Just an idea to make things easier:
I know that on my IRC client I can specify a list of words that always ping me. That way, whatever my actual IRC nick is does not affect what pings me and what doesn't.
I don't think anyone really uses ChatZilla (mine), but if you aren't using the website's WebChat feature, then I am sure there is some equivalent feature in your designated client of choice.
This way, it's much easier to just ping through names in the staff list rather than trying variations:
geoerge|not-here , george-away, george\/\journeyTiM3