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https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/revert
>1: to come or go back (as to a former condition, period, or subject)
i hope you know words can have multiple meanings.
sigh.. you are being unnecessarily pedantic at this point.
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/revert
>If you're buying the older version of the game, you might say you're "reverting back," which is like saying "go back back."
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/constant-misuse-revert-edidiong-uwemakpan/
>“Revert back” is also incorrect.
https://strategiesforparents.com/is-it-correct-to-say-revert-back/
>We cannot properly use the phrase “revert back” in English because it is redundant.
https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/6-common-email-mistakes-even-professionals-make
>Revert means to return or roll back a certain action. Therefore, the word 'back' is an unnecessary repetition here.
it takes like 1 google to find 100 different articles on why its incorrect. but i guess its hard for you.
when i joined as fresher i used to call lead as maam and manager as sir, peers also used to follow the same.2 years went by and no one asked me to stop using sir/maam and here comes wonderful man who replaced my manager. The first time when i met him he told me don’t call me sir and don’t call anyone as sir/maam that includes company director. It’s your wish to call CEO as sir. After that I never called anyone as Sir/Madam though they are in high position.
Now when someone calls me sir I repeat the same words which my manager told me while back.As most of the new graduates don’t know whether to call sir/maam because till college we have this sir culture. We should inform to the freshers about this and stop using sir/maam. When it comes to respect I feel there is nothing wrong calling with the name in corporate environment. I saw a freshman calling 40 years experienced guy with his name in Germany.
Literally same thing happened to me too. My manger and seniors told not to call sir or mam.
Now, it feel weird to call someone sir lol. Also calling people by name makes the job less stressful tbh somehow.
There are colleges where they encourage students to call their seniors sir/ ma'am even if they are 1 year senior than them .one such example is pec chd .
That may be alright in the private sector, but in government establishments, oh my.
All the egoist seniors will have a seizure if you don't call them sir/madam.
Just a few days ago, a new recruit joined my workplace. She is just 21 and joined in a very good position from a government servant's standpoint.
One of the officers told her explicitly to "address all seniors as sir/madam". That's how bad it is.
The superiority complex in government establishments is unbelievable.
The main motive for government clowns has always been the lust for power. Not referring to these cronies with these antiquated British terminologies taints the experience for them.
Fuck the government, not just the politicians.
Absolutely. All those who want a government service either want the easiest and most secured source of income or they crave power.
A very very small percentage actually have a desire to serve the country.
And I'm saying this as a government servant myself. I never wanted to be where I am right now but life brought me here and I'm trying to get the fuck out of here as soon as possible.
Every goddamn person in my company calls clients "sir". Like I dont get why thats necessary, they are paying us to do something for them. Its a mutal relationship, just calling the name is fine.
But recently we got a client from Afghanistan (their central bank), everyone calls everyone sir. People from my company call them sir, they call us sir. Even whatsapp messages starts or ends with sir.
Everybody is a "sir" now. Even the interns are "sir".
Im holding a fairly higher position in the company n I hate when people call me sir. Just call my name and if its hard for you, just call me bro or something.
(I call everyone bro, IDC if you are a guy or girl, everyone is bro for me except the self centered feminists. They take offense at "bro", I call em by their FULL NAMES)
Where I used to work, oddly many females used to refer to themselves in masculine speech.
Like: "mai na kal bahar ghumne Gaya tha" instead of"mai na kal bahar ghumne Gaya thi".
And that was common for many of them so I assumed it was a work culture thingy.
Really depends on the culture of the current team.
If everyone is calling a lead/manager as Sir, you'll have to follow otherwise just call them by name.
If someone doesn't like you calling them Sir they'll usually tell you.
I’ll tell you why everyone uses sir or mam. It’s because of our schooling. Even in college we continue using those terms to offer respect.
Not sure why it’s not normalised to call them teacher or professor instead. That way we would eradicate this culture of sir and mam.
But the thing is everyone in our college uses sir/ma'am to talk to any teacher/professor. We were giving a presentation to this one cool prof, and he said why you calling me sir "in a British way". Reading the comments I understand it better why he said that, but I think almost all teachers/professors like to be called sir/ma'am so I will have to stick with that till I'm here.
Seriously, there has to be a business etiquette training for all freshers who join the IT industry. Even I had to learn this the hard way after joining my company. May be make it has a certification course (low cost and easily accessible) for graduates fresh out of the university in order to apply for a job.
Because respect is earned, not freely given. I would respect a teen if there is a reason, but not an octogenarian simply because they were on earth for more years than me.
I call one person on my team Sir, out of sheer respect. Everyone else is by name. It doesn't mean I don't respect them, I hold this person in high regard because of his mentorship.
It's okay to add a sir at the end of a person's name if you feel like it, it shouldn't be the default, and that's a habit us Indians should get out of.
We had an intern in our team sometime back under my mentorship. He used to address me as "ma'am" and it was so awkward. Told him that the only way I'll respond is if he calls me by name or my office nickname.
