Crazy world feeling sick after posting on a intranet piece

[Hamserfan]

I have posted accidentally on a news item at work. By accidentally I mean I had typed a comment then pressed submit instead of delete. So now anyone who looks at the comment can read my name.
I queried the lack of the words female or women in a puff piece publicising the new menopause policy. How crazy is it that I actually feel sick at what I have done? But my corner of the NHS is full on captured

Good for you. Don't worry they can't do anything unless they want to be sued.

I hope that nothing bad comes of it. There must be others who think the same as you. Feeling sick is entirely understandable, but I expect keeping silent was also hard for you to stomach. Try to stay calm. This stranglehold needs to be broken and the only way it will be is by challenging it.

For what it’s worth, it does sound like your comment was on one of the less contentious topics. Was it an extensive comment, pointing out why not using those words is a backwards step?

They'll likely just delete your comment. That's what happened at my work when women posted very, very mild GC comments on an intranet piece.

We got an official "be kind" message (the comments weren't unkind or critical of an individual or group) sent to all staff. The individuals who commented may have been spoken to but as far as I know it went no further (how could it have? These were really innocuous comments relating to women's "lived" experiences and genuinely held beliefs about themselves).

Still, we all got the message: shut up, don't speak out, if you don't believe then you have to pretend to believe. So progressive.

That’s for the reassurance. I wasn’t rude just stated that the relevant words weren’t used but the word men did appear in another news article. Anyway I’m sure communications dept don’t work out of hours so I will wait and see if any wrist slapping occurs. It is absolutely crazy though that drawing attention to my protected belief that there are two sex classes can make me feel so wobbly 😳 Anyway close enough to retirement that I could just goodbye!

I wrote an anonymous response to an internal "diversity" questionnaire about how the company could be more inclusive. I also felt sick just in case it wasn't really anonymous - my answer was mostly a request not to ask for pronouns in meetings as it puts people on the spot. I said I was GC and didn't like the virtue signalling aspect to it, as well as knowing it might cause anxiety to not-out-yet trans people... The pronoun requests in meetings actually stopped! You did well speaking out, the worst that could happen is needing to go to court to defend your defensible position. The best outcome would be to make positive changes in the NHS. The likely outcome is that a few eyebrows will raise and not much else 😁

I think there will be a lot of colleagues quietly applauding you. Shame it has to be quietly though. Is there a Women's group in your workplace?

Dear god - the world we are living in. You said nothing wrong.

I wrote an anonymous response to an internal questionnaire too - I pointed out that their inclusion excluded women - I was most surprised to get a message back (on the same questionnaire) telling me that it "wasn't relevant in our organisation!"

Given the recent Rachel Meade verdict I would hope that you don’t see any push back

So easily done! I hope commonsense prevails.
I have taken to not reading intranet articles and the gender equality network newsletter as I know they will make me stew all day. One particular article about paternity leave was the final straw. (Of course we can't have a women's network any more)

No women’s network - that I’m aware of anyway. I am feeling a bit better because when I went to book an online conference noticed that the different organisation now asks for sex rather than gender in its diversity information. I emailed them last year pointing out that they asked for all the EA 2010 characteristics except sex. So I’m taking that as a win!

I reckon you'll make some new secret TERFy friends at work, and you may even get invited to the secret GC group you never knew existed 😉

(No, I don't work in the NHS and no idea whether there actually is such a group in your workplace, but I know similar has happened in other places, so it wouldn't surprise me at all! Fingers crossed😄)

You beat me to it. I was going to say the same thing.

Play innocent. You were concerned about plain English. And you were perturbed, on behalf of the organisation, that using men in an article about men's issues, whilst not using women in an article about women's issues, could be seen as sexist. And you would hate the trust to be open to such criticism. Bats eyelashes innocently.

You will have (a) brought the issue to the attention of others who might not have known and (b) inspired others to speak up or comment, so absolutely well done!

Hamserfan you might have inadvertently done a very good thing by enabling other people, maybe even the majority, in your workplace to speak out. Most ‘captured’ organisations nevertheless include many people whose views are based on biological reality. 🤞this actually ends up being a really positive thing for you 💐💐💐

Thanks for the kind words lots of my immediate colleagues know that I am GC from discussions. However it just seemed so different seeing it in black and white.

Please don't bat your eyelashes and act innocent... if it is decided that language should be gender neutral, then there needs to be a broad review of the impact of this and it should be applied consistently.

A broad impact assessment should be carried out.

NHS communications should be clear, concise, straightforward, honest, open, professional, respectful and accessible.

Don't worry ChateauMargaux even if I tried I couldn't carry off the "bemused innocent" If challenged I will point out that sex matters and is in fact a biological reality 😂👊

So I received an email from someone in the well-being department who had posted the piece. Telling me that the session on the policy was for managers who are either men or women so used the word people. Totally missing the point that the policy is “relevant to all people who undergo menopause”! will compose a reply to them tomorrow.

At least a EDI SWAT team didn’t arrive to cart me away😱