Pronouns campaign being launched at work

WTF? They have jumped on board a sinking ship and are full sail ahead 😂😂😂

I know what you mean. It's so insulting that a man can think he can identify into womanhood. That's what upsets me. I'd have loved to have opted out of so many experiences that were inextricably linked to my sex, but then I also have my beautiful dd so it was worth it. No man could ever get it.

it's only come up once for me and i just said that i have spent decades de-feminising my written communications and only ever sign off letters/faxes/mails/correspondence with Initial Surname because i have been discriminated against and not listened to for being perceived as female.

I was fired while pregnant and so i just do not allow any hint of my sex until people see or speak to me and it becomes obvious (and often one of the first reactions they have is "oh, i thought you were a man")

The HR department need to understand that asking people to include pronouns may be providing individuals with documentation which can be used against the company.

Firstly it has to be optional as the SC ruled that GC is a protected belief so its the same as asking a NonChristian to include "Jesus if God" in their tags.
Also any comments on the tag or lack of tag would fall within bullying and harrassment.

If a person falls within the PC of GR and only recorded it by changing pronouns the company is on notice.
If they are not prepared to change their pronouns the company can be seen to be forcing them to "out" themselves as trans.

If you have a concern swap pronouns for initials
Eg
PronounsAtWork [PAW] has agreed to do the work and PAW will deliver it tomorrow .... etc

Ooh this is a great response l will use this if my EDI colleague asks me again with another side eye 😄

Edited to say: sorry I didn't mean to sound flippant about your experiences; sorry you've been through that. I have too for some of them, it does wear on you the biology of being female sometimes.... X

Bored/now

I refused on two grounds. Firstly that women are not taken as seriously as men in many areas of work especially STEM. Pronouns on e-mails and other communications is a form of “priming”, highlighting the sex of the sender in advance of the interaction. Academic studies have shown repeatedly that priming worsens the impact of bias. It therefore undermines the status of professional women but has the opposite effect for men.

Secondly, it is downright cruel to any people who may be unsure or not open about their Trans identity. It’s no different than forcing people to state in every e-mail whether they are gay. Fine if you openly are or openly aren’t, but for those who are in the closet it would force them either to lie about their identity every single day in every email or announce it to every colleague and business contact before they are ready.

No-one asked me again after that 😆

I’ve been asked twice why I haven’t put my pronouns in my email signature my response is along the lines of ‘I will not highlight that I am female until women are listened to in meetings, paid equally, and are not expected to organise collections and staff events, water the plants and make the tea’. I think I’m going to be pronoun free for a while. 😉

I would say that being asked to label myself makes me feel unsafe. I'm sure someone will come along soon with the link to research that shows women are treated less favourably once it's known they are women.

E.g. If "Sam Brown" is at first assumed to be male (The Default) then revealed to be female.

Wow - did they deliberately wait until the bandwagon was falling apart and driving in the wrong direction before jumping on it?!

Class response.

Sooooo 2019!

I would say ‘no thank you’ and if pressed ‘this is really outdated and inappropriate…why are you forcing people to reveal their made up gender identity?’

Ffs, talk about turning up to the party when everyone’s getting their coats and the lights have come on 😂😂😂

I worked for a major corporate for 37 years, it must have been six or more years ago when they came out with the Stonewall law, and “let’s be good allies to our LGBTQI+ bollocks colleagues”. I’m sure it was pre-Covid, and at the time I hadn’t gone down the sex realist rabbit hole. Pronouns came with a shiny policy about not challenging people transitioning and letting them stampede over everyone else’s dignity, respect and privacy if they want to.

Anyway, long story short, hardly anyone adopted the pronouns, and we had just shy of 100,000 employees. I don’t work there anymore, I would LOVE to know whether they have updated their DEI policy since the Supreme Court ruling.

I would just ignore it, and if the company forces you to use them, raise a grievance.

That's ok I'm dyslexic so I always get these things wrong hence the (sp)

Yogyakarta.
It's pronounced Jogjakarta, and commonly known as Jogja.
Sorry if I sound like a twat but I've been there so I know it!

"I'm not comfortable with this, I feel like I'd be outing myself at work when I'm still coming to terms with my authentic self, have you thought about that for others?"

I work for an organisation which considers itself to be extremely progressive and was very onboard with Stonewall. (Though they have gone very quiet since the Supreme Court FWS case.)

Interestingly not that many staff actually took the option to put pronouns in their auto signatures. About 10% by my observation.

My response to being asked for my pronouns is to say with a polite smile “that’s not a practice I participate in”.

I find that if you say it politely with quiet confidence and a steady gaze. follow up questions are rarely asked.

yeah, I've brrn ignoring this for aaaaages and no one has mentioned it
a shame really as it would be an interesting debate

Yep

I'd ask how it fits with the yueketar sp) principle as forcing transpeople to out themselves is not ok.
If you're feeling particularly brave a note to hr that its indirect sex discrimination and direct believe discrimination to insist that you put your pronouns in your bio, as it draws attention to your being female and that causes men to treat you worse than they would a man (there's lots of stats on this) and forcing you to participate in an act of religious observance to a faith you do not share is direct discrimination.
The prospect of being successfully sued usually makes this bs disappear overnight, especially when you point out that stonewall have been cited in several crt cases for giving illegal and discriminatory advice

I love this!

And last I heard SW are in financial trouble.

When someone asked me about pronouns I pointed out that my biology had been a great source of distress in my life. I've had miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy, endometriosis, flooding, operations and a difficult child birth on top of failing to be able to breastfeed. I'd find being reminded of this in every email and teams call very distressing and do my very best to avoid these memories. No one has asked since.

Or tell them you are on a long and difficulty journey with your gender identity and you aren’t ready to make a statement about such a deeply personal and fraught issue, they should just carry on as they were while you wrestle with this, and when you feel comfortable you will let them know

Perfect response. Throw in a few 'unsafe's' 'most discriminated' and 'sad times' for good measure, and bob's your uncle (he/him)