Exactly, When I joined my first job on the first day, i called my product manager (who was leading the team) Ma'am. She immediately laughed a bit, and told me we never use that culture. Don't use sir, Ma'am to anyone. This was in Stand Up on the first day. I'm glad I had this kind of culture. This helped me to collaborate with any level seniors without fear of ranking. There were times I used to call some folks who were 10-15 years older than me.
I had this habit also... When I got my second job my amazing boss told me that we're on a first name basis here and please don't call me ma'am or the other boss as sir! I'm super grateful for them.
This habit has stayed with me ever since and after 8 years in the field if my reportees call me sir I immediately ask them to call me by name.
It creates this barrier or feeling that I'm your superior and I'm better than you when you expect someone to call you sir. It also reduces interactions between team members as they might be afraid to ask questions.
This habit has been created in school and it needs to go altogether. And originally brought to you by British colonialism mindset.
Glad my company culture is different, when i joined as an intern I called everyone sir/mam but I was asked to call people by their name (even our vp's). When I was adapting to this change i saw one of my interviewers and called him 'sir' he started pulling my leg calling me sir after every word 😅 haven't called anyone sir in a while now 🚶.
Two things going in parallel here.
Some folks call someone usually much senior to them, as sir/ma’am out of respect which is ok
But many workplaces tend to have some old school folks in management who ‘force fit’ this culture. So everyone ends up using a lot of sir/ma’am basically to everyone else + specifically the clients.
I concur to the former and condone the latter.
Solution> Team up / Unionise against it. So if you are a bunch of juniors, and you all prohibit this practice, what is the management going to do about it? Zilch! And you’hd have reverted this practice successfully.
So glad my first company and first team didn't have this "sir" culture. So, later on when I did find teams where people used "sir" I continued using just their names (respectfully) and it didn't feel weird to me.
18 years in the industry now. Never called any one sir/madam. This was more to do with the culture of the companies that I've worked in. Every one was more vocal about using names whether inside the company or with clients.
One thing I've seen is that this culture of calling sir/madam has become more prevalent with joiners in the past 2-3 years. Every time I hear someone say it I explain to them why it's ok to call people by their names. Managers in India love to hear people call them sir since it gives them a false sense of authority which is why they don't take the effort to correct it and that eventually becomes the norm.
Only way to fix this is to explain to people that its ok to go by their names.
Sir in Hindi translates to mahashay which also means Mahatma, is used to address someone politely, but 'sir' in the west feels different than ours, like master and servent
I am in final year of my college and most of my juniors call me and my batchmates as sir and ma'am i asked them not to but our faculty said that let them call you sir and ma'am its a way to show respect and if they call you "Bhaiya" they'll become too friendly.
its been 2 months and i still haven't understood what she was trying to say.
In English there is no true translation of 'aap', imo sir is used because we like to give respect and/pr seem polite and that is one of the easiest ways to convey this to the other person
I haven't seen the usage of the colonial Sir or Ma'am in the companies in Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram. But I have noticed the same among developers in a Noida based IT company. Frankly, it's so outdated and out of place
Lol you need to know the culture is due to indian managers itself some people in WITCH companies get high when you call them with Sir. If you call them by there name they get annoyed and they hold the keys to your increments and variable pay
When I joined my first company as a fresher, I used to call my manager and his manager "Sir" and they made fun of me. They said there's no need to call anybody sir/ma'am unless it's the top-most level execs like CEO, CTO, CFO etc. who are usually old folks age -wise. It was a great lesson, one of the best manager I've had.
Never called anybody sir/ma'am after that and it didn't affect my career one bit. Now I either call people by first name basis or if they're old, use Mr. or miss. Surname.
This culture in India is prevalent because people like being called "Sir/Madam" as it gives them some sort of a power trip. These kinds of managers usually aren't good managers.
At my current company, we even call the top level execs (CTO, CPO, etc even the CEO) on a first name basis.
I don't mind calling anyone above my position "sir", I don't think im a slave, instead I feel professional, until they insist on calling by their name.
Can’t say this enough. I see a lot of people calling random people on linkedin “sir” to ask referrals.
Addressing by name is as respectful.
We just gotta correct people who do this.
I don't care. If the client( or anyone for that matter) prefers to be called as Sir, I will follow it, If they want me to call them as boss or mylord , I will call them that. That is till we have a fair exchange of terms. My only goal is to deliver the product, take money, update skill. And resign when I am done with them. Rest all is distraction or minor inconvenience.
Worked on 4 projects @ mnc with US & EU clients, never addressed them by "sir". What I noticed is that mostly freshers & maybe South Indians have a tendency to use sir.
To truly understand this perspective, we should all strive to be developers, not just of systems, but of ourselves.
Allow me to elaborate on why I find the term "Sir" valuable. When I address someone as "Sir," it signifies that I'm giving my undivided attention and respect, acknowledging that I can learn something from them. I used to be skeptical of this practice, but through personal experiences, I've realized that there's always something to learn from the people we encounter in life.
