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?

I'm not yet decided what my personal pronoun is, please call me by my name.

I would chose 'me' - that's a pronoun.

I think I'd go for the royal "one".
Alternatively - "I have no pronoun preference"

Forcing people to do it surely leaves them open to discrimination if they are honest, if I put joe bloggs she/her and my boss is not comfortable with trans people then there goes my promotion.

By highlighting that you are a female Chris you are allowing them to express their bias against you.

This needs seriously flagging and paying attention to. It might be a "tiny thing" but what actually happens is you end up with:

"Hi Mike, thanks for sending me that data, please let me know when you've started the project.

Regards,
Chris

(PS: A WOMAN WROTE THIS EMAIL)"

For a lot of people that'll change how seriously your email is taken.

We don't allow employers to compel applicants to include age, sex, marital status etc on CVs because we know it generates bias, so why allow it in emails?

I've also seen many transexuals writing about how they hate this as it basically makes the point that they don't pass well enough for their pronouns to be obvious.

What total and utter bollocks. Thank god hell would freeze over before my bosses would go for this shite!

It is hard enough to remember names. How are we also supposed to also know everyone's preferred pronouns?

I'm the same, been in my job 4 years, still struggle with names. Pronouns would add a whole other level.

But as a pronoun is generally only used when talking about someone, I have no preference as to how I am referred.

Is it really so hard?

I’m not here to make someone else feel better because they maybe don’t pass as their acquired gender

I’m a female, I have a female name, so she is fine, I’ve never needed to tell anyone that in my many years on the planet and I won’t be starting now. And even if I was “misgendered”, so what

Why don’t you just say what your preferred pronoun is? If you don’t care, most other people won’t either. I bet you just want to make an issue of it when no one else gives a toss.

Women have been using their initials (eg JK Rowling) or male pseudonyms to get away from being discriminated against for being female for decades, and now we’re supposed to just suck it up and add she/her to everything we do, for the sake of being nice to others?

Fuck that.

I have ‘as per biological sex’

I can also see this just being used to discriminate against trans people where communication is only over email. Because if I email someone, I don't know if they are trans or not, and it matters not one jot. This is basically saying

email signature (I am transgender by the way)

Is this for transgender people though? Surely they would usually have names to match their desired gender? It seems much more likely to be inspired by the wish to cater for the gender-fluid. I agree about it potentially backfiring though.
As an aside (although it was mentioned upthread), what does "queer" mean? It seems to mean something different every single bloody time I see it. Is it gay, or gender-fluid, or is it a general word for what my son calls The Alphabet People (of whom he is one, so he reckons he can call them what he likes)?

Why is it anyone else’s business except our own whether we have a vagina or identify as a person who has one. If HR wrote this to me I’d be telling them to mind their own business or fuck right off.

I don't understand the need for this via email?! In person yes, if you are working alongside someone and they say 'i prefer he/him' etc, for example then okay. But in emails like seriousy come on!

People who are called Alex etc will be used to having the wrong pronounds used sometimes. I usually agree with ideas that others think of as crazy but this is just too far

This needs seriously flagging and paying attention to. It might be a "tiny thing" but what actually happens is you end up with:
"Hi Mike, thanks for sending me that data, please let me know when you've started the project. Regards, Chris (PS: A WOMAN WROTE THIS EMAIL)" For a lot of people that'll change how seriously your email is taken.

What utter, utter bollocks. What if your name is Kathy, or Susan, or Jane? Anyone who doesn’t take women seriously in the workplace is going to assume you’re a woman if you sign off using one of these names, regardless of whether you specify a pronoun. But you’re seriously going to kick up a fuss about this in case someone called Chris or Pat is ‘identified’ as a woman because they specified a pronoun?

my dd went to a progressive high school and half the kids were experimenting with gender on some level (meaning they looked quite like my school mates in the 70s/80s when clothes and make-up weren't an immediate signifier of gender epression as they seem to be now).

They would do this at assemblies: "Hi I'm Jane She/Her and I'm here to talk about the effect of overpopulation on guppies". I always wanted to stand up and ask a question saying "Pallisers She/Him"

If HR wrote this to me I’d be telling them to mind their own business or fuck right off.

Please, PLEASE do. I can’t wait to see the response.

I'd want to put: my pronouns are:

You/can/fuck/right/off/with/this/shit!

Realistically, I'd just say that I don't have a gender identity and I don't believe in it. My sex is female, so my pronouns correspond to that.

I’m not sure how it works either unless instead of having a little logo in purple saying “Hello my name is Cherry” Then Cherry Pavlova; job title I have a little logo in rainbow colours saying “Hello I prefer to be called by my name and referred to by my name”. Then Cherry Pavlova, job title.
Worlds going mad.

I’m sorry.
If I see a name and I can’t work out the gender for it. I just sat dear BOB.
Not dear Mrs bob or me bob.
And quite frankly I couldn’t give once ounce of shit what gender the person I am dealing with is.

All this will do is lead to more discrimination. Because if men who want to be women think there isn’t discrimination then they’re more stupid than I thought they were

My workplace encouraged us to do this about 6 months ago. I've just ignored it and no one has said anything to me.

Just put your first name in brackets. Insist they refer to you as such. E.g. 'Regan went on a training course yesterday so Regan will be delivering a session this morning'.

But you’re seriously going to kick up a fuss about this in case someone called Chris or Pat is ‘identified’ as a woman because they specified a pronoun?

Sure, Chris, Pat, anyone else with a neutral name, anyone deliberately using initials to avoid bias, and hold onto your seat but some women even use professional titles. Yup, that's right, all those lady doctors, police officers, ministers, judges etc that you've been seeing on telly aren't just for show, they actually exist and, shockingly, professions requiring those titles tend to be more male dominated leading to a greater chance of - you've guessed it - unconscious bias.

Look, either it's totally obvious from context what sex someone is, in which case they don't need to put their pronouns, or we have no way of knowing, in which case stating their pronouns could cause bias. Either way it's a shit idea.