One of my favourite songs of all time is Oh My God by the British band Kaiser Chiefs. It includes the genius lyric:

“But you work in a shirt with your name tag on it; Drifting apart like a plate tectonic…”

When you think about it, there’s a surprising number of jobs and professions out there that require you to wear a name id badge or tag.

In this article we take a look at what your name tag says about you.

If you wear a name badge people will use your name

When you’re working in a role that requires you to wear a name badge you have to be prepared for people to use your name. It’s not just in your favourite coffee chain that people will be calling your name, but your customers or your patients will start to feel overly familiar – they are immediately on first-name terms with you.

I’m normally a fairly quiet and conservative person, but when I was working as a nurse you quickly get used to quickly establishing working relationships with your patients – having a name badge clearly on display helps with that process. By clearly being able to see your name, this gives your patients confidence that you are there to help them, that you are interested in them, that you are are friendly and approachable.

You might get blamed for things you haven’t done

One of the downsides of wearing a name tag is that if someone is looking for an opportunity to make a complaint then they will quite often use your name as it is the only one that they know – even if the issue is nothing to do with you.

There’s not much that you can do to guard against this – it’s one of the perils of the job. The best way to think about it is that while your name badge may attract the odd complaint or criticism, wearing a name tag also makes it easier for people to compliment or thank you – it could be your name badge that helps you to secure that prize for employee-of-the-month.

Which are the best name tags?

Quite often your employer will have clear guidelines as to what your name badge needs to look like and how it should be worn. Ideally, it needs to be clear and simple and needs to be able to be secured firmly to your uniform. Manufacturers such as color4care create quality products that are suitable for all sorts of roles – whether you need nursing badges or any other type of profession. There’s no point wearing a name badge unless people are able to easily read it. You also want to avoid a name badge that suggests too much personality or suggests a personality that is different from yours. Graphics should be kept to a minimum–what you want to present is your name, clear and simple. That said, if you want to get the desired output for your employee name tags, then consider designing it yourself with templates. This can ensure that you do not end up paying for something that might not resonate with your job guidelines. Even better, consult your employer before getting one made. (Usually an employer provides the employees with badges and all. However, in the case he does not, you can follow this step of creating one for yourself.)

Conclusion

Your name tag should be worn like a badge of honour, a key part of your uniform, a key part of your identity no matter what your work day may throw at you. n the words of the Kaiser Chiefs:

“Knock me down I’ll get right back up again; I’ll come back stronger than a powered up Pac-Man…”