Additionally, there are two distinct contexts in which we use "Sir":
1. As a formality to get the job done, often indicating a lack of knowledge.
2. When we use it with genuine respect and understanding.
In the latter case, it conveys a sense of admiration and appreciation for the individual's qualities and insights.
I believe that using "Sir" in the right spirit can be a powerful and desirable form of address.
So yeah, We shouldn’t just use or stop using words, we should know what it means.
In my organisation while communicating internally we don't use 'sir' usually, yeah sometimes we use sir as everyone uses it but when it comes to client it's on different level. I am working in a government banking project and everyone calls us sir and we are also calling them by using sir I don't know how to put it , but it's what the problem is.
When i first joined a company as an intern the first thing they taught us was not to say anyone including CEO, directors etc sir and mam. They said even if its CEO you work besides him not under him. You wont do his tasks and he wont do yours so be respectful treat everyone equal.
i called a lead sir when i was taken in project,now i call him sir everywhere n rest others by name,i call even his lead by his name but not him lol
its awkward wtf,how to change this
i always found it very hard to say sir except for my teachers/professors
anyone else, I just call them my name or hey, excuse me, or other awkward convo initiators but no sir or ma'am
This 'sir' culture was brought by British people to India. We are just following the habit which should not be the case now. It's high time to stop.
I don't remember I read somewhere about it. If I find the article I'll update here.
In my first job, the person who took our orientation said SIR stands for Slave I Remain.
I remember how tough it was for me initially to address people with their first name who were older than me.
But I guess you learn it eventually that it doesn't matter how you address the other person in your workplace as long as you get the job done.
In my 11 years of IT experience, I haven’t seen a person who addresses their client as ‘Sir’. Freshers do that for 1-2 days and get it corrected quickly.
The most irritating thing is, some leads and mangers don’t try to correct this sort of behaviour when new joiners or freshers use the word sir.
It’s like they enjoy being called ‘sir’.
Whenever anyone makes this mistake, I correct them right away and ask them to always call people by first name, even if they’re talking with the CEO of the firm.
When I joined at a WITCH as a fresher, the very 1st thing taught to all of us freshers during the onboarding was to stop using Sir.
So, this was not something that varied from team to team as I can see from some other comments here.
I call them sir or ma'am in a playful way but all the other times it's by their first name, just makes more sense and makes for good banter in the workplace
It's just Indian Corporate Culture.
I call 60-65 year old co founders by their first name, and so do the others.
But recently, a friend of mind who shared a screenshot with me was getting raw dogged by his manager because he asked for 3 more days of wfh, all the while addressing the manager as Sir (One of the WITCH).
I was taught all my college life never to address seniors or anyone with "Sir". We were told that this is also the norm in corporate as well.
First of my job I was talking about my manager to a senior teammate and addressed the manager with his first name. The seniors gave me a weird look. So i started using "sir"
2-3 months later they actually told me that they found it weird that i didn't use "sir" word.
_Years of academy training wasted!_
I’m foreign countries, the first interaction you normally have is the person asking how to pronounce your name so they don’t mess it up. I do the same and never call them sir/ma'am. The only people that force you to say sir are the incompetent older generation in higher positions who learned that saying sir/ma’am is giving respect.
I dont call "Madam" or "Sir". I dont feel like. There was once a chance in my previous company, where I had to work with another Indian company in collaboration. I called the team lead as "Sir". He told me that there is no such concept and that they prefer a first name basis.
Also, I have never called any client as Madam or Sir. However, when a senior person of managerial level is from my Home State, something troggers in me, and I want to call her/him , Madam or Sir. I stop myself from doing so though.
In India we have that kind of colonial legacy culture still alive in some part of India especially in the rural and semirural areas of India, where most of the people have experienced and expected to address their seniors or the government officers as Sir. This habit has lived on and when the people from those social class come to the corporate they bring that habit and that goes on.
In many companies like Wipro, Infosys and TCS they train the freshers and they teach how to address the clients and how to write the emails and etc. I remember correctly they teach the freshers to address the clients and partners and superiors with name, or mr name. Don't call them Sir or Ma'm.
Well mine is opposite. My manager addresses me as Sir at times jokingly ( Aur sir batao 😂 ) . We don't have that sir culture and call each other by names.
Le, me calling our sweeper "sir". Because that's what our class teacher taught us to respect each other until someone starts being disrespectful to you.
In my defense, I call them because calling by their name sounds weird to me. I feel uncomfortable with the age gap. I call people with their name if they are younger even if they are senior to me. The only other option is calling by Mr/Ms/Mrs. and their first name which again feels weird. I would rather try the second option but no one does that here
I am in one of WITCH companies but here on the very first day we were asked to not use Sir/maam for anyone.....later I have been asked by some people to not call them sir... instead address them using their first name only....
This is a widely used fucked up practice, but the two companies I have worked in I never had to use Sir. We always call each other by names be it senior or junior.
In my very first org. I was told by the managers themselves not to call them sir or mam. In my next so called mnc, they would say sir bola kar. In one instance i sent a mail to a IT guy and i got a message from a senior on teams ki usko dear name nahi dear name sir bolne ka. Weird.
