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Just been told to remove my pronouns from my Teams profile

817 replies

Horrace · 18/12/2025 10:11

I'm weak 🤣
My manager just phoned me to say there has been some serious complaints made about me that he must urgently address.
I panicked.
In the Pronouns section of my Teams profile, I have

'Take a Wild Guess'

Its been there for a few years. Its finally been noticed and I've been told to take it down because it's made someone or more than one possibly, FEARFUL of me.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
12
bigboykitty · 18/12/2025 10:50

whittingtonmum · 18/12/2025 10:22

I think this can be interpreted as ridiculing those who share their preferred pronouns at work. I would not call this is professional behaviour or think it's acceptable in the workplace. If I were your manager I would have asked you to take this down before complaints come in. You don't have to share your preferred pronouns if you don't wish to do so but 'take a wild guess' is not appropriate in the workplace. No doubt transphopbic mumsnetters will disagree but wonder how many of them work professionally in environments where diversity and inclusion are regarded as part of a professional business environment.

Ridiculing others. Do you think that's a bit of a reach? Are we not having transphobic bigot as well?

PoppysAunt · 18/12/2025 10:49

Also, you should never, ever force people to "out" themselves.
Insisting on pronouns does just that.

inamarina · 18/12/2025 10:49

justpassmethemouse · 18/12/2025 10:29

Have you guys not thought that maybe Alex, Sam and Charlie may not want to be called the wrong pronouns for their cisgender identity?

If I were Alex from accounts and someone was talking about me without me being present and without them knowing whether I’m a man or a woman, it wouldn’t bother me if they accidentally used the incorrect pronouns.
If they were talking about me with me being present they would be perfectly capable to correctly establish that I’m a woman.

KimuraTan · 18/12/2025 10:49

RobinEllacotStrike · 18/12/2025 10:15

change pronouns to No/Thankyou?

This 🤣🤣

luckylavender · 18/12/2025 10:48

I think it’s quite childish & unprofessional. I wouldn’t be happy if one of my team did that.

Maray1967 · 18/12/2025 10:48

ChimpanzeeThatMonkeyNews · 18/12/2025 10:39

A fella at work has his pronouns as His/Majesty.

I told my HE line manager if we were forced to add pronouns I was going with HRH/YRH, he laughed and said he very much hoped we wouldn’t be, and we haven’t been.

Hesse · 18/12/2025 10:48

whittingtonmum · 18/12/2025 10:22

I think this can be interpreted as ridiculing those who share their preferred pronouns at work. I would not call this is professional behaviour or think it's acceptable in the workplace. If I were your manager I would have asked you to take this down before complaints come in. You don't have to share your preferred pronouns if you don't wish to do so but 'take a wild guess' is not appropriate in the workplace. No doubt transphopbic mumsnetters will disagree but wonder how many of them work professionally in environments where diversity and inclusion are regarded as part of a professional business environment.

There are lots of us working in Education where this anti-scientific nonsense has taken hold. I'm guessing you're NHS.

It's not inclusive - it erases women. I've had an 'inclusive' colleague correct my English with regard to pronouns for an individual who had left our workplace and was no longer a colleague. Bonkers.

AnSolas · 18/12/2025 10:47

whittingtonmum · 18/12/2025 10:22

I think this can be interpreted as ridiculing those who share their preferred pronouns at work. I would not call this is professional behaviour or think it's acceptable in the workplace. If I were your manager I would have asked you to take this down before complaints come in. You don't have to share your preferred pronouns if you don't wish to do so but 'take a wild guess' is not appropriate in the workplace. No doubt transphopbic mumsnetters will disagree but wonder how many of them work professionally in environments where diversity and inclusion are regarded as part of a professional business environment.

Yawn

Pronouns were never professional and never about DIE. It was a bully boy tatict by transactivists to force people to be seen to comply.

It has been proven over and over that it disadvantaged women when the focus is on their sex lady brain rather than their job function.

And it was and still is also a realllllly fuuuuckn stupid idea for a HR professional to suggest their organisation to provide documented proof which can be used against themselves in a HR dispute.

CountryMouse22 · 18/12/2025 10:47

I don't understand.

Holdmeclosertinydancer2018 · 18/12/2025 10:47

whittingtonmum · 18/12/2025 10:22

I think this can be interpreted as ridiculing those who share their preferred pronouns at work. I would not call this is professional behaviour or think it's acceptable in the workplace. If I were your manager I would have asked you to take this down before complaints come in. You don't have to share your preferred pronouns if you don't wish to do so but 'take a wild guess' is not appropriate in the workplace. No doubt transphopbic mumsnetters will disagree but wonder how many of them work professionally in environments where diversity and inclusion are regarded as part of a professional business environment.

Nobody cares mate.

TorroFerney · 18/12/2025 10:46

Plateofcrumbs · 18/12/2025 10:39

It’s just pronouns. I have a first name that is commonly a given name for both males and females. Having pronouns on my email or teams profile avoids confusion. There doesn’t have to be any “ideology” about it.

Confusion over what?

anniegun · 18/12/2025 10:45

It is a very unprofessional thing to have in your profile.

