Calling adult female employees 'girls'

The women working there can call each other girls if they wish.If they want to allow others to call them girls that's also fine by me.

A complaint, urging that the sign be removed wouldn't impact on the choices they make as individuals.

I think not challenging the sign,could have an impact on the choices I wish to make, as an individual, and the choices I wish my daughters to be able to make,because it's part of a whole imo.

So if the women there want to be called girls then you would want to ignore what they want??? And people wonder why some women don't like aspects of feminism. You would hate my mother, she is almost 80 and calls anyone under the age of 60 a girl.

I yes I know the dictionary definition. I did learn to read quite a few years ago.

First of all bingo you seem to not know the definition of the word girls. Dictionaries are available. Sausage the op is not defending the women involved she is merely remarking on a word that continues to demean all women. I don't give a fuck if every 85 year old woman there wants to call herself lady fucking gaga but using "girls" in a professional context when many of us are still working to be taken seriously in the workplace is not appropriate.

OP bit worried about your view here, did you ask the ladies behind the counter how they felt about the sign? It could be they asked for it to be put up and that they refer to themselves as the "girls". It could be how they are referred to by their regular customers. It could be that they wanted the word girls there to make themselves feel younger.

Before you go off defending some of us older ladies you might want to check with us if we need the help. And with the ladies I work with we refer to ourselves as the girls and the people around us know it. I would take offence if someone decided they know best about how I wanted to be referred to.

Told a colleague off for this yesterday. Heasked "have you got that girl's email address?". The adult woman in question is high up in a rival firm. Her job title indicates that she is probably on a salary approaching three figs and is a lot more senior than both me and my colleague.

I pointed out that girl means a non-adult female. He looked confused.

"No, what will they do if they employ a man?"
He'll probably be counted as one of the girls. That happens all the time in nurseries should a man be working in one.

I think you are absolutely right to complain Mandytm.

It is totally inappropriate to call women 'girls' on a sign in the workplace.
I am very surprised that it ever made it on to the wall.
I think it definitely needs to be making its way off the wall.

i think youve got too much time on your hands to notice a sign and then complain about it because you dont like it. last time i looked girls were female, all the people behind the desk were female - the sign was accurate...

If "boys" would be used in the same manner and tone of voice, then "girls" might be acceptable. But if any males in the vicinity would be "men" or "guys" or "fellows" then no, everyone's an adult.

It grates on me whoever says it TBH - the connotations of "girls" things make me squirm - it's all about stereotyping isn't it. Maybe I need to "reclaim" the word girls

I know that lads night / boys night makes some men squirm too.

Trekkie, of the two options perhaps the latter would be more satisfying . Would it have also grated if it had been said by a female ...genuinely interested. I use the term almost as a solidarity collective,...i would be sorry if I upset anyone. But how would I know? I shall look out for someone pulling their teeth out or a deadly left hook!

Yes I think that is what i think

I use "chaps" if it's some blokes or "kids" if it's my immediate colleagues

i am quite new
They are very quiet
i feel like a bit of a lemming every time I do it
Oddly I would say chaps or guys but I never refer to a group of women as "girls" - and when I went out the other night with a female friend and someone at work said "ooh girls night out" I was caught between wanting to pull my own teeth out and punch him!

Trekkie, that is sort of my point! It is not the use of the phrase, but the context.

whilst I would find the sign unprofessional, were I a collegue of the staff at that same post office (or anywhere), I may well, for example, breeze into a kitchen at lunchtime put the kettle on and say "Coffee Girls?" - and all of us the other side of 40.

I used to work in a sex chatline office and we used to have our timesheets pinned to a notice board.
One week the heading "Call" girls timesheets was used.

I dont know if anyone else hates this but i had an ex who kept calling me babe. I bloody hate being called that but i cant really articulate why.

I don't expect to be in a position of social intimacy with the women who work in the local post-office

A chat about the weather is probably as far as it'll get

Does this irritation extend to the description "girlfriend" for any over17....or to women who organise a "girls night out" ....

I regularly refer to my friends as " the Girls".

It is a phrase which infers a social intimacy in such contexts.

However, I would think it as somewhat unprofessional to see it used in the context of a notice to the public.... but no more than I would if a sign had spelling mistakes, capitals mid-sentence or an incorrect apostrophe.

Yes i agree this is a situation where it would be straightforward to try and do something. Big chains are sometimes easier for stuff like this. I got the sport moved from the bottom shelf to a higher one in my local smiths a few years back by calling the customer helpline You could try something like that if you feel like it.

so challenge it. I had someone use 'good girl' on a training course, which happened to be the week of my 41st birthday. Politely requested that this was stopped during the feedback session at the end (after being told that I'd passed, although I don't actually think it would have made a difference!)

it was taken on in good part and hopefully remembered.

I agree with badguider

To write it down like that is just plain odd.

Girls doesn't bother me as much as I know it does some women as I use boys to refer to men just as often. I do sometimes use boys and girls for adults, in a very informal way, in spoken communication in an informal work situation. But to write it on a sign at work just doesn't read correctly at all, like the post office are downplaying the professionalism of their own staff and playing down their importance while at the same time the notice is asking for respect for them.

This happens at work sometimes. I work in a professional environment and it does wind me up. I might have to challenge the next man who refers to me and my colleagues as 'girls', a bit hard when it's the director though .

Mmm, I use "boys" for groups of adult male employees. I think it's a bit rubbish on a formal sign in a post office, but it's very possible that that's how the group refers to themselves to mark the fact that they're all female, so that's how they naturally wrote the sign. Not great, but in the grand scheme of things I can't get too worked up.

I think it depends - if you're referring to the men as 'boys' its not so bad. Not something I'd do myself, but ...

If however its just applied to women...