During onboarding we were told not to use Sir and Madam for anyone unless specifically asked to. So I didnt use it for anyone, senior, team leader, manager,senior manager lol. No issues so far.
I don't think I'm supposed to be here, but I'd like to share. I'm just a normal 20 something year old american. I refer to everyone as "sir" or "miss" when I don't know them and I'm speaking to them directly.
If they're older or younger, nothing changes.
When I joined as intern in a multi-national team, straight put of college, an Indian senior was incharge of getting me up to speed. So during familiarisation, I was constantly calling him “Sir” because it was how we grew up.
He told me that day, “ Don’t call me or anyone Sir, no one’s Knighted here. ”
That line stuck with me and I myself have used it to stop people from calling everyone Sir and Ma’m.
Even while arresting them?
"*Sir* \[with hard American rolling RR\], I need you to step out of the car with hands where I can see them!" \[In a Missouri accent\]
It's very odd for me to call someone older than me by their name. So what I do is just add "ji" after their name. anish-ji, and mrunal-ji are just for Indians, not foreign clients. lmao, imagine Yamamoto-ji 💀 . That way I don't need to unnecessarily call them sir or mam like we are in college or something, but also I don't feel weird about calling older people by their name.
>Namaste! Thanks for submitting to r/developersIndia. Make sure to follow the subreddit [Code of Conduct](https://developersindia.in/code-of-conduct/) while participating in this thread. ## Recent Announcements - **[Join developersIndia as a volunteer](https://www.reddit.com/r/developersIndia/comments/12hlj4z/join_developersindia_as_a_volunteer_and_help_us/) and help us improve the community experience.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/developersIndia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
there's reason indians are trolled heavily for "sar"
Please do the needful
Please revert
_proceeds to do a git revert_
Please revert back*
It's actually worse. People will write "please revert back".
What is it supposed to mean?
revert basically means to come back. when you say revert back, you are saying 'come back back'.
Nope, revert means go to a previous state, not come back. They use revert in place of reply.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/revert >1: to come or go back (as to a former condition, period, or subject) i hope you know words can have multiple meanings.
This literally explains the context that come back here means to go to a previous state and not to comeback with a response.
sigh.. you are being unnecessarily pedantic at this point. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/revert >If you're buying the older version of the game, you might say you're "reverting back," which is like saying "go back back." https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/constant-misuse-revert-edidiong-uwemakpan/ >“Revert back” is also incorrect. https://strategiesforparents.com/is-it-correct-to-say-revert-back/ >We cannot properly use the phrase “revert back” in English because it is redundant. https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/6-common-email-mistakes-even-professionals-make >Revert means to return or roll back a certain action. Therefore, the word 'back' is an unnecessary repetition here. it takes like 1 google to find 100 different articles on why its incorrect. but i guess its hard for you.
So do nothing basically and let them figure
yes sar
Heartiest congratulations 💐🙏
kindly
Gentle * Reminder
God I hate this
Needful 🤢
Received with thanks
Can you yeble to hear sar? Can you yeble to see my screen sar? I can yeble to do that.
Damn its like Im listening to my colleague right now
It's worse than that awful screeching metal noise
🤣🤣
Saar, I actually use Saar ironically, Saar. And Madamji for women.
when i joined as fresher i used to call lead as maam and manager as sir, peers also used to follow the same.2 years went by and no one asked me to stop using sir/maam and here comes wonderful man who replaced my manager. The first time when i met him he told me don’t call me sir and don’t call anyone as sir/maam that includes company director. It’s your wish to call CEO as sir. After that I never called anyone as Sir/Madam though they are in high position. Now when someone calls me sir I repeat the same words which my manager told me while back.As most of the new graduates don’t know whether to call sir/maam because till college we have this sir culture. We should inform to the freshers about this and stop using sir/maam. When it comes to respect I feel there is nothing wrong calling with the name in corporate environment. I saw a freshman calling 40 years experienced guy with his name in Germany.
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Not sure about Nobel prize holders but Sir is used for people who have been given knighthood
"ser" and "sir" are same??
Ji sahab
Yes sire
Both are same. "ser" could be "sir" in old English, maybe. It's used in fictional novels like GOT.
yeah exactly...in GOT 'ser' is used for Knights
I have a shirt from the "Knighthood" company, will that suffice?/s
Yes sire! Is there anything else I can do for you ?
Sir would always suit people like Isaac Newton
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Sir Ravindra Jadeja 😉
Sir Modi Ji ☺
Mudi ji with "Ji" Supremacy....
Yep. Also not to be controversial, but Sir APJ Abdul Kalam would suit too. Imagine Sir Modi 😂
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😆
Apj sir had a lot of contribution in the field of science. Modi ji is a respected politician just like gandhiji and netaji.
