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

Well that’s fine if that works for you but it’s a hill me and others are prepared to die on. It might seem a small thing to some but there’s a much bigger picture it’s a part of.

Ive made it to 55 without having to announce my pronouns and im not starting now. If I get mistaken for a he via email - it’s really no skin off my nose.

Sorry have only skim read the last few pages

I would ask what the gender pay gap was first OP and then refuse to identify myself as female bc they are essentially requiring you identify yourself in such a way that could invite discrimination on the basis of sex within their organisation

Sorry posted too soon. We all know it is disadvantageous to be identified as female at work: our speech is policed to appear more compliant, we are paid less, promoted less and talked over more. So anyone wanting me to tell everyone in.a global organisation that I am a legitimate target for these behaviours can eff off. Equality between the sexes across the whole organisation or fuck off with asking me to out myself for discrimination

Thanks for the update OP. Keep going!

I've been working with international colleagues for my entire career of 25 years, and so far we managed just fine without pronouning up our email signatures.

There has been the occasional case where I wasn't sure if a colleague was male or female due to unfamiliarity with a foreign name. Even in the UK, where I'm supposedly culturally in sync, it might not be clear from a first name if it is a male or female.

So what. It seems like pronouns are now a problem solution looking for problems.

Ditto. I work in investment management and we’ve used offshore third party administrators since the 90’s without the necessity for pronouns - which tbh it’s only the last few years anyone even mentioned the word.

Glad they’ve backtracked - I also don’t agree with mandatory pronouns on emails / IM apps etc and would be exploring new jobs if it became mandatory at any company I worked at!

I’m not sure it’s the end of it but for now they ‘strongly recommend’ using pronouns but I’ve had a look and it’s not a mandatory field

Let’s see what happens next but for now it’s a win

How does it help you?
Do you treat people differently depending on if they are male or female?

Good work. What a load of virtue signalling bollocks

C) attending disciplinary meetings

Good news @SamW98 and well done

Thanks for updating us.

That's good to hear.

I'm very glad they've decided to row back on this a bit. Well done for questioning it! I make no assumptions about people who announce their own pronouns. At work it tends to be mostly the HR and outward-facing people, but they are all very good at their jobs and sensible people, whether they stick pronouns on their own email signatures or not. I have strong personal reasons, and separate political reasons, for not announcing my own pronouns.

I worry about people and systems who/which presume that everyone can and should announce their pronouns to the world.

Personally I would not go with this suggestion because while it may work, you are essentially lying to your employer. You're invoking something you don't believe in to get the result you want.

Your employer will likely clock this as the dishonesty that it is, because they're not stupid. Unless you genuinely are acting out of sensitivity towards gender-confused people who aren't ready to come out yet I suppose.

The better approach is the honest one, raising your genuine concerns and the law if necessary.

I agree with this poster, @SamW98. And on top of that, why give the so-called YPs any credence? They are the minutes of a meeting of some very entitled people who by the subsequent admission of one of the participants, did not give women's rights one single thought.

Excellent, well done.

Tiny bit by tiny bit, we claw back to reality.

Phew, and congratulations, OP. I expect their lawyers have had a word.

Bit late to the party; glad they've backed down and seen sense.

This thread reminded me of another creative linguistic suggestion from Mandarin: 他 / 她 .

Both are pronounced 'ta' and yet one means he and the other means she. So the only way to tell who you're talking about is in the written form.

That is really helpful thank you. 🤩

I'd probably be a bit weedy, and just state my own case. Just saying I'd rather put either sex:female or leave it blank. I'm sure the employer wouldn't stop you from doing this? I'd hope they wouldn't. You'd hope such things were optional. The notion of announcement of gender is purely so trans people don't get called their birth sex. Which I understand, but if it doesn't apply then you should be able to opt out.

That’s not why it’s done though, is it. Especially making them compulsory.

I’ve also worked internationally for years. Some names I don’t know the sex of the person - some of those have always put Mr/Ms on their emails, some don’t and it really makes no difference to me knowing whether the person on the end of the email is male or female!