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?

Can you just not get round to doing it?

If anyone senior asks, you could say I'm not really comfortable with that. Same with anyone you want to be more open with, otherwise I'd just grey rock and say oh yes I'd forgotten all about that.

Someone left a rainbow pin in my tray at work presumably for me to wear, I just left it there, nothing's been said

I think sex matters has some guidance for staff in this position. I remember they advise using a phrase like " it's not a practice I follow", if you're not willing to explain your reasons.

Pronouns are an inherent part of the English language.

There wouldn’t need to be a “campaign” for everyone to declare them if “nothing had changed”

The campaign isn’t about “respecting a trans persons preference”, it’s about asking (telling) all their colleagues to both acknowledge and support a particular ideology.

As I said before, that’s not a neutral act.

interesting pov, what a great contribution, glad you bothered to get involved with something so shallow to you.

This is like a drunk old man in a pub interrupting you when you are having an interesting discussion, thinking he knows best, you try to be polite but he quickly gets tiresome and predictable and boring.

The 'campaign' is simply promoting respect for other people's choices just like Pride does which by your logic is just another enforced 'ideology'.

Of course, people who love to toss around words like 'ideology' never seem to notice their own or their attempts at enforcement.

I cannot add anything to the excellent reasons that others have cited, and admire those who have felt able to share personal reasons in their comments.

I wish you all the best OP.

We’ve been politely asked but that was back in 2019 or thereabouts! I ignored it and have never been asked. Those who did use them and have also fully embraced the flags in bio now seem to be taking them down. There’s definitely been a change in the last few years with only a last few remaining.

Various court cases (Yay for Sandie Peggie!) have thrown light on the need for managers to be impartial and neutral and this has definitely marked a change within NHS Scotland

The only “enforcement” that concerns me is the law.

People are absolutely free to believe anything they wish, but they don’t get to decide what everyone believes, nor to dictate their language.

Please don't use that homophobic slur. It's as offensive as the n word and the p word.

My pronouns are "I" and "Me" ???

You have no evidence of broad peer pressure compliance from simply respecting personal choices.

So why can't the employer respect the personal choice of those employees who don't want to put pronouns in their email signatures or be forced to deny the evidence of their own eyes by calling a man she/her or a woman he/him? Pronouns in English refer to sex, not performative gender, which is why our male cat is he.

It’s very clear that some posters on this thread don’t work, or at least not in a corporate environment. A pronoun campaign is not about respecting other people’s pronouns. There will be pressure to add pronouns to your email signature, your teams profile and your work HR system. There are likely to be badges with different pronoun options which people are expected to wear. There will be meetings and “training” events. And if the OP is a manager she will be told that “management need to show their support” or similar. How much pressure will depend on the company, but to suggest that the OP is being fragile or silly thinking about how to approach this is ridiculous.

I agree.

Thankfully we don't have this where I work, though a number of people voluntarily place their pronouns in their email signature. Though the one person who has transgendered and now uses a different name does not.

If I were feeling brave I’d email the DEI person and to say that the Kings College polling recently indicated that 39% of the population think that trans rights have “gone too far” so it’s a surprising and possibly inflammatory time to roll out pronouns. GC people are actively looking to support people in bringing employment tribunals so they should be careful… Could they organise a quick anonymous survey for employees to provide feedback before the roll out? If they don’t do a consultation it seems like they’ll potentially open themselves up to a lot of risk with maybe 40% of staff while debate is so heated?

it flags all the risks and will hopefully illicit honest feedback that knocks it on the head…?

How quaintly retro of your company, OP. Are they generally behind the times?

This kind of nonsense makes me so grateful I work for myself these days. But back in my corporate days I would either have smiled and nodded and made the right noises, if pressed, but somehow never got round to it (‘oh, just been so busy on <insert number one priority project that nobody would argue is less important than playing Genderwang>). Or I would have just done a version of ‘I don’t do that’, depending on the culture and what I could get away with.

Stonewall will be going bust any minute now, so if you just stall for a while it’ll likely just quietly die a natural death. Tiresome though.

You mean like: "Transwomen are women! Transmen are men! Non binary people are valid!" ?

This is magnificent

You do realise how offensive it is to many trans people to be asked whether they'd like to be known as she, he or they? If they feel are presenting clearly as a 'man' or a 'woman' its extremely triggering to have their pronouns requested rather than assumed from their presentation.
Asking for pronouns is one of the few areas where GC people and the trans community often see eye to eye, albeit for different reasons.
Would you tell a trans person objecting not to be so fragile or mock their concern?

thankfully we don’t have this at my (corporate) job. I don’t really get it though. We have one trans woman working with us who has added she/her voluntarily, but she’s already transitioned and has a very obvious “she” name, there’s no way anyone would “misgender” on an email and call her “he” or be confused (she’s not something gender neutral like Sam, Jordan, Charlie, Harper etc)
I also have an obvious “she” name so no one would refer to me as “he” either. Unless they were entirely stupid.
What’s the point? Someone I know called John has put “he/him” on his linked in profile. No fucking shit John!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/15/labour-council-tells-staff-pronouns-before-meetings/

It’s not this council by any chance?

Hahaha this has just reminded me of an all company meeting (we're an SME) where the CEO - who is captured with a trans identified kid - was so concerned about doing "The Right Thing" he asked new starters to say their name, pronouns and how to pronounce their name. Everyone ignored pronouns and the first person was like "My name is Richard, pronounced... Richard" 😂😂😂

😂😂😂 hats off to Richard!

When you say your name, you demonstrate how to pronounce it. You don't need to do it twice.

I like people having pronouns on their signatures. I work with lots of people from other countries with unfamiliar (to me) names. It helps me work out how to refer to them in emails.

I refused to do it. Nothing happened.