Journeycake · 18/12/2025 10:45

That cracked me up OP 😂 glad some people still have a sense of humour.

Ddakji · 18/12/2025 10:44

Plateofcrumbs · 18/12/2025 10:39

It’s just pronouns. I have a first name that is commonly a given name for both males and females. Having pronouns on my email or teams profile avoids confusion. There doesn’t have to be any “ideology” about it.

Of course it does. No one cares about your unisex name. People have had unisex names for centuries.

This is 100% about the normalisation of the distortion of language to shore up gender ideology.

MurkyMo · 18/12/2025 10:44

😅

JellySaurus · 18/12/2025 10:43

‘Have a wild guess”. You could be someone who changes their presentation from day to day, and you never know in which identity you will wake up. Your interlocutors will have to take a wild guess depending upon whether Horresse is wearing pink leggings with ‘her’ blonde hair flopping loose, or whether Horace is wearing black formal robe with ‘his’ blond hair slicked neatly back into a pony tail.

Horrace · 18/12/2025 10:43

SoScarletItWas · 18/12/2025 10:37

I’ve been picked up on this twice which is fair. I hesitated over it as I was typing at speed. I’m trying to consider than someone who has gone through surgery and is legally now ‘recorded’ as female on documentation etc would be (clumsy word) genuinely trans.

I agree that their fundamental biology hasn’t changed and cannot change. I didn’t mean ‘genuinely trans’ indicated that it had.

My personal view is that calling trans women ‘trans women’ is fine and we shouldn’t have to call them ‘women’ but there are so many pitfalls in this discussion that I will paint myself into a corner that doesn’t represent my actual thoughts.

I still feel that OP’s choice of words was antagonistic.

I meant to be antagonising. Or at least pointing out the ludicrous views that my employer is trying to push on it's employees and woe betide anyone that that has a personal opinion that differs to them.

OP posts:
Oldandgreyer · 18/12/2025 10:43

Surely in the days of identifying as whatever you want it's acceptable to put whatever you want.

Are they removing pronouns from everyone?

Ddakji · 18/12/2025 10:43

Daygloboo · 18/12/2025 10:37

But language changes over time. There is no static language.

YesX it changes over time - slowly, organically and ultimately with the consent of the majority.

But this not the evolution of language. It’s the distortion of language to shore up a sexist, homophobic, child-abusing ideology, and it should have no place at work.

CautiousLurker2 · 18/12/2025 10:42

Plumtreerd · 18/12/2025 10:39

I have an unusual name and often am referred to as "he" at work by people who have never seen me. I can't say it's ever bothered me. I know I'm female.

Having said that, I agree that what OP wrote would likely fall under bullying at my workplace and really isn't appropriate.

Same here. Unisex name that when spelled a certain way is assumed to be masculine. (I was named after my grandfather. No idea why other than my not-so-dearM wanted/expected a boy, so when I wasn’t one named me after her multiply incarcerated and domestically abusive swindler father. Make that make sense…)

LuncheonInThePark · 18/12/2025 10:42

Horrace · 18/12/2025 10:38

@whittingtonmum

I am ridiculing those that feel the need to tell us their 'preferred ' pronouns

How about you don't ridicule anyone and let them get on with their own lives while you concentrate on yours?

EnjoythemoneyJane · 18/12/2025 10:42

justpassmethemouse · 18/12/2025 10:29

Have you guys not thought that maybe Alex, Sam and Charlie may not want to be called the wrong pronouns for their cisgender identity?

I’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of people over what feels like about a hundred years, and I can’t recall this ever happening, even without a company wide announcement of everyone’s genitalia/preferences.

Or if it did, it was very easily and quickly corrected without the misgendered person collapsing like a bruised fruit and running to HR. Wild to imagine, I know.

ChimpanzeeThatMonkeyNews · 18/12/2025 10:41

Even asking their pronouns is now problematic!?!
Jesus fucking Christ - these people have got too much time on their hands.

CocksBolingey · 18/12/2025 10:40

Oh I love this! 😂

5128gap · 18/12/2025 10:40

whittingtonmum · 18/12/2025 10:22

I think this can be interpreted as ridiculing those who share their preferred pronouns at work. I would not call this is professional behaviour or think it's acceptable in the workplace. If I were your manager I would have asked you to take this down before complaints come in. You don't have to share your preferred pronouns if you don't wish to do so but 'take a wild guess' is not appropriate in the workplace. No doubt transphopbic mumsnetters will disagree but wonder how many of them work professionally in environments where diversity and inclusion are regarded as part of a professional business environment.

There are people within the trans community who do not like to be asked their preferred pronouns either. Who feel that when they are clearly presenting as one sex or the other, a requirement to state they are he or she is deeply invalidating, as the affirming action would be to accept that their gendered name and stereotypically gendered presentation made their pronouns obvious. So unfortunately these pronoun policies are not as 'inclusive' as people like to think.
I agree the flippancy of the OPs response isn't suitable for a professional context. However for too long people have been compelled to go along with the practice of pronoun sharing, despite many, including TI people, having all sorts of valid reasons why its not something they wish to do. Such acts of rebellion are the inevitable result of this imposition.