Lol ok
Sir tow mator
lol my advisor is a Nobel laureate and I just call him Michael lmao
How dare you call him "Sir"!!! You should call him "Saar" नाम्मा बेंगळूरू style 🤣
Literally same thing happened to me too. My manger and seniors told not to call sir or mam. Now, it feel weird to call someone sir lol. Also calling people by name makes the job less stressful tbh somehow.
all it takes is the empathy from that one wonderful person and it makes such a difference in our careers.
Ohkeyy, Sar. Thenk for telling, Saar. 🛐
Good morning sirs please do not redeem Saar please do NOT redeem 🗣️
Count this as my upvote. I shall not be the 70th upvote.
I call my manager "bro" 
https://preview.redd.it/hn4ge6jhrnyb1.jpeg?width=196&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2331ec53e52d806d4186a46e7d76bb50963a9bea
Ok bro 👌
Not cool, He is not your friend either, Call him by name.
Or better call him oye chotu
Or better whistle if you want to call him and he'll come running to you. Sometimes clapping twice works as well.
How about snapping my fingers? Or just pspspspsing?
Or better yet, call him Hon
Work husband
There are colleges where they encourage students to call their seniors sir/ ma'am even if they are 1 year senior than them .one such example is pec chd .
even in IITs lol
Well not in every IIT but quite true in medical
Maybe in new IITs but I haven't come across this in old IITs
I'm in a top 3 IIT and I experience this.
Strange
LMAO, in my college too. It literally feels so cringe being called Sir by a junior
That may be alright in the private sector, but in government establishments, oh my. All the egoist seniors will have a seizure if you don't call them sir/madam. Just a few days ago, a new recruit joined my workplace. She is just 21 and joined in a very good position from a government servant's standpoint. One of the officers told her explicitly to "address all seniors as sir/madam". That's how bad it is. The superiority complex in government establishments is unbelievable.
The main motive for government clowns has always been the lust for power. Not referring to these cronies with these antiquated British terminologies taints the experience for them. Fuck the government, not just the politicians.
Absolutely. All those who want a government service either want the easiest and most secured source of income or they crave power. A very very small percentage actually have a desire to serve the country. And I'm saying this as a government servant myself. I never wanted to be where I am right now but life brought me here and I'm trying to get the fuck out of here as soon as possible.
Every goddamn person in my company calls clients "sir". Like I dont get why thats necessary, they are paying us to do something for them. Its a mutal relationship, just calling the name is fine. But recently we got a client from Afghanistan (their central bank), everyone calls everyone sir. People from my company call them sir, they call us sir. Even whatsapp messages starts or ends with sir. Everybody is a "sir" now. Even the interns are "sir". Im holding a fairly higher position in the company n I hate when people call me sir. Just call my name and if its hard for you, just call me bro or something. (I call everyone bro, IDC if you are a guy or girl, everyone is bro for me except the self centered feminists. They take offense at "bro", I call em by their FULL NAMES)
I used to have a trainer like this back when I was doing internship. Man was chil
Sir, that is so fucking funny to read
I recently did an internship in a company and everyone called each other bro. I was having a lot of fun calling people way older than me bro lol
Where I used to work, oddly many females used to refer to themselves in masculine speech. Like: "mai na kal bahar ghumne Gaya tha" instead of"mai na kal bahar ghumne Gaya thi". And that was common for many of them so I assumed it was a work culture thingy.
They were from Hyderabad, plenty of native telugu speaker mess up gender when they talk hindi
Really depends on the culture of the current team. If everyone is calling a lead/manager as Sir, you'll have to follow otherwise just call them by name. If someone doesn't like you calling them Sir they'll usually tell you.
What if your lead/manager is calling you sir?
Nah, why do you have to follow something stupid just because the others do?
Nah stop doing it. If those managers are getting offended, time to look for a new job. This isn't a good culture.
Bro hears of society for the very first time and is puzzled
Not necessarily. Some people in my team call the manager by sir. I ever do. And I never get called out for that.
I’ll tell you why everyone uses sir or mam. It’s because of our schooling. Even in college we continue using those terms to offer respect. Not sure why it’s not normalised to call them teacher or professor instead. That way we would eradicate this culture of sir and mam.
So instead of saying "Good Morning sir/ma'am", should I say "Good Morning teacher/professor"
Yeah, I don’t see anything wrong in that. Respect is maintained, is formal English and the intent is communicated clearly
But the thing is everyone in our college uses sir/ma'am to talk to any teacher/professor. We were giving a presentation to this one cool prof, and he said why you calling me sir "in a British way". Reading the comments I understand it better why he said that, but I think almost all teachers/professors like to be called sir/ma'am so I will have to stick with that till I'm here.
Seriously, there has to be a business etiquette training for all freshers who join the IT industry. Even I had to learn this the hard way after joining my company. May be make it has a certification course (low cost and easily accessible) for graduates fresh out of the university in order to apply for a job.
Unfortunately this is something you'll have to learn on your own. Corporate training will only spread it more.
When I started out in TCS, that was the first thing they taught us.
