To reinstate Mr/Ms/Mx on your email signatures

[Kreftla]

I don’t care what people call themselves, I care about how they would like be referred to (extended to those people who shorten your name when they don’t ask!). I don’t use he/she, I always use ‘they’ when I don’t know someone’s name, my mother always said ‘She is the cat’s mother’. Still no idea what that means, but I hate being called ‘she’ and would never say my pronouns as I don’t care how people refer to me when I’m not there.

So, why don’t we just go back to titles? We have to do them on most forms. You can say if you want to be referred to as a Dr/Lord/Ms/Mx/Master etc. You can add them to your email signature if you want, HR/recruitment people will see it and can advise the interviewer accordingly. Nobody then has to ask about pronouns in a work environment as it’s on your email signature etc., if you want it to be.

I don't want to use my title at work, is my answer to your question. I'd be no better off than I am now in letting people assume I'm a woman (I am), and referring to me accordingly. Why is a title of any use to anyone? I don't want anyone to call me Lord Luca in the office.

Nobody has ever asked about my pronouns anyway - I don't give off those kinds of uncertainties.

I don't need to give my title for the same reason I don't need to give my pronouns. Its irrelevant to my job and I don't want to encourage sexism in the workplace.

Yep, me neither. I hate bringing attention to my sex. I was just thinking we’ve just swapped one for another.

I don’t want to be titled - not very friendly. My name Joanna Blogs is clearly female

Exactly. I feel the same way. Possibly different in my job and I’m extrapolating as people put a lot of irrelevant details after their name! But putting Mr M Man looks a lot less intrusive and pointed than putting M Man (pronouns he/him/blah).

I'm not taking about drawing attention to my sex. I don't need to, its an undeniable fact, and not one I'm at all ashamed of or wanting to hide from anyone. I mean I don't need to take any steps to clarify it, so I'm not dicking around asking colleagues to call me Mrs L because it's more polite (?) than sometimes calling me she (it isn't).

But your name isn’t inherently female to everyone. What do you need to be clearly female? Surely it doesn’t matter?

admittedly I work in a industry where people are non- medical doctors and people do put pre and post script indicators on their email. So yes, it’s not common.

I don’t know. I like knowing whether I’m conversing with a man or woman. I think we all build a mental image of someone we’re communicating with but have never met.

I've never met a man called Joanna.

I hate that. The amount of times I’ve had to justify myself in meetings when there are men who are less qualified than me. It happens so much. This is why I don’t want to put my pronoun on my email. I just want people to do their job, I’ll do my job, and age/sex/etc has no bearing.

I volunteer and we are all very formal, even on the bake stall:) it's all Mr and Mrs / Ms.

At work, occasionally externally but that's because a degree of formality works wonders for instilling good manners and calming down keyboard warriors. Sometimes pretend am lizzie Bennett.

I always use ‘they’ when I don’t know someone’s name, my mother always said ‘She is the cat’s mother’.

That was one of my mother’s sayings as well! To be honest, I don’t think “they” is better in that context (and it’s certainly not grammatically correct!); I think the saying meant it’s polite to refer to someone by name rather than just by a pronoun. (For example - rather than “I have to go - she’s cooking dinner” you should say “Mary/my mother/Mrs Smith is cooking dinner”, as in that context “she” is dismissive/impersonal.). Not sure where the cat (or its mother!) comes into it, though - one of those odd English sayings?

id be surprised if you had! There are so many names of men and women I haven’t met! I’ve met quite a few Johanne who people think are female/male though!

As with others my name clearly shows my sex/gender so I see no need to add any further letters before or after it on my email signature.

Why? Why is knowing someone's sex more important than knowing their hair colour, height, faith, skin colour, political leanings? None of it should be relevant in a professional environment.

It has been proven time and time again that people treat women very differently to how they treat men. Ingrained sexism is very powerful.

I thinks it more for people you don’t know. I say it in a work sense - ‘where’s the engineer’ - ‘oh they’re working on the piling setting out’.

I literally don't care if people know I am a man or a woman. I have an ambiguous gendered name (since birth). Call me he or she if you want. I hate Mr/Ms/Mrs etc irrelevant bollocks

If I don't know you then ideally I would prefer to address you by your title & surname - it's just how I was brought up to be polite. I hate getting an email (it's never a letter) from someone who tells me their pronouns, which I'm unlikely to use in an email to them (rather than about them) but not their title so I can't address them as they like. I sign off 1stWorldProblems (Mrs), which also tells them to infer my sex / pronouns should they care about such things

I agree with the pp that you've misunderstood the phrase. It's about using someone's name instead of a pronoun, be that he, she or they. Your example doesn't work because it's usual to use a pronoun immediately after the name has been used. It's impolite to use a pronoun without first using a name (children very often do this when discussing their mums or teachers!) or to use she when the person is in earshot.

I don’t want to put my title on my email signature, my name is there people can just refer to me by that. I’ve enough to be thinking about at work without thinking about mine, or anyone else’s, titles frankly. Let’s not make the world more complicated than it already is.

I have an asexual name. Even if I didn't, or just used an initial, I do not want to be written to as Mr/Mrs/Ms/Mx - surely firstname/surname does as well? I do not want to waste time correcting people when they call me or speak to me. I would not like to join any firm that needed to know what sex I might be. In a meeting it would be clear.

My medical records show it and that's enough for me.

I dunno, I mean, your exclusion of “Mrs” is pretty grating and right on. How about live and let live? Don’t tell me what my pronouns are supposed to be, either! If I want to go by “Mrs”, that’s also my prerogative.

You just haven’t lived

Exactly, and I think this is why pronouns are so reductive! I don’t want to go back to titles at all (admittedly when I joined the workforce people didn’t use them as it was phased out). I was using it as an example as things just come around again in a slightly different format, yet we keep seeking the same solutions to differentiate people when there is little to no benefit.