‘Don’t call me mate’: Fury as iconic Aussie phrase offends customer

It’s as Aussie as meat pies and the Harbour Bridge – but this iconic phrase is now at risk after being branded “unprofessional”.

OPINION

In Australia, we are all mates.

Even if you’re not my mate, you’re mate.

But some have missed out on the mate memo, apparently, and take great exception to such overt friendliness.

As was widely reported this week, an Australian father posted on Reddit that his deli-worker daughter was upbraided by a customer for calling him “mate”.

“Can I tell you something,” the customer is said to have asked.

“Please don’t call me mate.”

He also claimed it was “unprofessional to use that word in the workplace”.

Don’t call me mate, mate.

Sure – if I was dining in a top restaurant and the waiter kept calling me “mate”, then I might be slightly miffed because I’ve paid for a certain experience and level of service.

But a retail worker? Please.

He’s lucky to be called “mate” and not something a little more derogatory given his rudeness.

If you’re pulling up a minimum wage retail worker on such innocuous language, then you probably don’t deserve to be regarded as a member of the mate club.

The slang word “youse” (used to address a group of people) annoys me immensely.

Is it ‘unprofessional’ to use the word mate at work? Picture: iStock

A small part of me dies inside when I walk into a restaurant or a shop and someone asks if he or she can “help youse”.

It is, to me, the language equivalent of fingernails down a chalkboard.

But I’ve never pulled one of these people aside and told them to straighten themselves out, because I’m not a jerk.

Mate, though, is one of the greatest words in the Australian vernacular.

It is a great leveller – everyone from the Prime Minister to the local plumber can be mate.

What could more embody the Australian spirit than being able to refer to everyone under the sun as mate?

It proves that no one takes themselves too seriously and that none is above another. No matter how much money you have or how many rungs of the ladder you’ve climbed since childhood, we are all ultimately the same.

‘If you’re pulling up a minimum wage retail worker on such innocuous language, then you probably don’t deserve to be regarded as a member of the mate club’. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

It is also a noun of great versatility.

You can call your best friend “mate” with great affection, you can address a complete stranger as “mate” in an unfamiliar encounter, “maaaaaate” can convey exasperation and saying it with speed and punch makes it abundantly clear that whoever you’re addressing is most definitely not your mate.

“Old mate” can refer to anyone you’ve seen or met but whose name you do not know.

Tone, setting and subject can all completely alter the definition of the word mate.

And it has saved my bacon on so many occasions.

I have a memory like a goldfish when it comes to names. When meeting someone for the first time, I am guaranteed to forget their name within a minute unless I repeat it back to them multiple times.

Mate is one of the greatest words in the Australian vernacular, according to Caleb Bond. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

We’ve all been there – you shake hands, introduce yourselves, and then three minutes later, when the conversation is finishing, you can’t remember their name to save yourself.

In comes the trusty old “mate”.

“Thanks mate, it was nice to meet you.”

Situation saved.

Or you run into someone you’ve met before – you recognise their face – but you can’t remember their name.

They’re making a beeline for you, you’re racking your brain but it’s just not coming.

“Mate, long time no speak.”

Bullet dodged.

It’s a somewhat more difficult proposition with women, because it doesn’t always feel right to call them “mate” but, in many circumstances, the word is a lifesaver.

I will not hear a bad word about “mate”. It is one of the most simultaneously meaningful and meaningless words in the Australian offshoot of English – and I love it.