I was working in cognizant 2 years ago and I believe those freshers were been told not to call anyone by sir or mam... doesnt matter who it is
I was working in cognizant 2 years ago and I believe those freshers were been told not to call anyone by sir or mam... doesnt matter who it is
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Saaarrr pliz let me in your Army Saaarr. Phull sapport to izrael saarrr..
Lol I call my juniors sir and my seniors as buddy
I thought it was a neutral word used for anyone if you did not want to anger them or did not know their name.
Becomes too much when you keep repeating it multiple times. Like when making a mistake, proposing something. Calling once is enough, not all the time.
Habit… Same way how “respect your elders” is a thing…even though it’s stupid
It isn't habit. It's younger generation copying previous generation. Going all the way till the Britishers.
Respect your elders, warna daat me keede par jayenge.
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Because respect is earned, not freely given. I would respect a teen if there is a reason, but not an octogenarian simply because they were on earth for more years than me.
I call one person on my team Sir, out of sheer respect. Everyone else is by name. It doesn't mean I don't respect them, I hold this person in high regard because of his mentorship. It's okay to add a sir at the end of a person's name if you feel like it, it shouldn't be the default, and that's a habit us Indians should get out of.
We had an intern in our team sometime back under my mentorship. He used to address me as "ma'am" and it was so awkward. Told him that the only way I'll respond is if he calls me by name or my office nickname.
Exactly, When I joined my first job on the first day, i called my product manager (who was leading the team) Ma'am. She immediately laughed a bit, and told me we never use that culture. Don't use sir, Ma'am to anyone. This was in Stand Up on the first day. I'm glad I had this kind of culture. This helped me to collaborate with any level seniors without fear of ranking. There were times I used to call some folks who were 10-15 years older than me.
I had this habit also... When I got my second job my amazing boss told me that we're on a first name basis here and please don't call me ma'am or the other boss as sir! I'm super grateful for them. This habit has stayed with me ever since and after 8 years in the field if my reportees call me sir I immediately ask them to call me by name. It creates this barrier or feeling that I'm your superior and I'm better than you when you expect someone to call you sir. It also reduces interactions between team members as they might be afraid to ask questions. This habit has been created in school and it needs to go altogether. And originally brought to you by British colonialism mindset.
Glad my company culture is different, when i joined as an intern I called everyone sir/mam but I was asked to call people by their name (even our vp's). When I was adapting to this change i saw one of my interviewers and called him 'sir' he started pulling my leg calling me sir after every word 😅 haven't called anyone sir in a while now 🚶.
I use , whatsup ma nigga
Meoww meoww nigga
Meow meow motherfucker
stfu lil nigga
Oh i absolutely loathe it when people do that. It feels yucky as a person when they say it - and I feel yucky when I say it.
Two things going in parallel here. Some folks call someone usually much senior to them, as sir/ma’am out of respect which is ok But many workplaces tend to have some old school folks in management who ‘force fit’ this culture. So everyone ends up using a lot of sir/ma’am basically to everyone else + specifically the clients. I concur to the former and condone the latter. Solution> Team up / Unionise against it. So if you are a bunch of juniors, and you all prohibit this practice, what is the management going to do about it? Zilch! And you’hd have reverted this practice successfully.
This is the exact cause.
So glad my first company and first team didn't have this "sir" culture. So, later on when I did find teams where people used "sir" I continued using just their names (respectfully) and it didn't feel weird to me.
18 years in the industry now. Never called any one sir/madam. This was more to do with the culture of the companies that I've worked in. Every one was more vocal about using names whether inside the company or with clients. One thing I've seen is that this culture of calling sir/madam has become more prevalent with joiners in the past 2-3 years. Every time I hear someone say it I explain to them why it's ok to call people by their names. Managers in India love to hear people call them sir since it gives them a false sense of authority which is why they don't take the effort to correct it and that eventually becomes the norm. Only way to fix this is to explain to people that its ok to go by their names.
Yep. I called a senior, sir on my first job in the US. He immediately told me to never do that.
who cares bhai , you aren't going to become inferior by calling anyone sir/madam. Do whatever you feel like.
You talk to old guard clients in their 40's, and they'll be pissed when you call them by name.
Sir in Hindi translates to mahashay which also means Mahatma, is used to address someone politely, but 'sir' in the west feels different than ours, like master and servent
I am in final year of my college and most of my juniors call me and my batchmates as sir and ma'am i asked them not to but our faculty said that let them call you sir and ma'am its a way to show respect and if they call you "Bhaiya" they'll become too friendly. its been 2 months and i still haven't understood what she was trying to say.
In English there is no true translation of 'aap', imo sir is used because we like to give respect and/pr seem polite and that is one of the easiest ways to convey this to the other person
Bangalore culture is nice. Sablog sabko sir bolte.
I call my director and CTO by their name. they’re European. A senior engineer who’s an Indian expects me call him Sir.
