Question about how university staff should address professors?

[Caracal]

Is there a gender issue here, however?  Female academics have told me that staff (and even undergrads!) are more likely to assume informality with them than with male colleagues.  I consider this quite problematic, since it's yet another sign that they are not accorded equal respect.

That was my thought as well, but even there, it doesn't suggest very good judgement to make an issue out of it. Unless you want to insist that all your colleagues call you by your title, it just doesn't look good, even if the person suspects this is an intended slight or an unconscious sign of disrespect.

Unfortunately, picking the wrong battles is a pretty common trait of academics. I would take this is a warning sign about this person. Perhaps, they are lovely and just have this weird hangup, but I suspect this might just be the tip of the iceberg.

[larryc]

Everyone who draws a paycheck from the university is your peer and it is normal practice to address one another by first names. This includes the university president and the janitor.

[AvidReader]

I would not expect the janitor to know or call me by my title. The same applies to cafeteria workers, HR members, and friends and acquaintances outside the college community. My degree is not relevant to them; I do not need them to use it.

I similarly would not expect the departmental secretary or other university staff to call me by my title in person, though I expect she does/they might in the presence of students to avoid confusion. I have briefly worked at a school in the South where everyone was Dr. X or Mr/s. Y, but in those instances I called the janitor Mr. and he called me Dr.

Do you and your doctorate-holding colleagues address the staff at your school with their own appropriate titles?

AR.

[downer]

These things do vary a lot from place to place which makes me surprised that some people think that what is true for them should be true for everyone. It's not like there's a universally right way to do it. Presumably using first names is a lot more common now than it was 50 years ago.

I wonder if there is a correlation between how the staff address professors and how the professors dress. The more formal the clothing, the more formal the address? Maybe if the OP wears a gown around campus, they will get called "Professor!"

[EdnaMode]

All of our staff and technicians, at least in the School of Engineering, call faculty by our first names unless students are present, then it's Dr., or Professor, or Mr. or Ms./Mrs., our last name. It seems to be equally applied regardless of gender, how we dress, age, etc.

[pedanticromantic]

I haven't seen anyone insist on staff using titles in US, UK or Canada. I could see it in front of students ("well, Johnny, you should ask Dr. Smith") for instance, but not asking staff to call you by your title.
But what does drive me crazy is staff who insist on having every single diploma/degree abbreviation after their name.  Given we all have PhDs and we're not insisting on "Dr. Smith, PhD" I fail to see how their "BA, dip.BSnadA" is supposed to impress anyone.

[downer]

Maybe it is not you they are trying to impress.

[ciao_yall]

Everyone who draws a paycheck from the university is your peer and it is normal practice to address one another by first names. This includes the university president and the janitor.

A friend of mine worked as staff at a local prestigious R1 and Professors were ALWAYS Professor or Doctor. You pretty much got your head ripped off calling them otherwise.

When she switched to a CC she was emailing someone named (let's call him) Erik about something, was quite friendly and realized to her horror he was the President of the Faculty Senate! She apologized to him profusely and he responded "No worries! Erik."

[Kron3007]

Everyone who draws a paycheck from the university is your peer and it is normal practice to address one another by first names. This includes the university president and the janitor.

A friend of mine worked as staff at a local prestigious R1 and Professors were ALWAYS Professor or Doctor. You pretty much got your head ripped off calling them otherwise.

When she switched to a CC she was emailing someone named (let's call him) Erik about something, was quite friendly and realized to her horror he was the President of the Faculty Senate! She apologized to him profusely and he responded "No worries! Erik."

Yeah, I'm kind of curious if faculty refer to the chair/dean/president with their formal titles in places where staff would be expected to refer to faculty as such?  Where I am, we are on a first name basis with pretty much everyone.  It would be odd for me to call my dean as Dr. or Dean X.

This is obviously different when referring to someone in a more formal context...

[pigou]

I was a first generation student and remember in my first ever undergrad class the professor introducing himself by first name and insisting we call him that. Immediately made the environment more welcoming and (perhaps not only for this reason) the class was the most engaging between the students and the faculty. That's stuck with me and so I insist on students calling me by my first name, too.

Staff referring to me as Dr/Prof would just freak me out. Especially because the less they see me like they see themselves, the less likely they're going to go the extra mile to help me get my work done. That is, I want them to think they're helping out a peer/friend, not doing unpaid work for a manager/supervisor.

The only time I invoke "Dr" is when I make a restaurant reservation online. Somehow, medical doctors seem to get nicer tables and I'm happy when they confuse me for one. For the same reason I don't use "Dr" on flight reservations: last thing I need is someone waking me up for a medical emergency.

[fourhats]

I was a first generation student and remember in my first ever undergrad class the professor introducing himself by first name and insisting we call him that. Immediately made the environment more welcoming and (perhaps not only for this reason) the class was the most engaging between the students and the faculty. That's stuck with me and so I insist on students calling me by my first name, too.

