Nhs badge issue pronouns

[goldfishthecracker]

Started a new job today and got my ID badge. I had to put my preferred pronouns on the form for my badge. It wasn't an option for me not to pick it.

I gave it back without picking one and she handed it back to me saying she wouldn't give me a badge without me choosing them and I need my badge to work. She accused me of being transphobic when I said I didn't want to put them on display and i queried why I had to do it.

Now I have an official badge that I have to wear on display for patients and other health care professionals to see who I am with my pronouns very clearly displayed.

I'd share a photo but it has all my ID on it!

Can I raise this as an issue with my union? I don't want my pronouns to be on display, i see no need for it at all. Apparently they're moving towards all staff needing to display their pronouns on their badge. All previous staff are being asked to hand in their old badges and get a new one with their pronouns on it

Is it me?

I’ve got my own badge. They are about a tenner online.

it’s a nightmare isn’t it.

Well other than being forced to share something with all and sundry which you may not want to, this doesn't make any sense.
Surely someone seeing your badge will then call you by your name.
They won't call you her/him! And if they had to call up to make another appointment with you or whatever they will surely use your name🤷🏼‍♀️

I don't get this. There are so many reasons to not want to display pronouns, I'm amazed she decided it's because you are transphobic. Accusing someone of transphobia on this score is not on and I would make a formal complaint.

Gender critical is a protected ‘belief’ in the workplace. Say you are gender critical and believe in reality. They can’t then force you to believe in gender ideology. It’s like making a Muslim a Christian. Forstater 2021.

I find it effing scary that the NHS thinks you can change sex honestly. Surely the surgeons don’t do this do they?

Get a sticker or label and put it over the pronouns bit

Apparently they're moving towards all staff needing to display their pronouns on their badge. All previous staff are being asked to hand in their old badges and get a new one with their pronouns on it

I hope they get a range of responses including a lot of point blank refusals from men, people solemnly saying they're not sure about their 'gender' and don't want to out themselves, people quoting the relevant section of the Yogyakarta convention , and then a smattering who insist on a whole set of badges to allow them to express their fluidity.

I just find it incredible that people have bought into this notion that you can change your gender. The whole use of the term phobic if you disagree is bullying and disrespectful - we are all entitled to our views.

You identify as a woman so presumably you prefer she/her when people refer to you. I don't understand what the problem is.

screamingbanshees, no woman “identifies” as a woman. They just actually are one. Only men can “identify” as a woman. Because they aren’t. Hth.

You can identify as a woman and still be one. Nobody is taking that away from you. I don't understand how being asked to display your pronouns which you have gone by your entire life is outrageous in any way. No one has asked you to change them.

@goldfishthecracker Others will have a more informed opinion as to whether this is a good or bad idea, but I wonder whether saying something like "I am feel unsafe about disclosing my gender identity." might get you off the hook ?

You do not have to say whether that means you actually think that the whole concept of gender identity is bollocks and that you do not have one.

It's not outrageous, it's just pathetic. But then the NHS is pathetic these days.

Have a read, especially on why declaring pronouns is problematic for women. Go big on the sexism.
www.filia.org.uk/latest-news/2021/12/1/should-you-declare-your-pronouns-a-simple-guide

Also 'pronouns are rohypnol'
fairplayforwomen.com/pronouns/

Because for most people it's unnecessary and may even be insulting.
It's compelled speech and thus meaningless and for an employer to force the issue is almost certainly illegal too. Are you in a union?
Naturally, those who wish to display them have every right to do so. The same courtesy should be extended to those who do not so wish.

Note the bullying from the outset - accusing you of being "transphobic". Vile person to accuse you of that and a vile culture to have to work in OP. You have my sympathies.

@screamingbanshees that may be your belief but it is certainly not mine and many others. Nobody should be compelled or forced or bullied or threatened to buy into a belief system. Certainly not in their place of work.

You do your pronouns if you wish. But don’t force the rest of us who believe in reality to do the same. World has gone mad.

I can't believe that it's mandatory for all staff - I think your trainer is misleading you. You could go to your line manager and say something like you are having a personal crisis and not ready to declare your pronouns yet, the only problem is they may suggest 'they/them' as a compromise which you might not want.
Failing that just cover with tape as someone suggested until you have your foot in the door, then ask for a change.
If it was me and you had to, which I don't think you do yet, I would either go for they/them, or he/her, as it does say you can choose your own.

All previous staff are being asked to hand in their old badges and get a new one with their pronouns on it

Wonder what budget that's coming out of?
Ludicrous waste of money.

I am now going to state my pronouns as eff/off 😎

Thank you! I'm going to ask my manager and he for the policy

My pronouns are
Adult/human/female

I don't understand how being asked to display your pronouns which you have gone by your entire life is outrageous in any way. No one has asked you to change them.

All of the people in the workforce will also be human - and doubtless unashamedly so - but nobody is expecting them to wear a badge to confirm that - and I can't imagine it would go down well if managers routinely came around asking you to confirm your species.

Aside from it being a pathetically pointless exercise for all (I have no objection to people who choose to request a pronoun different from what you would expect) - akin to asking elderly people for ID in shops when they want to buy a bottle of wine - forcing people to 'out' themselves with their pronouns has been fully demonstrated to adversely affect trans or gender-questioning people the most.

Therefore, even if these bullies who insist on people doing it (clearly) don't care about disadvantaging or putting at risk women, they absolutely cannot claim to be in favour of helping trans or questioning people either, when they are doing the exact opposite, by demonstrating their dictatorial unveiled transphobic attitudes and prejudices. They only care about signalling their own supposed virtue - and they are quite happy to throw women, trans people and maybe also even men under the bus in order to achieve this.

Awesome. Clarting up staff name badges with information that is unnecessary (& for some patient populations, will be actively confusing &/or distressing, yay!) making the truly glacial process that was getting Trusts across England, at least, to adopt the “hello my name is” badges (designed with the needs of the visually impaired in mind) a spectacular waste of time. Because now there’s a funny little bit of squiggle you can’t read, defeating the purpose of the fecking badges. Be interested to know if they did an EIA before deciding name badges are not, in fact, for providing patients with information, but rather, for “validating” staff.

@goldfishthecracker obviously there are pronouns by which you are typically addressed, but there’s no avoiding the fact that putting them on your badge is a political (indeed quasi-religious) statement. It is also, according to the Yogyakarta Principles, your Badger that is being transphobic by making this demand - & the Trust/Board if this is really Policy rather than her pet project. (Ok yes I realised I wasn’t entirely sure who’d so absolutely lost the run of herself here but am now fully envisaging an oversized anthropomorphised badger in scrubs & a surgical mask. If she is an irritant, just think of her as a bossy badger & tune out the grunt-snuffles 😊)