Just been told to remove my pronouns from my Teams profile

[Horrace]

I'm weak 🤣
My manager just phoned me to say there has been some serious complaints made about me that he must urgently address.
I panicked.
In the Pronouns section of my Teams profile, I have

'Take a Wild Guess'

Its been there for a few years. Its finally been noticed and I've been told to take it down because it's made someone or more than one possibly, FEARFUL of me.

I like this idea. I have been studiously refusing to add mine and periodically. I get prompted that mine are blank; I just ignore them!

By your own account you are ridiculing and mocking other people.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation, don’t you think it is worth reflecting on the harm you might be causing to other people? You could have taken a different path and just said that you don’t wish to use pronouns but respect the rights of others to do so.

Setting out to ridicule and mock does not seem like a positive path to take.

Who do you think she is bullying?

Mocking a regressive, sexist and homophobic ideology is not bullying.

Surely you’ve heard the chant/phrase/dogma Transwomen are women? Many (most) believe they are literally the opposite sex and if people don’t want to sleep with them because of their biological sex, that’s transphobia. Which is one reason it’s such a homophobic ideology.

What do you call giving drugs that sterilise and causing physical harm and mental defects in mostly gay and or autistic children for no valid reason if not child abuse.
Personally I call it both child abuse and eugenics

Here is the question with a name like that how many times is the other individual making an assumption that the person must be female or is the individuals default assumptiin set at that the person has to be male ......

If OP was not forced to put pronouns in, then it’s not nice and shit stirring

if she was forced to however the bully is the person who insists on pronouns - forcing people to choose pronouns to support a particular belief - like insisting you put a religion down without the option to say n/a is wrong

depends on ye detail

The thinking behind trans ideology shifts with the wind. It's just a set of niche beliefs that have been foisted on an unconsenting public with shamefully, children being gaslit into believing that a sex change will cure their uncomfortable developing bodies.

We need far more critical dialogue about the harm this is causing to society and much less passive "whatever you demand of course we'll do it"

Without wishing to derail, here's a parent desperately trying to challenge a school who not only use pronouns but coerce teenage girls into undressing in PE changing rooms in front of teenage boys. This is where unthinkingly obeying the pronoun police is leading society. It's not OK.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5461521-single-sex-changing-spaces-in-a-brighton-secondary-school-part-2-the-one-with-the-solicitors-and-the-vexatious-parent

This is excellent! Well done OP. It's important this nonsense is called out 👏

The fact someone was bothered enough and had time to complain suggests they haven't got enough work to do

Of course it's bullying if she's deliberately intending to mock or antagonise people.

It doesn't matter what the subject matter is, it's not professional in a workplace and it's right in this case that she was asked to remove them.

I would expect the same if a colleague was mocking me for my political views, my choice of lunch, my appearance - anything.

If you want to take a stand against this ridiculousness then by all means do so, but mocking and antagonising in the workplace is not the way to do it.

Whether they think they can genuinely become the opposite sex or not is irrelevant. What they do want is to distort language to make you believe it. Because if you believe that a man can become a woman you’ll shut up and shove over to make space for him in female spaces etc.

A woman is an adult female human. Woman is 100% tied to being of the female sex. It isn’t a state of mind and it isn’t a costume for men to don.

If I were your manager I'd have had to tell you to delete it, for obvious reasons, and just go without anything, but I would also completely agree with the sentiment.

Anyone who doesn't set pronouns is by default allowing people to guess and either assumes it will not be difficult, or doesn't care about it.

Once in another job, my colleague and I were sending out letters and didn't know if one recipient was a man or a woman.

Colleague: Put "Mr". If it's a woman she probably won't mind, but if it's a man and we put "Ms" he might be offended.

I think this explains why I'm often misgendered in writing. People see it as safer to assume that I'm male.

She’s not the bully here.

Some may do. Trans people, like women, Muslims, white people, or children, are not a hive mind. This lazy generalisation is a sign of radicalisation and dehumanisation.

The trans people I know are fully aware that they are not "actually" the opposite sex.

Sorry. I dont understand. Im not deliberately trying to antagonise here. Are you saying they are really gay men who are denying that they are gay and that's why it's a homophobic mindset ?

Not uncomfortable

Fearful.

I don't think it causes fear. It is very unprofessional. Work isn't the place to attempt humour to make political points.

I'd be more concerned grown adults can't think for themselves and would somehow be indoctrinated by a section they don't even need to put an answer on.

Anyway, my point isn't about whether it should even be an option (in my opinion it shouldn't, but I understand PP who does it because they want to be referred to as their actual sex and not mistakenly referred to as the other because of a unisex name), but that it's unprofessional in a workplace to put that answer to any question. Especially when you're only putting it to deliberately ridicule and antagonise colleagues. It wouldn't be accepted for any other reason.

Is there a section in Teams for you to display your political views to all and sundry at work?

No.

Organizations don’t make employees display personal information such as marital status, sexuality, religious, polical affiliations etc.

But that’s exactly what they do with “preferred pronouns”.

They are the ones behaving unprofessionally.

OP, you’re lucky they didn’t call the police. You realise you’ve been literally killing people? 😂

But they're not making people do this, you can choose not to. It's just an option for people who want to.