I was named after a really obscure character from Greek mythology. My preferred nickname is taken from the end of my name. I always introduce myself with I am but you can call me. None of my co-workers in the small business we work in have ever had a problem with this before Megan. Denise of Jeff. One of the two owners was hired. Jeff and Dave co-own the business, but Dave does the actual day-to-day running of the business. I introduced myself and my nickname as usual, but she mainly said that Bessie would be a better nickname because it comes from the beginning of my name and she liked it better. I told her I really didn't like that nickname and wouldn't answer to it and asked her to please not call me Bessie. But she insisted that it was much prettier and that I just needed to get used to it. For the next two months she tried to call me Bessie, but I completely ignored her whenever she addressed me that way. Even when I knew she really needed help with something she would call my desk phone and say hey Bessie. I replied you have the wrong number here. There's no Bessie and hung up. She tried to get some of the employees outside of the office to start calling me Bessie, but I quickly shut that down. I usually finish my work early and help them with a lot of their tedious little things that aren't part of my job description and threatened to stop helping them unless they use my preferred nickname. Friday she decided she was going to get me to respond to Bessie no matter what. We have an open office design, but are at opposite ends. She started calling out Bessie in a sing song voice over and over again to try to annoy me enough to respond. Other coworkers got annoyed, most telling her to stop and one Lisa telling me just to let her call me Bessie already. I refused. She kept calling me Bessie louder and louder until Dave barged in. He'd been on a conference call with an important client and could hear her yelling from his office down the hall. He told her to be quiet and that if she called me Bessie one more time he'd write her up and tell her to stop. And dock her pay. Later, Maggie cornered me in the break room, called me an asshole for getting her in trouble, and called me Bessie again for a good measure. Just as Dave was walking by to heat up his lunch, he gave her a stern look and said, I warned you. Then he walked to HR and had her written up. Lisa is saying I'm the asshole for never helping Megan and that if I'd been nicer or hadn't fought her so much on the nickname, she probably would have given up on it a while ago because I made such a big deal of it. It became a challenge. So stereo, am I the asshole?

You are not the asshole.