AIBU - use of ‘Dr’ title - is this normal?!

[Cheesecake45]

Just not sure if I need to get with the times or not - is it normal to go by the title ‘Dr’ simply for having a PhD, if you aren’t in the medical profession? I’m talking one of the easiest PhDs to get (comparatively speaking), nothing vaguely linked to medicine.

AIBU??
YES = this is totally normal get over yourself
NO = wouldn’t be caught dead calling myself a doctor unless I could be assistance in a medical emergency!

If you're in academia, go for it! Otherwise you are setting yourself for ridicule behind your back (especially if your PhD is in something unrelated to your profession).

In industry you a judged by your work, not your post nominals!

Mmm depends where you work.

I worked in a big corporate engineering company, and it was totally normal for people to go by Dr. No one took the piss, it was relevant.

As well as people who look down on the achievements of others...

No, I don’t know! What is there to be jealous of?

Or maybe people just value different achievements? My mentors/role models are in my own field, not academia.

YABU
Of course one should use the title they've worked towards. No reason not to.

Read my subsequent posts

In industry you a judged by your work, not your post nominals!

I don't think anybody has told my company that. We get paid more if we're chartered.

So in a health care setting the medical Dr doesn't have the educatoonal qualification to be actually called a Dr but is given an honoury title of Dr. But if they become a surgeon they don't use the title of Dr, even though they are still a medical professional, which they never had the educational entitlement to use anyway. Meanwhile the nursing manager who has spent 5 years getting the qualification to actually be entitled to be called a Dr isn't permitted to use the title to ensure they are not confused with someone who has the title, but not the educational qualification to be entitled to the title in the first place.
That sums it up, even Drs have to be protected from confusion around the title which can be conferred on you without you achieving the educational requirement for it to be conferred.

Hell yes. After all those years of work? Absolutely, and it avoids all the Ms/Miss/Mrs bollocks. Go for it.

Wish someone had told me about the easy PhDs before I did mine.

I started using it as a title after one too many judgements being made regarding my status at being a single mother (which is ironic given that my title Miss only signifies lack of marriage but there we go). Since using it I have noticed people assume I will be male if I just give title surname, which tells us an awful lot about society and how women (unmarried or otherwise) are perceived within it. Oddly enough friends/family and people in my day to day life don't use my Dr title anymore than they would my Miss title.

I’m not wading through pages. You said ‘you know’ but don’t want to say.

Acknowledgement of the capacity for sustained and appropriate evaluation of evidence, leading to original and significant conclusions.

Or maybe people just value different achievements? My mentors/role models are in my own field, not academia.

Does that mean a PhD isn't an achievement? You don't have to work in academia to understand that it's an accomplishment

I can't be bothered to repeat what I have already written.
So, impasse

I'm retiring next year. Seriously contemplating doing a PhD just so I can tell my GP who has to be addressed with the pomposity of his title, whilst assuming he may call the mere patients John and Jane, that he may stop calling me Mrs Hellebores and start calling me Dr Hellebores.

Oddly enough friends/family and people in my day to day life don't use my Dr title anymore than they would my Miss title.

Why is that odd?

yup.

This. I'm a medical doctor and definitely think those with PhDs have earned the right to use the title. Probably more than me to be honest as I don't have an actual doctorate!

People with a PhD are definitely entitled to choose to use Dr . Clinical psychologists usually have DClinPsy and use the title Dr which sometimes means that they are confused with a psychiatrist. The only time I have felt uneasy with someone using the title Dr is when I found that someone with an honorary doctorate and an unregulated coaching certificate used the term Dr very widely to pretend an expertise they didn’t have. PhDs are not “easy”.

I just call doctors whatever they call me....so if they call me Mrs godmum, I call them dr xxx and if they call me Firstname, I call them Firstname.

Sure you did

God if I'd managed to make it through a PhD, all my clothing, my car, my house and my dog would be branded with "Dr".

Weirdly if I saw someone's name written down with the title Dr I'd assume a PhD holder, not a medical doctor. Surely you only call a doctor Dr while they're at work? Whereas a Dr through a PhD is always a Dr.

Damn fucking right I call myself Dr Chrayn.