If You Don't Know How To Say Someone's Name, Just Ask

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SKIP TO CONTENTHarvard Business Review LogoBusiness communicationIf You Don’t Know How to Say Someone’s Name, Just Ask

by Ruchika T. Malhotra

January 9, 2020James Porter/Getty Images
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I have had my name butchered my entire life — not just since I’ve lived in the U.S. over the past eight years, but in countries where I worked all over the world including my home country of Singapore. While it made me feel excluded and awkward, it also spurred me to investigate whether having a non-Western name would negatively impact my career. Years ago, I followed up with a hiring manager in Atlanta, who admitted that the hard-to-pronounce name on my resume was a factor in me not receiving a call back for an interview.

Ruchika T. Malhotra  is the author of the book Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work. She is the founder of Candour, an inclusion strategy firm.
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