Comment by rawgabbit
4 days ago
I am not sure about that. I am a low level employee and I address the CEO and the occasional board member I meet on a first name basis.
I grew up in Texas with its culture of sir and ma’am. After leaving the military, I make it a point to address everyone on a first name basis. Doctor Dan. Father Frank. Nurse Nancy.
On the other hand, old habits are hard to shake. When someone is extra nice to me, I often address them as sir and ma’am even when I am much older than they are. I also get irritated when a young salesman addresses me by my first name and attempts to upsell me.
I put "exceptions exist" in my original post because I knew the pedants would jump on me with their individual anecdotes :)
The trouble with informal systems (which is how I personally classify English) is that practices and expectations vary a lot across every context you can imagine. It can vary between regions. Between demographic groups (eg age). On and on.
I suppose that isn't a surprise. Language is always evolving. Perhaps we are still in a transition phase (in US English) and haven't really settled on a new set of rules yet. See what some other replies have noted about using formal addresses vs first names in business scenarios.
FWIW this is hardly the first time. At one point ge (pronounced yee) was the informal pronoun, you the formal one. Saying "you" to your mates or lover would be extremely rude, implying distance. But you might use it if you were mad at them. But then it became a fad (probably among the kids) to use the formal pronoun. That eventually led to the loss of the informal pronoun entirely. I like to imagine kids and teens running around addressing everyone as "your majesty" ironically - because you can't call them out for being polite and formal even if that polite formality was opposite in intention. Being a smartass is a time-honored tradition :)