Anyone else seeing fewer pronouns in the workplace?

[Pedestrian0]

I work in a large Stonewalled organisation. A couple of years ago everyone was fully 'she/her/hers' on Teams and in emails but I've noticed a real drop off recently and I'm so pleased. I think/hope people are getting a bit tired of the silly business. Now the pronoun-staters are very definitely in a minority.

I can also confidently say that pronouns on Teams or email have NEVER enhanced any interaction I've had at the company over the past five years. I've seen one they/them and frankly everyone referred to the obvious male as 'he' if we have reason to refer to him when he isn't around. It's not malicious, it's just the obvious pronoun to use for an obvious male. Everyone else just has sex-based pronouns. But - if you can't tell by the beard and obviously male features you can tell by the name 'John'. No need for the he/hims. It's really just virtue signalling and makes me eyeroll a lot.

I like that it's dropping away because the fewer people who do it, the more it'll drop out of fashion. But is it just my work or is anyone else seeing this?

Oh - should add that one time a she/hers on email did give me extra information about the gender of the person as her name was unfamiliar to me. But it didn't change my response in any way as in my business interactions the sex of my colleagues isn't relevant. I obviously had no need to use her pronouns as I was talking directly to her.

Yes. Big networking organisation. Every so often when people change their information on social media, the pronouns get dropped. The ones that are left are the ones that haven’t updated recently or are very into the ideology.

When I worked in NHS my manager was sent an order form for pronoun badges. She said anyone who wants one let me know. Not a single person requested one. This was about 3 years ago too, so right bang in the thick of it. I had a little smile to myself to know I was working with such a sensible team.

I've noticed as well, I'm so glad the trend is finally coming to an end! Let's just hope it's not replaced with anything as equally ridiculous 😂

I remember a joke by a comedian a long time ago. He thought the expense and ego of personalised number plates were stupid, but he was grateful in that it highlighted who to avoid. I like pronouns in bios for the same reason, it lets me know who to avoid.

Yes. We were given careful instructions on how to add pronouns to our profiles some time ago - which really highlights how few people have chosen to do so.

A friend who is full on TWAW and was a she/her and works in IT has started to use just her first initial on Teams with a male photo because she's fed up of men mansplaining their IT issues to her. She says the he/hims are much nicer to another him, and actually listen to her solutions to their IT issues now.

It's cognitive dissonance writ large.

Yes, it's true that actually identifying yourself as female when it's unnecessary to do so can be a disadvantage. Not that most workplaces care about what advantages or disadvantages women tbh.

We get a 'whip up the allies' type email quite often but it seems to be losing its grip. I do quite wish there'd be some more public ditching of Stonewall by large organisations as we could do with getting free off them.

That's the problem with places that make it compulsory to have them in your email signature.

I did notice that when our pronoun-happy company had a major reshuffle, dumped a lot of staff and then recruited them as freelancers (I know...), not one freelancer then bothered to inform the world of their pronouns.

Yes. In my organisation, very few people at grassroots level embraced pronouns, but the high-ups made a show of it. They've dropped them now, too.

I work for a US multinational. Still loads from the Americans, especially those in HR, marketing, events, community relations - much less so among developers and services. And from the Chinese and Japanese who were among the earliest to start doing it when we provided a field for it in the company directory, albeit for different reasons. Never see it from any European/Brit/Indian/Australian/MEA staff. Ironically, it seems to be Indians who get misgendered the most, mostly by Americans, as Indians don't seem to want to put the pronouns in their sigs like the Japanese and Chinese do. Everyone is very used to being 'mis-surnamed' by our Chinese colleagues of course.

Big media organisation and I’ve noticed fewer lately, and in general the topic seems to be mentioned less and less, I think it’s slowly dwindling away because people are realising how silly it is but nobody wants to make a big announcement to say so.

Yes. I work in a large progressive organisation and I've noticed that quite a few people have removed them actually. It's good to see.

Very few at my place. Nobody in the operation, just HR. But every She/Her is quite clearly a woman. Also just realised typing this, there are no men in our HR department.

It's so good to hear that it's not just my work or even my imagination.

It really is silly. The ones that make me cringe hardest are the older male CEO/senior level ones. I don't know why but this just seems the most embarrassing. You're leading an organisation of this size and complexity and you are in the sway of this nonsense? We can literally all see you're a man. (Also if you're senior in our organisation it's likely you're a man anyway so just put your title lol)

That’s such a heartwarming story.

I love this thread. It feels like those threads that end up in ‘mumsnet classics’ where people say “Can you share anecdotes of when complete strangers showed you a kindness that changed your life” - that kind of thing. I feel so moved by these tales of people rejecting the shitshow.

Yes. Also no marking of transgender day of visibility this year. Will be interesting to see what Pride month brings...

Not working at the moment but my last workplace was still full of it.

However, I've noticed my professional body, previously really pushing the pronouns, has now backed right off. Newsletters featuring members doing whatever always had their pronouns, but the most recent one only had one pronoun person out of many.

I always look out for women with no pronouns as likely to be capable of critical thinking.

We recently had an email from our adoption consortium asking re DEI experiences in adoption (from a she/her). So I politely wrote back giving my concerns for vulnerable adoptees and asking that all the social workers read the Cass review. They have replied saying it has been shared with all staff, which is good.

I feel like it's getting worse in education

In my creative field - very broadly speaking - I'd say it's email pronouns all the way for the under 35s, and a marked absence of them for the over-40s.

I’ve only noticed one colleague that added his pronouns to his email signature. Thankfully, it’s a trend that just didn’t catch on where I work.

I work for a charity and when i applied a couple of years back, they had a page of questions about gender. I said I was cat gender and my pronouns were mew/ purr.
never heard another word about it