She Called Me 'Kak'

She’s the IT lady. Not ‘tea lady’ mind you. People may hear it wrongly but you shouldn’t if it is written down. If we have IT guys, we can have IT ladies right. We called her to install some program into some of the PCs. Unlike in my previous company, we can install anything on our own, this is a more controlled environment. It can get very frustrating sometimes but I do not complaint that much. I can do whatever I want on my own laptop so let’s just follow the rules at work.

Since I’m the only one who can explain things that an IT person can understand immediately without having to decipher a layman’s language, she asked me all the questions she needed to know and asked for my extension. The only thing that bothers me is she called me ‘Kak’! For one, I don’t think it is very professional to called people Kak and Abang at work. I also think she looks older than I am. Perasannya dia muda daripada kita. Anyway, I tried to rationalize things. People from my batch were not so much into IT last time. So she probably is younger than me despite not looking very young.

Not long after that episode, I went for lunch with a colleague. She has an 18-year-old daughter but I called her by her name and we have no problem with that. Then, we met someone from another department, another floor, known to my colleague in the lift. It is only natural for my colleague to invite her along. I don’t have any problem with that except when she started referring to me as ‘Kak’ despite having been properly introduced.

This really can’t be. I thought she looked older than me so I asked how old she is. Point blank after she called me ‘Kak’ for like 10 times. She said, "Oh! I’m 34. I’m not embarrassed to announce my age." To which my colleague replied, "Than you can’t called her ‘Kak’. She’s younger than you." I only smiled. Hehehehe... Revenge is sweet. OK! OK! I’m over reacting but I wonder do I appear older than my age or my maturity shines through and make me look older hehehe... I didn’t sound very mature now do I but I can act any way I want in my blog :D

On a serious note, at work, I believe we should call our peers by their name unless they refer themselves as ‘Kak A (bukan nama sebenar)’ to you. If you’re not sure, ask how you should address them. If they are in a higher position, you can use Puan or Cik. I have no problem if people wrongly called me Puan. But if you called me Kak and you’re not supposed to, I might forget I’m a mature 31 years old.

-young-at-heart-