When Nicknames Stick

I think I did a bad thing during the handover. Ya see, the new guy bears a striking resemblance to me - same haircut, same glasses, same general features though my face is a bit thinner. The main difference between us is that I'm about 10 inches taller than he is.

I was introducing the new guy to a couple of the people I work with who still have some time here and one of them (we'll call him Bill) commented on how similar we looked. I responded by chuckling and saying, "Yeah, he's my very own 'Mini-Me', haha."

A couple days later my replacement was sitting at my desk (as he should be) so I decided to go for a walk. I ran into a group of people I work with and started chatting with them when Bill walked up and asked, "Hey, where's the new guy?" Before I could answer, someone else who hadn't been introduced to the new guy yet asks, "Who? You mean LT's Mini-Me?" I looked over at Bill who was cringing because the other person had made such a blunder as to call the new guy by his nickname in front of me.

I stood there for a moment trying to comprehend what I had done. People who had never even seen him already knew him as a smaller version of me, as my 'Mini-Me'. With one simple reference to a popular comedy linking my replacement with a bald, pale, pinky-nibbling dwarf, I had set the new guy up for failure. I looked down to aviod making eye contact with anyone and shook my head in disgust at what I had done while doing my best to stifle my laugh which only made matters worse. I fear that I have branded him before he had the chance to brand himself.