Can I gripe for just one freakin second. (Page 2)

Ugh. That's hard. When I was a dept. head (it was only five months ago ), we all pretty much respected each other, but that respect was earned with time. It was hard for a while, b/c everybody under me was at least five years older than I am. After a while, we called each other honey and sweetie pie as jokes. But it takes a while, some smiles and a good attitude to earn each others' respect. The biggest annoyance I had was older businessmen, one particular, who would call me sweetie. What I wanted to yell back was "I'm the managing editor of the Dispatch. If I chose to be dirty, I could destroy you in a minute. You will respect me, even though I'm 26." Small town, and I was leaving in a month. Now I have a reverse problem. My boss made the comment last week that she wished I lived closer to her so she could have a reliable babysitter (we're in two separate offices). WHAT? I'm a professional. I have a degree. I may look like a college student and work at a university, but, honey, I am not your babysitter. And the funny thing is, if she lived closer and had just mentioned her problem, I may have volunteered. I love kids. But I'm not 15.

Steph,

Does this mean you watching my daughter after the Tybee race so my wife and I can have a peaceful dinner in Savannah is out?

Heh. I have zero qualms about replying back to someone like that with "What's up, Sweetcheeks?"

I don't have problems with how people talk to me. They all fear me.

Agreed. As mentioned above it sounds like you're demanding respect. Those that advocate the earning of instead of the demand of I think are more on track. B!tching and throwing a trantrum about name calling is only going to reinforce the derogatory gossip that is already going around the office about you (and yes, its going around). So What! Do your job to the best of your ability and kill them with proficeincy!

Yes, you are admittedly young to be in your position. As such people that are older than you feel threatened by you. They look at themselves and see that they have not acheived as much as you have in a longer timeframe. They are jealous! They will try to make you appear to less than what you are in order to make them feel better about themselves. If you come at them like a badger on fire you will only provide them with additional ammunition to hate you. Give it time. Show them that are are more than able to handle your position AND theirs if necessary. If you deserve it, the respect will come from most. But, there are always some that will never come around to reason and will never get over their own perceived failures and will secretly make you the scapegoat.

Like I alluded to above, 20-30 years from now you'll be hoping for someone to call "Sweetie". Enjoy it while you can.

--- That's one of the great flaws of youth, you never understand how fleeting it is until it's gone.

Sugarlumps, I'm sorry you're so frustrated.  Just kidding.  I got out of the corporate world a long time ago because I couldn't stand crap like that, but I will say this.  The people in charge set the tone for the office.  My brother and I started our own company and we don't stand for any of that kind of crap here and we demand that everyone treat everyone else with the respect that we feel we deserve.  We set the tone by our example.  In the rare instance that a new employee doesn't pick this up by osmosis and we get a complaint from one of our 'veterans', we pull the new employee into a private meeting and make it clear to them what is expected.  I would never allow the prospect of an unpleasant work environment cause an employee to become less effective and therefore affect the profit/loss of the company. 

Unfortunately I realize none of this helps you directly, just wanted to show some support for you.  There's lots of good advice in this thread and some of it is conflicting but different circumstances call for different actions.  You have to decide what's right for yours. 

Good luck honey muffins!