Pronouns in email signature

[thirdfiddle]

I'm sure this has been discussed before but couldn't find a thread. People are talking about getting everyone at work to put their pronouns in their email signature. I really don't like the idea. Why do they want us to do this, and can anyone suggest a good neutral way to answer if asked why I don't?

Hopefully won't come up as immediate colleagues are very cynical and liable to silently roll eyes at any such initiative that gets off the ground rather than enforce it.

FFS 🙄

My stock answer to that question is that my personal pronoun is [my first name]

After that I just play dumb...

A “Fuck off” should suffice.

This is where passive aggressiveness come into its own. Agree to do it and then mysteriously forget.

"Did you know that there's research that when women are reminded about our sex, our performance drops on tasks?"

My workplace sent out an email encouraging everyone to do this. I just ignored it. That was about 6 months ago.

This is where passive aggressiveness come into its own. Agree to do it and then mysteriously forget.

Ha ha!

One alternative is to say that you do not believe in "gender identity" ideology and that for the company to compel your speech or that of any other person is a breach of your human right as written in Article 9 and Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998:

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/42/schedule/1

Reference to Human Rights should make the company think and make the situation voluntary instead of compulsory.

I can see this possibly happening in my wokeplace. And I won’t be participating.

My story is:

‘No, I find it triggering, and i am not able to discuss it with you at this time‘

Now for me this isn’t untrue. I’m a butch looking female (genderfree bisexual if im gonna go all modern with my terminology) , in a stereotypical male career and if I’d been born 20 yrs later I’d have been sterilised, medicated and transed. And I’d have been all for it... for a while.

I’m now middle aged and in a heterosexual relationship and have a child. It scares me to the core to think what I would have allowed myself to get into. I, me would have been erased. And tbh i went through some suicide ideation phases as i came to terms with myself. So, yep, triggering.

Say you don't believe in gender ideology but would like to be referred to by your employee reference number at all times. (Our ones are 6 digits long).
Also say you'll be very upset if anyone get any of the digits wrong.

Can someone give an example of how the email signatures would appear?

My colleague says that if he ever gets asked to do this, he is going to tell everyone that his pronoun is "it". It's actually a pretty good idea, because it will have the effect of making the people demanding this feel very uncomfortable indeed when they have to use his preferred pronoun.

Can someone give an example of how the email signatures would appear?

Usually people add a line to their signature as follows:

pronouns: she / her

This

Try again. Pics aren't loading onto MN well these days

Some great ideas on here. I only wish I still worked in a place (instead of out of my home) so that I could use them.

The organisations for which I freelance can fuck right off if they ever suggest any of this - they can bloody well employ me and pay NI and a pension if they want to play that game (and I still wouldn't comply).

Ugh, performative wokeness.

I see it on Twitter a lot too - pronouns in the bio. It’s such a surprise when I see a profile picture of a man followed by he/him, and a woman followed by she/her. Thank you for pointing out the bleeding obvious, but have a cookie for showing everyone what a fabulous ally you are.

Trying to visualise how the email signature would work. Would it be like:

Jane Bloggs (she/her)
Job title
Employer

?

I've heard of this via threads here and find it unnecessary! I would only ever address an email to the person using their first name. If mentioning someone else again I would use a name

I googled someone who wrote a couple of podcasts I enjoy, as they had an unusual name which I've known used by both men and women and I wondered which they were.
Their bio started "my name is xxxxx xxxxxx and my pronouns are They and Them."
With a picture of someone with a full beard.
I'm still none the wiser.

You could come up with something utterly inane like 'fringle bopbop' or 'schnee' then get visibly upset when they say you can't use it and say you're being erased.

I haven't seen this anywhere yet.

Seems ridiculous and I necessary.

If this happens in my workplace I might put they/them and then kick up a stink when people get it wrong, just to be annoying.

I think I would email them (probably publically if I felt brave enough - e.g., cc'ing the whole department) and ask them what assessment had been done on the impact of this on unconscious bias and stereotype threat. Both of these are heightened when there is an focus on characteristics that are the basis of discrimination.

Just do your signature like this:

Best regards
LangCleg
Pronouns: any

Lucky you, legolimb - it's all over the place in universities, along with rainbow lanyards. Though it's coming more from the professional services staff rather than the frontline staff (by which I mean the academics and also people like the porters, estates staff, etc.). The cynic in me wonders whether, for those that perform this wokeness, it's a means of creating new projects for themselves and ensuring that the endless make-work that consumes so much time and resource in universities continues.

Usually people add a line to their signature as follows:

pronouns: she / her

But surely only someone whose pronouns don't align with their sex would need to do this? I can see it would be a good thing as company policy to allow people who feel they need this to add it to their email signature (to avoid people using pronouns that upset them), but why does someone whose pronouns align with their sex need to do this?

I think my response would be to say that you support the company in having this as an optional addition to the company email signature. The analogy I would use would be that it should be the same policy whereby people are allowed put their qualifications/professional membership in their email signature, but there is no obligation for those without qualifications to put "Lisa Smith, No Tertiary Qualifications"