Pronouns campaign being launched at work

[PronounsAtWork]

I found out after the break that this is going ahead, although I don't know when I imagine it will probably be next month considering it's LGBTQ+ history month. I guess it means putting pronouns in our email signatures but probably with rainbow lanyards and the like as well. I've been stewing on whether to contact the DEI bod, especially how this campaign stands alongside the Supreme Court judgment. I'm just wondering if you wonderful women have any guidance for me at all?

Sooooo 2019!

I would say ‘no thank you’ and if pressed ‘this is really outdated and inappropriate…why are you forcing people to reveal their made up gender identity?’

Class response.

Wow - did they deliberately wait until the bandwagon was falling apart and driving in the wrong direction before jumping on it?!

I would say that being asked to label myself makes me feel unsafe. I'm sure someone will come along soon with the link to research that shows women are treated less favourably once it's known they are women.

E.g. If "Sam Brown" is at first assumed to be male (The Default) then revealed to be female.

I’ve been asked twice why I haven’t put my pronouns in my email signature my response is along the lines of ‘I will not highlight that I am female until women are listened to in meetings, paid equally, and are not expected to organise collections and staff events, water the plants and make the tea’. I think I’m going to be pronoun free for a while. 😉

I refused on two grounds. Firstly that women are not taken as seriously as men in many areas of work especially STEM. Pronouns on e-mails and other communications is a form of “priming”, highlighting the sex of the sender in advance of the interaction. Academic studies have shown repeatedly that priming worsens the impact of bias. It therefore undermines the status of professional women but has the opposite effect for men.

Secondly, it is downright cruel to any people who may be unsure or not open about their Trans identity. It’s no different than forcing people to state in every e-mail whether they are gay. Fine if you openly are or openly aren’t, but for those who are in the closet it would force them either to lie about their identity every single day in every email or announce it to every colleague and business contact before they are ready.

No-one asked me again after that 😆

Bored/now

Ooh this is a great response l will use this if my EDI colleague asks me again with another side eye 😄

Edited to say: sorry I didn't mean to sound flippant about your experiences; sorry you've been through that. I have too for some of them, it does wear on you the biology of being female sometimes.... X

The HR department need to understand that asking people to include pronouns may be providing individuals with documentation which can be used against the company.

Firstly it has to be optional as the SC ruled that GC is a protected belief so its the same as asking a NonChristian to include "Jesus if God" in their tags.
Also any comments on the tag or lack of tag would fall within bullying and harrassment.

If a person falls within the PC of GR and only recorded it by changing pronouns the company is on notice.
If they are not prepared to change their pronouns the company can be seen to be forcing them to "out" themselves as trans.

If you have a concern swap pronouns for initials
Eg
PronounsAtWork [PAW] has agreed to do the work and PAW will deliver it tomorrow .... etc

it's only come up once for me and i just said that i have spent decades de-feminising my written communications and only ever sign off letters/faxes/mails/correspondence with Initial Surname because i have been discriminated against and not listened to for being perceived as female.

I was fired while pregnant and so i just do not allow any hint of my sex until people see or speak to me and it becomes obvious (and often one of the first reactions they have is "oh, i thought you were a man")

I know what you mean. It's so insulting that a man can think he can identify into womanhood. That's what upsets me. I'd have loved to have opted out of so many experiences that were inextricably linked to my sex, but then I also have my beautiful dd so it was worth it. No man could ever get it.

WTF? They have jumped on board a sinking ship and are full sail ahead 😂😂😂

https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/pronouns/

https://spectator.com/article/the-collapse-of-stonewall-cant-come-soon-enough/

For your DEI lead, Stonewall aren't far off from calling in the auditors and filing for bankruptcy. Your company has sunk their money in a lame horse.

If I may ask a related question: I have just applied for an NHS job. The application form didn't ask about pronouns, but if am interviewed, is it possible they will ask? And if so, could my answer affect the outcome of my application? Apologies if this is considered a derail.

I have never been asked what my pronouns are before, though I was once given an id badge which stated what my "preferred pronouns" were - apparently someone else decided for me. That was also in the NHS.

It probably will depend on the Trust but I applied for a job two years ago and the form didn’t ask. I would be amazed if it came up at interview. Tbh if it did I think I would just look mystified. It’s a very niche practice so I think it’s perfectly reasonable ‘never to have heard of it’.

My new employer asks you to consider including your pronouns in your email sig, along with how to pronounce your name, so written phonetically, if you think people will struggle with it. I have no problems with the latter, and no intention of ever adding the former. 🙄

Where's the laugh emoji when you need it! They joined Stonewall after everyone started leaving. I'm not sure they are that engaged tbh, I think pronouns just seem like a minimal effort quick win to show they're doing something.

I've had support request emails in which Slavic language speakers have referred to equipment as "he". As in "The NMR machine won't start and he says <blah error message> on his screen". I've had emails from Far Eastern language speakers addressed to "Dear sirs" when they've already met the female techs. I suspect they learned business English from a very old-fashioned teacher.

In a multinational workforce, there's enough confusion about English pronoun rules without putting pressure on people to Get It Right Or Else about their colleagues. It's arguably indirect discrimination on the basis of race, because that includes national origin.

Maybe jumping the shark is a relay event?

Jumping the Blåhaj, surely?

The things you learn about on the Internet, lol.

Channel Anna Rampton from W1A: “No I don’t do that”.

For flip's sake, whoever it was above, PLEASE don't ever suggest quoting or encouraging organisations to follow the "Yogyakarta principles". If you'd ever read the damn things (beyond that little bit you're thinking of) you'd understand why they're the last thing we should be telling anyone to follow, unless you actually WANT legal gender self-ID, all official docs to show only self-identified gender, not sex, etc etc? They're so anti-women that one of the authors later apologised, saying he hadn't thought it through properly and admitting that women's rights hadn't even crossed their minds at the time. They need to disappear into oblivion, not be promoted as best practice!

Maybe don't be so fragile?