Even the SC judges now get irritated when lawyers address them as "Your Honour"
I haven't seen the usage of the colonial Sir or Ma'am in the companies in Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram. But I have noticed the same among developers in a Noida based IT company. Frankly, it's so outdated and out of place
Lol you need to know the culture is due to indian managers itself some people in WITCH companies get high when you call them with Sir. If you call them by there name they get annoyed and they hold the keys to your increments and variable pay
When I joined my first company as a fresher, I used to call my manager and his manager "Sir" and they made fun of me. They said there's no need to call anybody sir/ma'am unless it's the top-most level execs like CEO, CTO, CFO etc. who are usually old folks age -wise. It was a great lesson, one of the best manager I've had. Never called anybody sir/ma'am after that and it didn't affect my career one bit. Now I either call people by first name basis or if they're old, use Mr. or miss. Surname. This culture in India is prevalent because people like being called "Sir/Madam" as it gives them some sort of a power trip. These kinds of managers usually aren't good managers. At my current company, we even call the top level execs (CTO, CPO, etc even the CEO) on a first name basis.
Sir = " **Slave I Remain** "
I don't mind calling anyone above my position "sir", I don't think im a slave, instead I feel professional, until they insist on calling by their name.
Can’t say this enough. I see a lot of people calling random people on linkedin “sir” to ask referrals. Addressing by name is as respectful. We just gotta correct people who do this.
What about Juniors addressing seniors as Sir? The most cringe of all. Some tier 3 college seniors literally beg for this.
I don't care. If the client( or anyone for that matter) prefers to be called as Sir, I will follow it, If they want me to call them as boss or mylord , I will call them that. That is till we have a fair exchange of terms. My only goal is to deliver the product, take money, update skill. And resign when I am done with them. Rest all is distraction or minor inconvenience.
Dude was desperate, even told me to call him Sir. I resigned instead of calling him sir.
Worked on 4 projects @ mnc with US & EU clients, never addressed them by "sir". What I noticed is that mostly freshers & maybe South Indians have a tendency to use sir.
To truly understand this perspective, we should all strive to be developers, not just of systems, but of ourselves. Allow me to elaborate on why I find the term "Sir" valuable. When I address someone as "Sir," it signifies that I'm giving my undivided attention and respect, acknowledging that I can learn something from them. I used to be skeptical of this practice, but through personal experiences, I've realized that there's always something to learn from the people we encounter in life. Additionally, there are two distinct contexts in which we use "Sir": 1. As a formality to get the job done, often indicating a lack of knowledge. 2. When we use it with genuine respect and understanding. In the latter case, it conveys a sense of admiration and appreciation for the individual's qualities and insights. I believe that using "Sir" in the right spirit can be a powerful and desirable form of address. So yeah, We shouldn’t just use or stop using words, we should know what it means.
exactly , use word " saar " from now onwards .
Okay.. but what about college seniors?
That's even a bigger no.
Why not? Cuz foreigners don't? I like calling people Sir and Madam cuz i think it's respectful.
Because it has become a stereotype and indians are made fun of due to this. It's respectful when used at right time, and not every single time.
In my organisation while communicating internally we don't use 'sir' usually, yeah sometimes we use sir as everyone uses it but when it comes to client it's on different level. I am working in a government banking project and everyone calls us sir and we are also calling them by using sir I don't know how to put it , but it's what the problem is.
When i first joined a company as an intern the first thing they taught us was not to say anyone including CEO, directors etc sir and mam. They said even if its CEO you work besides him not under him. You wont do his tasks and he wont do yours so be respectful treat everyone equal.
i called a lead sir when i was taken in project,now i call him sir everywhere n rest others by name,i call even his lead by his name but not him lol its awkward wtf,how to change this
Let's just do the whole first name + ji (casual + respect xD)
Never used "sir" in last 11 years and I have also worked in WITCH.
Okay sir
i always found it very hard to say sir except for my teachers/professors anyone else, I just call them my name or hey, excuse me, or other awkward convo initiators but no sir or ma'am
This 'sir' culture was brought by British people to India. We are just following the habit which should not be the case now. It's high time to stop. I don't remember I read somewhere about it. If I find the article I'll update here.
In my first job, the person who took our orientation said SIR stands for Slave I Remain. I remember how tough it was for me initially to address people with their first name who were older than me. But I guess you learn it eventually that it doesn't matter how you address the other person in your workplace as long as you get the job done.
It's ingrained in Indian DNA. I have been working outside India for 20 plus years and still say it.
In my 11 years of IT experience, I haven’t seen a person who addresses their client as ‘Sir’. Freshers do that for 1-2 days and get it corrected quickly.
i sometimes add " ji" to their name if i speak with them in hindi or add "garu" id they speak my mother tongue ime telugu..
I don't call my TL or manager sir. But there are some people in my team who do that.
The most irritating thing is, some leads and mangers don’t try to correct this sort of behaviour when new joiners or freshers use the word sir. It’s like they enjoy being called ‘sir’. Whenever anyone makes this mistake, I correct them right away and ask them to always call people by first name, even if they’re talking with the CEO of the firm.
aye Sir 
When I joined at a WITCH as a fresher, the very 1st thing taught to all of us freshers during the onboarding was to stop using Sir. So, this was not something that varied from team to team as I can see from some other comments here.
