He started a new job at the warehouse.
On his first day he was given work clothes. Although his name was Tim, they only had one that fitted him. It had been the one worn by the guy that had just left and had a label sewn to the front that said Mike. The storeman promised him that he would have a name label made with his name and have it sewn onto a shirt of his size. It bothered him at first, but he got used to it and came to realise that he preferred being called Mike, rather than Tim. Everyone was calling him Mike and he was happy with it, when a few days later the guy came in to collect his final pay-packet.
As he was leaving the office the new guy went over to say hello.
“Hi Mike,” he said, as he approached.
The guy looked annoyed. “No. I’m Brad, actually,” he said.
“Oh! I thought this was your shirt,” said the other.
“It was. They never got around to changing the name. I got fed up with complaining and being told that it would be fixed. I guess I just ran out of patience. It’s why I left.”
In that moment Tim didn’t think he would be there very long either. He no longer wanted to be called Mike. He wanted to be called Tim. After all, that was his name!