Mandatory pronouns on work email signature

[SamW98]

Morning all

Can one of you ladies point me in the right direction of the wording I can use to fight against this? I do remember seeing links but just a quick reference will be appreciated

Basically my very laid back non political company is as taken over last year by a huge US corp and since then very bit of training is revolved around DEI and being told the ‘correct’ way to think. Email pronouns were rolled out on a voluntary basis with the vast majority of the UK based staff not partaking. This hasn’t gone down well with the big cheeses in the US and they’re bringing in an AI email tool where pronouns are a mandatory field.

Now this is 💯 a fight I’m prepared to take on and my entire team feel the same - none of us want this nonsense. So just really looking for wording to use to put on a team pushback against this unnecessary compelled crap.

Any links/wording/examples to quote would be very much appreciated - this really is a hill we’re all ready to die on. Thank you

I thought I was up to date with most terms but what is this? What does mirror pro nouns mean?

None the wiser even after reading this.

A person who uses mirror pronouns wants to be referred to with the same pronouns as the person talking.

• Person A uses mirror pronouns.
• Person B uses she/her, so when she talks about person A, she uses “she/her” to refer to her.
• Person C uses ze/hir interchangeably with fæ/fær, so when ze talks about person A, fæ uses either ze/hir or fæ/fær to refer to fær.

https://en.pronouns.page/mirror

Maybe I can explain it this way. If you use mirror pronouns, that means your pronoun preferences are in a constant state of flux, because they always change to conform to other people.

Let's suppose that Alice went through the looking glass and found mirror pronouns there, and then decided to adopt mirror pronouns from then on. (Yes, I do think I'm funny. Sorry.)

From then on, all the characters she met would have to refer to her the way they liked to be referred to themselves. I'm sure Humpty Dumpty would demand other people used unique neopronouns of his own devising to talk about him, so he'd have to use those same unique pronouns when he spoke about Alice.

Anyone with a she/her pronoun badge would have to use she/her about Alice, anyone with a he/him badge would have to use he/him about Alice, anyone with a they/them badge would have to use they/them about Alice, and so on.

I wouldn’t do this. It just makes it appear that more people are buying into this nonsense. It may work but for all the wrong reasons. We need to start rejecting these ideas not utilising them to get results.

Free Speech Union advise on this but you have to be a member to read it.

https://freespeechunion.org/gender-pronouns-in-the-workplace/

This was started at my workplace last year (in Australia). Interestingly, I wasn't actually asked what I wanted as pronouns someone else created it for me. I've just quietly removed them.

This is my view as well and I have quoted the Yogyakarta Convention at work when my very fad following boss decided to try to force us to include pronouns in our communications.

I am not transgender, nor gay but I oppose the forcible use of pronouns for the same reasons: people who are still not sure about their sexuality/sexual preferences should not be forced to chose a pronoun and therefore identity before they are ready.

And also, I don’t feel the need to identify myself as a woman in my emails, having a unisex looking name saves me from a lot of mansplaining!

I got an email from a young man today whose signature said

Tom Jones
Any Pronouns
Job Title

I don't think you should have to provide pronouns but if I was forced to I'd probably put this.

I can't tell you how much I eyeroll at women I've known for years who now have she/her in their tagline. Yeah, I know you are a she/her Julie - you told me about getting knocked up unexpectedly in grad school - it gave me a clue to your sex

I have a colleague I’ve known for years who I’m certain is a lesbian based on various things, but she has never “come out” at work. This is entirely her business. Imagine if she had to sign off things with J Smith (lesbian). That would be outrageous. I’m both straight and GC, but even I can see that people with gender confusion might not want to be required to tell the world this or alternatively to lie and feel bad about it.

Finnish.

They have to use English to talk about this stuff.

hän / hänen

Or go for one with a non roman alphabet.

I recently had an email from someone at a company who I very strongly suspect have made pronouns mandatory.

Her email signature reads “My pronouns are private”

Finnish is high on my list, as is Hungarian (vary according to grammatical cases that don't exist in English), or Tagalog (assorted dropped vowels and suffixes to play with, as well as formal and informal versions).

Whilst I certainly see your point, I guess the argument would be that pronouns are asked for as people using the incorrect ones can cause offence to some. Whereas there's not likely to be occasion for other people to refer to your colleague as lesbian or straight when in discussion with her or about her, if that makes sense.

I wrote 'No preferred pronouns' in mine. So far no-one has told me off!

Mandatory email pronouns is incompatible with established UK rights and legislation.

1. a declaration of pronouns is a declaration of faith in the concept of gender as an ideology. Whilst that belief structure is protected and those who hold it are at liberty to do so, the alternate position of believing that sex is a physical reality is also a protected belief and it would be discriminatory on the grounds of faith or belief to force people to make a declaration incompatible with their beliefs.

2. for those who do believe in gender ideology, forcing pronoun declaration is forcing all employees to either "out" themselves/make a declaration they aren't yet ready for or alternatively to uncomfortably opt for pronouns they aren't happy with but aren't yet ready to publicly reject. This is contrary to the equalities act because it puts people who are uncertain about their gender at a disadvantage.

NoBinturongsHereMate · Today 07:06

Finnish is high on my list, as is Hungarian (vary according to grammatical cases that don't exist in English)

I don't know about Turkish, but Kazakh doesn't have sex based pronouns either. Finnish and Magyar are part of the Finno Ugric - Turko Mongolian language family.

I sincerely doubt mandatory pronouns would happen at my workplace, even though it is Super Righteous, but if it did, I already know what I'm planning to use (and I think it is pretty Righteous-proof): those of my mother tongue which is a relatively uncommon dialect of Chinese, and therefore both non-gendered and in a non-roman alphabet.

"What/Ever" 🤣

I'm the only person I've noticed in my company that doesn't have pronouns in their signature (we're an SME ~150 employees). Most people have their pronouns then a hyperlink "why I use these" to a page that waffles on about inclusivity and staff feeling safe.

I'm now sorely tempted to write "No pronouns - why I have this" and hyperlink to a document that says these two points. 😂If I get pulled up on it, I could say I'm helping any gender critical colleagues "feel safe".

Not sure I'm brave enough 😶

And also, I don’t feel the need to identify myself as a woman in my emails, having a unisex looking name saves me from a lot of mansplaining!

This! I worked for a multinational and have an androgynous name. So much unearned male privilege 😀

I quite fancy ‘Fuckface’ as my pronoun

I quite fancy “My pronouns are sex based, like my oppression”

a declaration of pronouns is a declaration of faith in the concept of gender as an ideology. Whilst that belief structure is protected and those who hold it are at liberty to do so,

People are certainly free to hold it, but whether it's protected is as yet untested.

Completely brilliant. I really like the idea of having two sets of pronouns: those for people who believe in gender ideology and normal English pronouns for those who don't. I would love for the former to be in a non-roman alphabet! I'd like to Id out of the English language please!

I’m of off the idea that if you walk like a duck, talk like a duck, act like a duck and you are a duck, there is no need for pronouns to be added to communications. They should be there for clarification for those who think they need it.

Personally, I don’t care if people receiving an email from me think I am female, male, transgender, asexual or whatever, I am a don’t give a hoot duck. Besides, I don’t think people need to identify me as a woman at work because my gender doesn’t matter at all on what I do.