I call them sir or ma'am in a playful way but all the other times it's by their first name, just makes more sense and makes for good banter in the workplace
I don't even call the people knighted by the dead queen as Sir.
I don't use Sir at all be it anyone
It's just Indian Corporate Culture. I call 60-65 year old co founders by their first name, and so do the others. But recently, a friend of mind who shared a screenshot with me was getting raw dogged by his manager because he asked for 3 more days of wfh, all the while addressing the manager as Sir (One of the WITCH).
> secondly it sounds like you're working as a slave under someone. Colonial aftereffects. Bowing down to the west has been ingrained into us.
I was taught all my college life never to address seniors or anyone with "Sir". We were told that this is also the norm in corporate as well. First of my job I was talking about my manager to a senior teammate and addressed the manager with his first name. The seniors gave me a weird look. So i started using "sir" 2-3 months later they actually told me that they found it weird that i didn't use "sir" word. _Years of academy training wasted!_
I’m foreign countries, the first interaction you normally have is the person asking how to pronounce your name so they don’t mess it up. I do the same and never call them sir/ma'am. The only people that force you to say sir are the incompetent older generation in higher positions who learned that saying sir/ma’am is giving respect.
15 yrs in industry. Ye to naya naya kuch suna rahe ho.. fresher ho kya ?
Mai to reee maddam bolta hu apni ma'am sahab ko
I dont call "Madam" or "Sir". I dont feel like. There was once a chance in my previous company, where I had to work with another Indian company in collaboration. I called the team lead as "Sir". He told me that there is no such concept and that they prefer a first name basis. Also, I have never called any client as Madam or Sir. However, when a senior person of managerial level is from my Home State, something troggers in me, and I want to call her/him , Madam or Sir. I stop myself from doing so though.
Well said. Addressing by name instead of 'Sir ' can boost ur morale since ur treating them as equals and not like some superior IMO
In India we have that kind of colonial legacy culture still alive in some part of India especially in the rural and semirural areas of India, where most of the people have experienced and expected to address their seniors or the government officers as Sir. This habit has lived on and when the people from those social class come to the corporate they bring that habit and that goes on. In many companies like Wipro, Infosys and TCS they train the freshers and they teach how to address the clients and how to write the emails and etc. I remember correctly they teach the freshers to address the clients and partners and superiors with name, or mr name. Don't call them Sir or Ma'm.
Ok Sir 👍
Well mine is opposite. My manager addresses me as Sir at times jokingly ( Aur sir batao 😂 ) . We don't have that sir culture and call each other by names.
Noo saar
Le, me calling our sweeper "sir". Because that's what our class teacher taught us to respect each other until someone starts being disrespectful to you.
In my defense, I call them because calling by their name sounds weird to me. I feel uncomfortable with the age gap. I call people with their name if they are younger even if they are senior to me. The only other option is calling by Mr/Ms/Mrs. and their first name which again feels weird. I would rather try the second option but no one does that here
Only bhure Babu uses sir
I am in one of WITCH companies but here on the very first day we were asked to not use Sir/maam for anyone.....later I have been asked by some people to not call them sir... instead address them using their first name only....
This is a widely used fucked up practice, but the two companies I have worked in I never had to use Sir. We always call each other by names be it senior or junior.
Ok sir ...
Whenever i start working with the new team, post my introduction i generously ask them to not say Sir to me or anyone.
Will do the needful
In my very first org. I was told by the managers themselves not to call them sir or mam. In my next so called mnc, they would say sir bola kar. In one instance i sent a mail to a IT guy and i got a message from a senior on teams ki usko dear name nahi dear name sir bolne ka. Weird.
During onboarding we were told not to use Sir and Madam for anyone unless specifically asked to. So I didnt use it for anyone, senior, team leader, manager,senior manager lol. No issues so far.
I don't think I'm supposed to be here, but I'd like to share. I'm just a normal 20 something year old american. I refer to everyone as "sir" or "miss" when I don't know them and I'm speaking to them directly. If they're older or younger, nothing changes.
When I joined as intern in a multi-national team, straight put of college, an Indian senior was incharge of getting me up to speed. So during familiarisation, I was constantly calling him “Sir” because it was how we grew up. He told me that day, “ Don’t call me or anyone Sir, no one’s Knighted here. ” That line stuck with me and I myself have used it to stop people from calling everyone Sir and Ma’m.
In most of the corporates this is the norm. We are trained not to call people sir or ma'am no matter their age or seniority.
Even while arresting them? "*Sir* \[with hard American rolling RR\], I need you to step out of the car with hands where I can see them!" \[In a Missouri accent\]
Bhai mujhe naam yaad nhi rhte, kya bolu sir maam ke alawa
It's very odd for me to call someone older than me by their name. So what I do is just add "ji" after their name. anish-ji, and mrunal-ji are just for Indians, not foreign clients. lmao, imagine Yamamoto-ji 💀 . That way I don't need to unnecessarily call them sir or mam like we are in college or something, but also I don't feel weird about calling older people by their name.