Wazzup Pilipinas!"Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, bless him, told us then we should rid ourselves of our colonial mentality of obeisance or servitude, or words to that effect, and address one another as Mr or Mrs. No more Sirs and Ma’ams. We are a nation of equals. No more kowtowing to the white men." - Rappler
I grew up thinking "Sir" and "Ma'am" were appropriate designations for people who are older or superior in position. But that thinking changed when I started working for the United Nations. Our Country Director, an American, arrived after a few weeks when all of us were already on board and working. The main office requirements were newly setup and almost complete, and we were all pioneers there working for the very first time with the new computers, while more equipment were just being ordered and regularly coming in from both local and international sources. Everything was new, top of the line and obviously expensive. We also had four other offices in different locations where our program operations is really implemented. I was in charge of ICT so I was very particular with the computers and all. I was tasked to plan, identify, purchase, install, maintain.,troubleshoot, etc., all ICT requirements of the offices.This required me to visit the other offices every now and then to setup their ICT infrastructure. Thus I was jumping on a plane almost every week.
I report directly to our Country Director so I frequently have to talk to her for many reasons. One time, after a few weeks of working with her, she finally had to say it, something that bothered her for the past weeks but she said she had to hold back as a sign of respect. She told me to just call her by first name after I've been calling her Ma'am for weeks, and explained to me that everyone in the office should be calling each other by their first name instead. She continues to say "We should treat each other as equals because we all have one common goal, and the designations are there to merely to describe our functions."
I told her that we usually say that to someone older than us. She said, "Now, you wouldn't want me to feel old every time you greet, right?"
Apparently, she had a point.
Below are more sentiments of the public taken from the same thread where I got the statement above. I picked a few of those that I feel substantial enough to be shared. Let them help you decide if you'll feel the same towards using the "Sir" and "Ma'am" designation.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
