Pride Month: Workplace have asked for anonymous feedback on "how can we be more inclusive?"

[Bornin1989]

I work for an SME who are big on their inclusive ethos (a good thing) but for the last couple of years have made a habit of asking staff, esp. new starters, to "State your name, role and pronouns". We are also "encouraged" to put our pronouns in our e-mail signature, to help trans and non-binary staff members feel safe and included. As part of pride month they've created an anonymous form to collect feedback on how to make the company more inclusive.

I used it as an opportunity to tell them about gender critical feminism, asked them to stop asking people's pronouns in company meetings (pronouns in e-mail signatures are non-compulsory thankfully!), told them that GC beliefs are protected in law and why GC is not transphobia. I also said I was happy to work alongside, love and respect trans and non-binary colleagues, including the use of their preferred pronouns, the same as I do with religious colleagues despite being an atheist.

I hope it will help senior staff realise that gender identity theory is an ideology that not all staff align with.

Has anyone done similar? How did it go?

I found the apparent deliberate misunderstanding of the OP weird and confusing - why can't people ask/ share pronouns in 1-2-1 conversations? It was simply the idea of going round the room expecting people to share in a big meeting that OP took exception to. No one is being banned from asking/ telling. What hyperbolic exaggeration!

FWIW I would hate this, because I wouldn't know how to respond, because I think it's bollocks. I don't need counseling to explore how the bollocks relate to me, lifes too short and i just don't see any point.

This wouldn't stop me from using someone's preferred pronouns if they had
a) told me and
b) I remembered (unlikely) and
c) they hadn't pissed me off by getting on my case in a holier than thou kind of way about it!

Well, an interesting update - probably outing if anyone from the company are on here (and reading this!) but as we're not many people, I'm hoping not.

Again for pride month, our company have posted an interview with a lesbian staff member on our internal staff newsletter, about her association with pride. In the interview they asked her what she thought of pronouns in e-mail signatures (brave!), and she said essentially she doesn't want "two words" to define her, and she's all for it as long as it isn't made mandatory. ❤

Another GC woman in our midst!

Also signals to me that the company are open to thinking, and publishing, thoughts that aren't just related to Gender Identity ideology.

I disagree. In the hypothetical meeting you'd never say, please state your name and religion if you like.

It assumes everyone follows a religion, or at least most people .

Stating pronouns is of course signifying a belief in gender ideology. It's not the norm for everyone.

That sounds hopeful.

I might be giving my age away here but how on earth did we manage before pronouns were "required"?

I hope to live long enough to see this nonsense being discussed as a phase that people grew out of.

Overheard conversation at work today with one colleague I don't really know ending by muttering 'bloody pronouns …' I muttered 'absolutely' and we grinned at each other.

Our org is Stonewall-led 🙄, heads-of do pronouns in email sign offs and we are being 'encouraged' to put the Pride flag in our sign offs and Teams backgrounds.

I am ignoring the lot.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Wow, Dineasair, you’ve been trawling the archives!

However, it did help me realise why I’m so uncomfortable with being asked to state pronouns…..

Stating pronouns was started as a way to declare allyship with trans people.

I have no issue with how anyone wants to present themselves, and I don’t think that anyone should be obliged to take on a set of behaviours, preferences and characteristics because of their sex. However, we have a few areas in society (spaces, sports, services) which are, for good reason, segregated by sex. Unfortunately, trans allyship now seems to require that those areas are opened to transwomen, and that is something I see causing a great deal of harm. I don’t want to imply I support that harm by using opposite sex pronouns

How to be more inclusive at work?:

Stress the importance of preserving single sex space to be inclusive of women who require them for safety, privacy, dignity, comfort, religious reasons, PTSD from previous experiences etc. And for men too who prefer the privacy, knowing they won't be embarrassed, either.

And keep opportunities exclusively for women exclusive, especially if you're in a male dominated field. This allows inclusion for women to achieve and succeed where they might otherwise not have the chance members of the male sex have.

And provide PPE that fits and protects the female body. We aren't smaller men.

Understand that recent rulings such as Forstater's mean that employers can't discriminate for gender critical beliefs.

Examine hiring, promotion, leadership, role allocation etc policies and practices - are there sexist biases in play?

I wish I was still working for a captured organisation. No I don't, it was just that talk about flags.

Minor Disaster
(ooh/aargh) 🏴‍☠️

@MinorDisaster
One of the NHS departments responsible for my care have, for reasons I cannot fathom, the rainbow NHS logo thingy as an attachment to all their emails. Which is spectacularly unhelpful when you want to find the email from them with the actual real attachment[s] on. They’re part of the Trust who Baroness Nicholson was getting cross with on TwiX a couple of weeks ago, naturally 🫤.

@NitroNine I hate it when organisations add random unnecessary attachments - it's so time-wasting when you open them in error. Rainbows are doubly unnecessary.