All Nigerians both on home soil or Abroad, Is it necessary to call your coworkers ( Nigerian ) aunty or bros if you meet them at work especially when it's obvious they are older than you especially when you are in a higher position .


How do you address them?

Pls share your views and opinions . Thank you

The only respect I require and give in the work place is:
1. Finish your work and send in your reports without excuses and stories on time too
2. Be on time to work and don't spend office hours connducting personal business
3. Keep your spirituality to your self and don't impose it on other collegues, respect every ones freedom to believe or not to
4. Don't embezzele office funds, use and retire funds appropirately.
I don't have time to accept or give eye service, don't steal money, show up late and not send in reports then start calling me Anty or Mummy, the only ones I actually greet and add "mama" when speaking with them are the cleanersn they are elderly.
We have a first name policy or if you are not comfortable use initials or titles. No Anty or Uncle. Most times I find its used for eye service not actual respect.

Well said DB.

Same people that will mama you would yawa and wash you once your back is turned.

Yes/no "ma" and that's just it for me.

huh?

why will i call a co worker aunty or uncle - my manager self has a son older than me - I call him by his first name and respect him accordingly.

na wah for these titles

cotton101: huh?

why will i call a co worker aunty or uncle - my manager self has a son older than me - I call him by his first name and respect him accordingly.

na wah for these titles

Is she a Nigerian ? some older coworkers expects you to respect( in nigerian way by calling them aunty or bro) them no matter what , or they end up saying ' that girl once they have kids and have small change , everybody is their mate' some will even go to the length of talking behind your back , I know I really don't care but sometimes you just can't look past it, IMO

ifyalways: Well said DB.

Same people that will mama you would yawa and wash you once your back is turned.

Yes/no "ma" and that's just it for me.

Sure thing, that happens everytime

debrief08: The only respect I require and give in the work place is:
1. Finish your work and send in your reports without excuses and stories on time too
2. Be on time to work and don't spend office hours connducting personal business
3. Keep your spirituality to your self and don't impose it on other collegues, respect every ones freedom to believe or not to
4. Don't embezzele office funds, use and retire funds appropirately.
I don't have time to accept or give eye service, don't steal money, show up late and not send in reports then start calling me Anty or Mummy, the only ones I actually greet and add "mama" when speaking with them are the cleanersn they are elderly.
We have a first name policy or if you are not comfortable use initials or titles. No Anty or Uncle. Most times I find its used for eye service not actual respect.

Lol@ #4,

As the only Nigerian in my team i don't have all this aunty, uncle, ma, mama business to deal with. I have worked with people in the past who have children older than me and call them by their first name - the only thing I cannot do is allow a woman who is old enough to be my mother make tea/coffee for me or wash my cup - my oyinbo mentality no reach that level!!!!

As 4 me, im in Naija, personally, i dont like too much familiarity in my working place, so, i address everybody with his/her title.........that way, i think im free, and nobody ever call me by my first name, its my title, even though, im younger than most of them.

We cannot seperate our culture from d way we relate wit people in our office environ. We are africans & naija 2 be precise, our culture commands respect & that u cant rule out, even d most of corporate offices, these familiarity exist & people use aunty, uncles & bros to call some older or senior colleagues. In my office we ve people we call Uncles & madams b'cos f their age. I m not an Oyinbo man & i wil not throw away my custom 4 what i dont understand.

Calling someone Aunty or Uncle in a formal environment doesn't make sense to me but I also think it depends on what your work environment dictates.
I used to work in a place where initials were used to address each other..
D.B,K.A,M.O etc so that kind of balanced the issue of who's junior or senior to who age or other wise..

In my office, its a first name basis environment. Nothing more, nothing less. Even the CEO is called by his first name.

Many Nigerians like to be honored. So prefacing their names with titles or something else is necessary sometimes to save your job. They see it as respect. Them say Sir no dey kill O!

Aunty/Uncle? In a work place?

No, I use first names for everyone nontheless I have nicknames for some people at my work place

There's a lady I call BOB (Bitter Old Bit.ch)

My top boss, she's called "Lynchman"

There another dude in another dept called "Marshmellow"

Another guy I call Mr BAD (aka Big and Dirty)...


I mean the list is endless,

Your work environment will dictate. Some coys already made it easier by stating clearly how people should be addressed why others did not.
Its also worthy of note that we are Africans with deep cultural background, but for lack of development that made the whites dictates how we live since they provide the jobs.

This will be hard for the Yorubas amongst us. I know they dont call seniors by their names so how does this affect them in their work place. The only people who dont call me by my names are Yorubas and its kind of odd to me really. There was a day a guy referred to me by my name in a BB Chat group and boy was he severely reprimanded. I laughed all day.

I think it's a Nigerian thing, esp Yoruba. You must call some1 who's as little as 2 years older than you Aunty/Bro in order to show respect. That is absolutely rubbish, calling people by their first name doesn't reduce their age neither does it affect their position.

Who says you can't respect without calling Aunty/brother. Some1 could even be so disrespectful as they call you titles.

Why first name and not last names? We have Mandela(not Nelson) Blair (not Tony) Putin (not Vladimir) Obasanjo (not Olusegun) (Obama (not Barack). I for one would wish that I be addressed by my last name and not first name.

NO!!! Na wash.

It's not necessary. But sometimes you have no choice.

I call my boss daddy

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

Aside the CEO/MD and the general Manager, we are all under 30yrs in my office.
You hear rubbish like- Skipo, Taiwan, cutie, parara- crazy guys , great team.
For the MD we call him MD or Sir and the Manager, she is Madam.

That isn't formal!

Who changed the Title? NL I hail thee

manny4life: Aunty/Uncle? In a work place?

No, I use first names for everyone nontheless I have nicknames for some people at my work place

There's a lady I call BOB (Bitter Old Bit.ch)

My top boss, she's called "Lynchman"

There another dude in another dept called "Marshmellow"

Another guy I call Mr BAD (aka Big and Dirty)...


I mean the list is endless,

Lol... How's the Capital City Bros?

It depends!
I think there's more to respect than the 'bros' & 'aunt' syndrome, i mean it's something like a culture as Africans, but i notice it's all for eye service (for most people), they call the first names of those who they supposedly respect behind their backs.

I find it difficult to call my colleagues by their first...We 're all on d same level in the office but I call them Sir/ Ma .greet them G.am Sir/Ma ..I 'm kind of not comfortble with it but I can't help it...I m' kind of d youngest...

jidegirl12: Who changed the Title? NL I hail thee

It is the moderator.

Back to your question. Aunt or uncle is more of a personal thing than official.

What the White( Oyinbos) bequeathed to us is 'Mr A or Miss L or Mrs H' but recently ppl have changed the status quo and what is in voque now is first name. However, as a yoruba guy, I always feel uncomfortable calling elderly people by names, so u can use words like papa, baba ( if it is actually an old person or Oga if relatively aged and finally initials or nicknames to the rescue.

jidegirl12: All Nigerians both on home soil or Abroad, Is it necessary to call your coworkers ( Nigerian ) aunty or bros if you meet them at work especially when it's obvious they are older than you especially when you are in a higher position .How do you address them? Pls share your views and opinions . Thank you

No. Office relations should be done professionally.

I still address Nigerian/Non-Nigerian co-workers as Mrs or Mr before their names. I work with a much older Nigerian man (old enough to be my father) and address him as Mr. Ernest, Mrs Chinwe and I always greet them Nigerian way i.e Good Morning, afternoon looool