Pronouns an essential box on the application form for new work ID card.

[NoAuthorityAtAll]

Started a new job recently in a public sector organisation and was filling out the online form for my ID card. It had preferred pronouns as an essential box (ie you couldn’t progress to the next stage without putting something in it - I did try leaving it blank). I’d noticed that everybody had pronouns on their signature, but for it to be compulsory to declare them on one’s ID card seems inappropriate for a public sector (or any actually) organisation.

I put n/a and am now panicking that I’ll get questioned about it or labelled as transphobic (which would be really damaging in my new role). My job is person-facing and I have no problem whatsoever with respecting people’s pronouns and gender identity in the course of my work (nor with colleagues), but I don’t want to be pressured into including pronouns on my ID and communications.

Is this a common situation? If anyone else has experienced similar, was there any comeback/ were you pushed further on it? I’m really quite worried.

I'm imagining your card coming back as

Jane bloggs
N/A

Because no one actually dared question a person's stated pronouns!

Sorry that's not exactly helpful I know!

@Boiledbeetle I really agonised over what to put, and I considered putting ‘I prefer not to state my pronouns’ but was weighing up the likelihood of them printing that on the card under my name!! 😆

Well, this is very discriminatory behaviour by your employer.

Have you just tried getting past it with a blank space? If not, put a full stop or a hyphen or something.

Pronouns are incredibly useful. For many people, name is not a good indicator for pronouns. Andrea from italy is usually he/him, Andrea from Germany usually she/her. Dan from china is mostly she/her, Dan from the UK is mostly he/him. Jamie, Sasha, Robin, chris - impossible to know.
Pronouns are incredibly useful to know how to refer to people so declaring them makes a lot of sense.
While I agree nobody should be forced to declare, it is very useful if people do.

😂 I honestly think if the right person (or wrong person depending on how you look at it) is doing it they will have seen xe/hir fai/twix she/frootloops and will be relieved that you are a nice easy N/A

Did you use big or small letters will you be n/a or N/A forever?!!

I’m assuming as these are pronouns fir an ID badge, sex will be extremely obvious

@blabla2023 if I can see the badge, I can see the person, generally don't need to have their pronouns written down 🙄

Exactly @Gcfemale

Fairly certain on an ID card people would be using their eyes to determine which pronouns to use.. And generally we don't speak about people in their presence, so they're not really all that useful.
And via email, signalling that you're female can actually be detrimental - there have been studies done that show how differently people with unisex names were treated once they made their sex known. So no, I don't think it is incredibly useful actually.

I'm sure people can use their eyes and ears to work out the appropriate term to use! I'm sure we have all coped for many years without needing them displayed.

I had to fill in a form for a job I started a couple years ago. I wrote in Eff/Orf
The HR girl, who was about 19, asked quite sincerely what they meant as she hadn't heard those before.
I seem to have spent my entire 40s thus far with this expression: 🤨

@NoAuthorityAtAll maybe you should have put your starsign! About as much required as pronouns

Funnily enough, your badge will bow come back as “n/a”, so agender. You are officially trans!
I know a lot of people who dress and carry themselves in a very androgynous way. i certainly wouldn’t assume!

Bollocks.

That's how you can tell the sex.
Speaking to people and using their names is preferable to pronoun insistence.

Where's Shiloh?
Shiloh is in the house.

Is it Shiloh's House?
Not it belongs to Shiloh's Aunty Brian.

Brian's a funny name for an aunty?
No it isn't, you dimwitted Brianphobe.

OP, I think tons of people find declaring pronouns really annoying. I don’t think you’ll be judged for putting N/A. My work keeps encouraging staff to add pronouns to email signatures but less than half of employees have actually done it

How on earth did we manage without them??

Why? So you if aren't meeting them face to face you know which people to treat like shit? I can't see any other reason for forcing people to reveal their sex. All studies have shown that women are treated less favourably than men. So those lucky enough to have a unisex name can have that advantage stripped from them.
If you're meeting face to face you can use your eyes. Humans are excellent at identifying sex.
So no, not incredibly useful at all.

If you are ever stuck in a similar situation where you cant proceed to the next step without putting a pronoun, just put "us/we" , honestly that's what I'll be doing if forced to. Would be interesting to see how they use my "us/we" pronoun when talking about me to someone else or in emails etc

I wouldn’t put it past MNers to get creative with morse code.

.. / -- .

For eg: - .—- .- —-

Autocorrect is annoying.

I tried with just a space but it just highlighted the box and wouldn’t let me proceed.

I went with n/a - N/A seemed too emphatic.

Oh I wish I had the courage!