A woman said she had no choice but to report her co-workers to HR after discovering the inappropriate name they called her behind her back.
The anonymous woman works as a nurse and is part of a 'float pool', where she is assigned to different wards and isn't a regular part of the team.
One day she was working on a new ward and another nurse approached her and asked her if she had heard of a pool worker known as 'Jessica with the nipples'.
The woman was shocked to learn this was what people at the hospital would call her behind her back, and decided to report them to HR for the rude nickname.
Posting anonymously, the woman said: "Long story short, I’m a nurse at a hospital and I go to different floors as my job to help out. I have a pretty common name - think Jessica, Amanda, etc.
"There are several nurses with my name throughout the hospital and sometimes multiple on the same floor.
"Today I was working on a hall with a new nurse who didn’t know me yet. She commented on how it was weird that this floor had three Jessicas on it.
"She asked me which one I was, I guess she thought I worked just on that floor, and I told her my last name.
"Then she asked if I knew 'Jessica with the nipples that works on float pool'. The charge nurse was near by and I noticed her eyes get kind of big and she looked nervous all the sudden.
"I was confused for a minute because I'd had never heard this description and as far as I knew I was the only Jessica in float pool. It dawned on me that she was referring to me without knowing I am apparently 'Jessica with the nipples'.
"I guess this was just a known thing about me? Cause that nurse avoided me like the plague all day and so did everyone else."
Later, the charge nurse tried to dissolve the tension and the woman pretended to laugh it off, but beneath the surface she was upset and annoyed - so decided to go to HR.
She continued: "The charge nurse tried to make it into a joke with me at lunch and I laughed to hide my embarrassment but I am mortified.
"I had noticed my nipples sparingly in the bathroom mirror and thought it was just a rare thing when cold. I guess my nipples show thru my sports bra and scrubs on a regular enough basis that it’s become my secret identifier.
"I told a friend I was thinking about going to HR about this but they said it was obviously a harmless identifier that I was never suppose to find out about so it should have been no harm no foul - the same as 'Jessica with red hair' etc.
"I feel like it is not harmless though to use an identifier that is so embarrassing and made me the butt of jokes."
After sharing her story on Reddit, other users of the site were quick to comment on her post and offer their support - with most agreeing going to HR was the right thing to do.
One said: "The nickname is unprofessional, and sets a bad precedent for the culture. In fact, it seems like you have two informal nicknames and yet some people choose to use the borderline harassment one when float pool is enough to identify you alone."
And another wrote: "I work with a lot of Amandas but we just call them by their first and last name, or job title, or if they already have a preferred nickname that they chose. Can it get a little confusing, sure. But one extra identifier and we’re all on the same page."
While one added: "Or since she’s the only one on float, maybe Jessica Floats? J Float? Floating J? Literally anything besides a comment on her anatomy?"
Do you think she did the right thing? Let us know in the comments.