I of course don't know your situation, but I suspect that faculty of color would not want their students and others to call them by their first names. Respect in the classroom can hinge upon students recognizing who the Ph.D. in the room is.

Staff, that can be different. First name in direct interactions, but Dr. or Professor when referring to them.

[ciao_yall]

I was a first generation student and remember in my first ever undergrad class the professor introducing himself by first name and insisting we call him that. Immediately made the environment more welcoming and (perhaps not only for this reason) the class was the most engaging between the students and the faculty. That's stuck with me and so I insist on students calling me by my first name, too.

I of course don't know your situation, but I suspect that faculty of color would not want their students and others to call them by their first names. Respect in the classroom can hinge upon students recognizing who the Ph.D. in the room is.

Staff, that can be different. First name in direct interactions, but Dr. or Professor when referring to them.

Because I taught business, I was cool with students calling me whatever they were comfortable with. Business is on a first-name basis, but some of the younger students preferred Mrs or Professor or Doctor.

[newprofwife]

hum, so I should address my husband as "Dr." on campus? Personally, if a professor has an ego and prefers to be addressed as a "Dr", I will do it to keep the peace (I'm staff). If the professor is senior, I do it out of respect. If it's the first time I am addressing the person via email or meeting them, i will call them Dr.

Also, it's a cultural thing too so as a woman of color I call professors either professors or Dr. so and so. However, I do think that it is a little belittling to expect staff to call you Dr all the time. I think that is only expected for medical doctors.

When I first started this new staff job many years ago (I worked at a similar uni previously), I noticed that some of the faculty were called Dr. so and so by the staff. I thought that was strange since it wasn't this way at my previous job. I think that some of the faculty think they are above the staff. I only have a master's and I'm not an admin though. Some faculty can be so elitist.

to this day, I don't tell faculty that I'm married to a professor because I like to see their true colors. Once in a blue moon, I'll mention who my husband is and give hints that I have an inside view since I am a faculty wife/spouse.

Part of our jobs is being handlers of the faculty sometimes and it comes in very handy to be married to one when I have to do this. However, most of the time I don't care what the faculty do. If they want to do it their way, they can since they are faculty. But some of my co-workers (staff too) have even bigger egos than the faculty and they will try to handle and control the faculty way too much so watch out you don't piss off the wrong admin.                 

[Puget]

These things do vary a lot from place to place which makes me surprised that some people think that what is true for them should be true for everyone. It's not like there's a universally right way to do it.

I want to (gently) push back on this a little-- there may not be a universally right way, but I do think there is a wrong way, namely, if only certain people get titles of respect, and other people get called by their first names, and those divisions fall (even if unintentionally) along lines of class, race and gender. We simply can't pretend that there isn't a long and fraught history of who gets called what. I totally get it that folks from historically disrespected groups might insist on titles. However, when folks from high-status groups insist that  those from lower-status groups use their titles (and that's what is happening if faculty insist on staff calling them Prof. or Dr.) they are re-enforcing those hierarchies, even if they don't think that's why they are doing it (and surely many of them ARE doing it explicitly to assert their dominance).

With undergrads there is a hierarchy based on phase of life and roles-- we are their professors, they are our students, and use of titles makes that clear (though I'm personally fine with them using my first name and give them that option). You are not the professor of staff members, you are their colleague. Likewise, we want grad students to transition to thinking of themselves as junior colleagues, so we insist on first names with them.

The only staff person to use my title is our dept manager who sometimes uses it jokingly -- I call him Mr. Long version of first name no one uses, he calls me Prof.

[downer]

These things do vary a lot from place to place which makes me surprised that some people think that what is true for them should be true for everyone. It's not like there's a universally right way to do it.

I want to (gently) push back on this a little-- there may not be a universally right way, but I do think there is a wrong way, namely, if only certain people get titles of respect, and other people get called by their first names, and those divisions fall (even if unintentionally) along lines of class, race and gender. We simply can't pretend that there isn't a long and fraught history of who gets called what. I totally get it that folks from historically disrespected groups might insist on titles. However, when folks from high-status groups insist that  those from lower-status groups use their titles (and that's what is happening if faculty insist on staff calling them Prof. or Dr.) they are re-enforcing those hierarchies, even if they don't think that's why they are doing it (and surely many of them ARE doing it explicitly to assert their dominance).

With undergrads there is a hierarchy based on phase of life and roles-- we are their professors, they are our students, and use of titles makes that clear (though I'm personally fine with them using my first name and give them that option). You are not the professor of staff members, you are their colleague. Likewise, we want grad students to transition to thinking of themselves as junior colleagues, so we insist on first names with them.

The only staff person to use my title is our dept manager who sometimes uses it jokingly -- I call him Mr. Long version of first name no one uses, he calls me Prof.

That's a fair point. It is certainly true that naming is important in most societies and so naming patterns can reflect perceived hierarchy. I might be ready to bite the bullet and endorse a thoroughgoing relativism about value hierarchies. But that would not be a commonly shared position.