilst DP was waiting to pay for sonething when a woman asked me "Do you sell wellingtons?" I shrugged and pulled a 'no idea sort of face', and she said 'Well really!' and stormed off. I sometimes wonder if she complained to the manager or just never shopped there again! 😁

That French alps story had me in stitches 'he wasn't even French'

😅😅

I use to work in the Civil Service in London and one day we had an unannounced visit from an MP. A colleague went up to him and asked if he was here to fix the photocopier (because of the type of suit he was wearing) and was viably disappointed when he said no.

Why didn’t you just say “I don’t work here”?

Kind of connected......DH and I, thoroughly ashamed that we smoke, hid round the back of our hotel for a crafty one. A smartly dressed man appeared and shouted at us to get back to work and that he wasn't paying us to smoke!

Two sort of relevant experiences were:

1. In Germany for meetings in a Defence Joint services site, with noone in sight, walking across a windy car park in a suit with long hair blowing around, no tie, shirt tail hanging out and hands in my pockets.
   Apparently from nowhere a member of the RAF appears, and passes giving a salute.
   I don’t know what they thought they saw, but from the state I was in then it was probably ‘If in doubt salute it’

2. At a Civil Service conference going into the main room, I passed someone I recognised.
   I have a good memory for faces and a terrible memory for names.
   We made eye contact, had the quick general small talk of ‘Hi, how are you?’, ‘What topics are you looking forward to’ etc
   Then we departed, I sat down, browsed through the conference info pack with Civil Service magazine and my ‘buddy’ on the front cover - Stephen Lovegrove, the then Permanent Under Secretary for Defence

This sadly happens in the NHS quite a bit in the areas I've worked. Doctor arrives and people assume they are the health care assistant or nurse because they aren't white.

I was young, carefree and indolent, and anyway I was a bit aggreived that she took mistook my trendy clothes for a Millets uniform!

I was mistaken for a pupil in the school where I worked... a primary school...
I was 25!

Many a time as the college student or intern. I'm in my late thirties but still get mistaken for early 20's. Led to so many humiliating situations and never feel I get taken seriously at work or even outside of it because of how I look.

Not me but DH. Always very smartly dressed, when suffering from a serious health condition which needed a lot of hospital appointments, kept up his standards.

other patients regularly asked him about their condition, what to expect from the appointment, how long they would be etc , because only he and the consultant wore a tie.

Not work related but when I was 24 I took my much younger brother to get his GCSE results as we had to drive several miles to get there . A member of staff turned to me and said ‘It’s such a worrying time for psrents’
😬

In one of my first jobs as a careers adviser, I was shouted at and told to get into class by the school's head teacher.
Also often get asked if I'm medical, most recently as a paramedic tried to cannulate my daughter in an ambulance - I'm not, but as a breast cancer survivor and parent of a child with a chronic illness I've been in way too many hospitals. You pick up a fair bit!

In my mid 20s a couple of years into my first professional job. I worked in a huge open plan office and sat vaguely near the bank of admin desks. I got up to get a cup of tea one day and was accosted in the kitchen by some random older guy asking me to sort his expenses. Erm, no?

He was apologetic in the end but annoying that young women automatically = his PA.

In a posh hotel, at a wake, so wearing black suit & white blouse.
A very nasty person (not part of the funeral party) snapped her fingers at me as I walked past and rudely demanded to know where her soup was .

"Chef's not finished pissing in it yet" I said.
Couldn't resist it.

I've had it both ways:

Waiting for Headteacher ExH in his staffroom, a visitor somehow thought I was the Head

And later, working for myself and interviewing, I was doing a bit of admin in the outer office when a candidate walked in, mistook me for the secretary or something and snapped "Holmes! Interview! With Puzzled!"

I smiled nicely, said I'd make the arrangements and asked them to knock and enter the main office in 5 minutes when "the boss" would be ready.
The race between their brain and expression when they did enter was a treat to see

I've looked older than my time for a long time, but don't look old iyswim? (Not deluded, genuinely look young and have 'young' skin due to being black) I think people sense some level of presence from me. Aged 21 people thought I was 30s and age 30 someone thought I was 45 or so ...

Anyway. When I was 20 and DH was 21 a doctor mistook me for his foster carer. In my defence, DH is 32 and looks about 20 now even with a beard!

My DD was in hospital having a follow up operation and we were staying overnight. The OT wasn’t available to observe her using crutches so she had to stay another night. I asked the nurse if she could be discharged as she had been on crutches for 3 month already. A ding dong back and forwards ensued and the nurse refused and called for the duty doctor.

Continued the debate with the duty doctor who apparently mistook me for the bed manager and thought I wanted the bed.

Once he realised who I was he said yes take her home. I was impressed that he was prepared to argue so hard on the patients behalf though. 😁

I was a visiting specialist teacher for ASN pupils. I called into a particular school every day to see a couple of pupils for about 2 years. The Headteacher asked me which pupils got speech and language therapy. When I said it wasn't either of my pupils he said, "But you should know - you're the speech therapist" 🙄

A 6th year pupil tried to buy me a drink in a pub once in a nudge, nudge sort of way. He was with other pupils who knew me. To make it worse, I was driving and in my own waiting for someone who was in the loo and drinking Diet Coke.

He was German (but this was in the UK) and had a heavy accent. He put his arm round me and offered to get me a 'Cock'.

I very much did not want a Cock, certainly not from a pupil, and not up in front of two of my sniggering A level set. They pulled him away and explained. He apologised in a way that made it funnier, 'I didn't know you were a teacher and sorry about offering the Cock.'

Thankfully, my friend came and I was rescued.

This was 30 years ago and it still makes me snigger.