Pride at Work- did I put my foot in it?

It's a real world example of what happens when someone speaks up and exposes others' preference falsification (to their relief).

Of course Pride is political!

👏👏👏👏

I don't know what your exactly objecting too?

My nephew says the same thing.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Toseland · Yesterday 19:18

I think they were all secretly pleased that you said it - well done OP!

Yes, I think that's very likely!

Her list of issues that need to be addressed is getting longer by the day, she says, from lack of adequate legal training to workshops that never get scrutinised by a third party.
"DEI started with good intentions but it’s clear that not enough guardrails were put in place, making it vulnerable to politicisation,” says de Grunwald, arguing that there needs to be more nuance in the conversation.

Yes.

https://archive.is/ieyRk

Good job OP.

Clearly your boss is simple, but a lot of people are in the same way.

There is a huge differernce between saying people in the workplace should be treated properly, and refrain from being offensive dicks, and publicly supporting political movements be it International Women's Day, Pride, BLM, or whatever. (And many seem also unable to understand that a person might be against racism, but think that an organization like BLM is not actually reflecting their beliefs about racism.)

Even where I might privately support an idea or initiative, I don't think it is remotely appropriate to force employees into saying they believe certain things or support certain things. People are allowed to believe what they want, even if it's nasty. Where did the idea that your boss should get to tell you what to think came from? It's like we still live in the era where the king converts so the rest of the people have to convert right along with him.

Good for you. The oil stained mechanics comment made me laugh. The odd pronoun in an email if that’s what people want to do, but actually starting a conversation with ‘what are your pronouns?’ - how likely is that? I always remember some article I read ages ago from an American professor. He was at a conference and talking to a TW and it came up. The TW had said that the whole thing was totally embarrassing and had the opposite effect to that hoped for. It was obvious they were a TW and it was like someone was questioning them rather than supporting them. (If that makes sense). Anyway well done.

I have to admit I’ve been put off using certain businesses in the past because they’ve made their political views public. It’s not their place to make political statements when they’re a supermarket, furniture company, jeweller, bank, etc. Even if I agree with their view I still find it annoying. I just want to buy stuff, I don’t want to be lectured at. I have no idea why any business would announce their politics and potentially lose customers as a result, when they could just stay quiet and keep all of the customers?

I was asked to ‘prideify’ the company branding and website.

I asked them to submit a written business plan for the project, complete with a cost benefit analysis.

They never did write that proposal…

Well done, that’s absolutely excellent.

This.

And if they really push it just vaguely say you're not ready to be 'outed' in any way.so don't want to publicly state your sexuality or gender.

Play their word games.

You did fantastically well, OP, and if in meetings all over the UK someone in every meeting spoke up as you did, things would be very different. It only takes one person to give everyone permission to back off. Well done and thank you.

First off, everyone is entitled to their individual opinion on this stuff but... for what it's worth my friend who is an out gay woman married to another woman told me she hates this stuff.
"At work I just want to be Sarah, not gay Sarah."

As I say, everyone is an individual but I find it interesting that she's so not bothered & there's all this focus on this stuff.

I think the fact that you also declined to use the women's day branding as well should show that you just genuinely don't want to mix work with personal views.

Bloody well done.

I'm technically one of the alphabet soup members but I refuse to have anything to do with the pride or rainbow movement.

It's toxic.

I think this sentence really sums up the issue:

“It seemed self-evidently right [in the past] but now they’re saying, ‘Actually I’m not convinced that a high-street retailer should take a position on anti-conversion therapy,” he says. “Because what’s that got to do with the price of beans?’”

In the distant past retailers would have put up religiously-themed decorations around Christmas but I can't think of anything in the past as pervasive as this.

Are you a member of a union OP? Might be worth joining FSU just in case?

Personally I would note down everything now in case some plonker raises an issue with what you said.

Although the tide is turning, I feel we are still trying to walk in the treacle of all the madness.

Well done for saying something. I've refused to add pronouns or whatever other shit gets rolled out because it literally has nothing to do with my work or how I do my job. It makes no difference whatsoever.

You star ✨

Well done for speaking up

I think you made a valid point that successful DEI does not involve forcing people to say the 'right things' while quietly they go off and roll their eyes while behaving exactly the same way they always do.

How does sticking a banner on your email signature change anyone's behaviour?

Sounds like they were relieved you brought the issue up in such a reasonable manner.