Pronouns in my email signature

[GinTonic]

I've been asked to state my personal pronouns in my work email signature. Grateful for any advice on how to deal with this? It's being presented as optional but I feel it's discriminatory as it's putting me under pressure to reveal my personal views on subjects which up to now I have not shared in the workplace. Thanks all.

if I said my pronoun was it people would think I was being totally serious and would refer to me as such.

I wonder what would happen though if we did adopt 'It'? I think it would show just how ludicrous this is.

They can’t make you can they? Decline - it’s noones business what you think your gender is. There a so many these days it’s impossible to keep track.

Thanks all this has been really helpful to think through my response and I'm going to reflect on it over the weekend. I won't update though as don't want to be outed.

Sorry but that made me smile. Isn’t ‘out’ the new ‘in’?

"I feel that expecting everyone to declare pronouns in their email signature forces people who may be unsure of their gender, or not yet ready to come out, to declare something they may be uncomfortable with. Whether or not I myself am in that situation, shouldn't be something I have to declare. By declining to include my pronouns in my signature I will be helping to take the pressure off any colleague present or future who needs the space to not have to declare their gender definitively. I won't be offended by any pronoun use people use of me, given that I haven't declared which they should use."

"in a lot of NHS emails,"
Haven't come across it in my neck of the nhs woods yet, but then I thought most people wouldn't bother with the rainbow lanyards when they arrived and yet they are everywhere. I still think most people are wearing them because they wanted a new lanyard and the rainbow is pretty, but they certainly serve as a reminder to watch my speech. I wish I dared wear an Adult Human Female lanyard.
Anyway, these threads are very useful, I shall be prepared for the next assault on common sense.

And as an aside my trust spent about £2500 on the rainbow lanyards.
Putting that in context a specialist ward has had their order for some special hypoallergenic dressings which we use occasionally in my own department turned down because they are too expensive. Sorry, I don't know the price, for an accurate comparison, but they are not used often so I doubt it compares to £2.5k .

I regularly communicate by email with people who have non-European names and, due to my ignorance, I don't always know if that person is male or female so I always put "Dear Sir/Madam ... Yours faithfully ".
I would be hideously embarrassed to insist anyone with a non- European name told me their preferred pronoun unless they volunteered it. It would sound like I couldn't be arsed to be polite or was making a big deal about it.

I find it annoying and confusing. I'm a woman, but I don't feel it is necessary for people at work to refer to me as a woman. I'm a person, doing my job, so I'd prefer they /them... But if I add that to my emails, people will then assume I'm not associating with being female... Gender bias is really real, so why advertise it? Anyway, that's my unclear rant over. Pronouns are creeping in at my work and I am tempted to add they /them, perhaps with a note about gender bias.

I mean their pronoun, not their preferred pronoun.

I email people regularly, the system just replies "Hi firstname", I don't know whether quite a few of the names are for a man or woman. Strangely enough, it makes no difference to the content, it's not relevant.

"in a lot of NHS emails,"

Likewise. And it must depend where you are because in some areas it's rainbow lanyards and laces everywhere. Plus all of the posters and decals about whichever relevant month/week/festival it is. There are some places where the rainbow never goes away.

I've yet to see similarly-promoted disability or race initiatives.

I don't always know if that person is male or female so I always put "Dear Sir/Madam ... Yours faithfully ".

Same.... but I write Madam/Sir. Because little things

I am not brave at work but, if this were ever enforced, I would inform HR that my gender identity, like my sexual orientation and religion, is none of their business.

That's a good response, Floisme.

I recommend ‘Your Majesty’ as a personal pronoun.

Somebody a while ago suggested -

Pronouns: Fuck / Off

@Cwenthryth
1 - I also use Madam/Sir :) I don't know if anyone has ever noticed.
2 - Spellcheck tried to change your name to Gintonic. I thought you'd like that

@Cwenthryth , thank you for the prompt. I will do that from now on. Little things , as you say.

People would have a little giggle but wouldn’t take it as being outright gender critical

Spellcheck tried to change your name to Gintonic. I thought you'd like that
I LOVE THAT! Serendipitously I am currently packing five varieties of gin into an overnight bag to go and stay with my best friend for a long overdue catch up

I got offered a rainbow lanyard at work the other day. I refused it. The look on the face of the person offering it was complete shock. He asked why? I said that I already had a lanyard that stated I was inclusive and it said staff on it. And I said that I hadn't seen any lanyards in support of other minority groups such as BAME or around domestic violence and until I did I was quite happy with my staff one.
A couple of members of our team have started with the pronouns in emails. I honestly think they think it is a 'trendy' thing to do because I know both of them have not given it any real thought. It's like jumping on a bandwagon.

I am happy to see the sunflower lanyards now where rainbow ones once were.

Someone with a hidden/disability may really need more actual assistance and patience from a store assistant than a LGB person.

Think I'm the only person near me not rocking a rainbow lanyard now. There's very much the element of "oooh pwetty new lanyard" behind the most of if but my "oh I've not gone down to that building" forgetfulness is as much of a protest as I dare make.

The best pronouns I've seen - on Twitter and must be inspired by MN -are Od/Fod

Cat's/Mother is fine.

HR are over-reaching their remit prying into deeply personal parts of employees lives this way.

An email, stating everyone will be referred to by their sex-based pronoun in the absence of requests to do otherwise.

Any other request is an inappropriate intrusion and questionable. It comes across as a demand and coercive. Compelling speech.

I would ask whats the matter with assuming sex-based, are you telling me I'm doing something wrong? How the hell is everyone supposed to remember all these? Or are we talking just one person in a whole company. I thought it was a tiny minority? This sounds like the numbers are huge. I literally never see anyone trans unless theres a special event specifically for transpeople.