to not want to sign off my emails with preferred pronouns?

[AlphaBites]

We've had an email do the rounds today at work saying in the next few weeks all staff are expected to sign off with their preferred pronouns, to save any embarrassment for any staff.

I don't want to.

Can I fight this somehow?

On email I address them as they sign off - the only people I know who use them are teachers and it’s easy I follow their lead

One thing that’s great about email communication is that it emphasises the name not title I’d strongly reject being asked to go back to putting this

Also it’s optional no one has to

So fine, make pronouns optional

So how do you formally address someone without using a title?

Workplaces in general are not very formal any more. I'd introduce someone like "this is Karen, our chief executive" or please meet Bob, my manager" etc.

But I don't want to be addressed informally all of the time.

In formal situations or in letters I want to be addressed by my title, not as though I'm down the pub with my mates.

On a Thursday I am 'they', this is a minimum of three members of staff, please increase my pay appropriately
Deathy

You can be but what has a formal letter got to do with email signatures?

It’s a tangent, a company will have your title and use it don’t worry

You can be but what has a formal letter got to do with email signatures?

Ok. Instead of "formal letter" please read "formal correspondence".

I don't want to be referred to as "Dear Decomposing" in any situation where I haven't invited it or by a random person working in a company who happens to need to contact me for some reason.

So how does this help? You haven’t emailed them yet and if you have you can sign off with your title if you prefer it

I would assume this is a box-ticking exercise to demonstrate "diversity awareness" to someone else. I just wouldn't bother going along with it, its silly. If my bosses were unwise enough to FORCE me to comply, i would change my pronouns every single week and complain if anyone got it wrong. If people want to play silly buggers, i can do that too, and i've had a LOT of practice!

If you include your pronoun they still don’t know what your title is

I’m interested in the take up from companies who have it and who does and doesn’t. Does anyone do it?

but it appears that actually there is a desire for a way to identify those that we are communicating with

A desire from who? Most people on here have said that they are pleased their sex isn't always obvious as they get treated worse if it is thought they are female.

If you include your pronoun they still don’t know what your title is

Exactly. Which was kind of my point.

When Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms was routinely used it was a way of indicating your gender and therefore people know which pronouns to use.

I'm female but if I wanted to identify as male why couldn't I just start using "Mr" as my title? Then everyone would know to use he/him?

So it seems to me that, for centuries, we've had a perfectly good way of indicating gender to everyone but having done away with it, even though lots of people prefer it, we've left a vacuum that needs to be filled.

Wait, did that kind totally not a cunt "midwife" poster threaten to doxx others because...they don't want to write their bloody pronouns in emails...?

So it seems to me that, for centuries, we've had a perfectly good way of indicating gender to everyone but having done away with it, even though lots of people prefer it, we've left a vacuum that needs to be filled.

Why do we need to indicate gender if it is not relevant to the work?

A desire from who? Most people on here have said that they are pleased their sex isn't always obvious as they get treated worse if it is thought they are female.

But many, many people do want to be addressed and identified correctly. If you truly want to obscure your sex why not use gender neutral pronouns if asked to declare them?

Oh right yes I thought your were for it as no different but I see what you mean

I agree optional titles are ok

You were

But I would oppose a directive to have to use my title very strongly

Decomposing, I don't know what industry you work in, but in general, everyone is now just known by first names. Unless they have a particularly common name and you might then add in their surname or job area to it. I work for a fairly large financial services company and we call the directors by their first names or even nick names.

Wait, did that kind totally not a cunt "midwife" poster threaten to doxx others because...they don't want to write their bloody pronouns in emails...?

She is also threatening to dox anyone who raised any objections to doing so, or even debated the issue. Women must simply comply.

Why do we need to indicate gender if it is not relevant to the work?

Because it seems like it is a need for humans when communicating with other humans.

That's how our language has evolved isn't it? We have gender specific pronouns which we use when speaking about people.

I suppose you could insist that those pronouns are done away with or that we change our language so that we only use a person's name when talking about them as well as to them so that

Hi Sam, I saw Alex yesterday. He looked really well" becomes

"Hi Sam, I saw Alex yesterday. Alex looked really well" instead.

Except it sounds wrong and how will you get people to accept it? Other than by compelling them to and compelled speech is wrong, so what do you suggest?

I’m happy with things as they are with regards to speech, I accept will make an effort to remember the correct pronoun for someone, otherwise I don’t need to flag up mine and fine with people using she.

WaxOnFeckOff

But what if you don't want that? Or if you are a customer of that industry who doesn't want that level of familiarity? Or are a patient who doesn't want that level of informality because it automatically enhances the power imbalance between Dr and patient. The patient has to say Dr Smith yet the Dr addresses the patient as "first name". That puts the Dr higher than the patient.

otherwise I don’t need to flag up mine and fine with people using she.

So would you be against using that in your sign off then?