Pronouns - can an employer insist that you use them, in an auto-signature?

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MrEarl

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Hello,

Can an employer force its employees to include their chosen pronouns, in their auto-signature, in their email address?

I was discussing this with a relative, who works for a mid sized IT company, who told me that she was being forced to include her pronouns in her auto-signature.

Surely this is an intrusion on someone's personal life. If their full name is in the auto-signature, then anyone emailing them can address them by their first name, there's no need for a pronoun.
 
Forcing someone to do that goes against the very spirit of the thing. I should be able to define my pronouns and everyone should have the basic decency to respect that. Equally I should have the right to not declare them without giving a reason or defending my choice.

Gender is a protected class so an employer forcing someone to reveal that would be asking for trouble. As you say, we can just call people by their names without using any pronouns, which avoids issues all around.

If you decline to define your pronouns and someone misgenders you then you would either need to correct them or be comfortable ignoring it, but that should be your own choice.
 
I can understand an employer wanting to allow employees to specify pronoun preferences or not as the case may be for email and other communications, but my belief is they're over-stepping (goose-stepping) the mark by making the specification mandatory and public.
 
This is where the gender nonsense goes too far. If Arthur wants to pretend he’s Martha, then Arthur should have the ability to stick ‘she/her’ into Arthur’s email signature. But everyone else shouldn’t be forced to embrace this rubbish. The default should be that if your name is Jack, you’re a man, end of story, unless you go out of your way to stick ‘she/her’ into your email signature to denote a gender issue.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
This is where the gender nonsense goes too far. If Arthur wants to pretend he’s Martha, then Arthur should have the ability to stick ‘she/her’ into Arthur’s email signature. But everyone else shouldn’t be forced to embrace this rubbish. The default should be that if your name is Jack, you’re a man, end of story, unless you go out of your way to stick ‘she/her’ into your email signature to denote a gender issue.
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It is very much a slippery slope. If people get away with this, the next thing you know, married ladies will be insisting on their so-called right to stay in the work place when they should be at home looking after their husbands. Where will it end?
 
Gordon Gekko said:
The default should be that if your name is Jack, you’re a man, end of story
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Except for the fact that "Jack" is now considered a gender neutral name ;)

Personally I feel that, no you shouldn't have to proceed your name with a pronoun unless you want to
My birth name is gender neutral and I've never had an issue with it and never had an issue if somebody got it wrong
But I would have an issue if somebody like an employer forced me to declare my pronoun much in the same way women shouldn't have to declare their marital status with Miss or Mrs
 
Gordon Gekko said:
This is where the gender nonsense goes too far. If Arthur wants to pretend he’s Martha, then Arthur should have the ability to stick ‘she/her’ into Arthur’s email signature. But everyone else shouldn’t be forced to embrace this rubbish. The default should be that if your name is Jack, you’re a man, end of story, unless you go out of your way to stick ‘she/her’ into your email signature to denote a gender issue.
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Have you never encountered a female Jack?

In this age of global connectivity and remote working, do you know the gender of all the people you work with? Is Sutchith male or female? Would Sutchith know if Aoife is male or female? Or even Robin can be confusing.

Personally, I'd prefer if gender specific pronouns were done away with, and 'they' was used for everyone. We don't both with gendered nouns, so why do it to pronouns?
 
Fortune said:
Have you never encountered a female Jack?

In this age of global connectivity and remote working, do you know the gender of all the people you work with? Is Sutchith male or female? Would Sutchith know if Aoife is male or female? Or even Robin can be confusing.

Personally, I'd prefer if gender specific pronouns were done away with, and 'they' was used for everyone. We don't both with gendered nouns, so why do it to pronouns?
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This has nothing to do with Jack being short for Jacqueline. This is the trans rubbish being forced on people, it’s Arthur purporting to be Martha.
 
I had one employer where all the fields in the email signature were pre-populated and I wasn’t able to amend it.

On the substantive point, I think an email signature should have basic biographical information and not more. No one would think it was reasonable if your age or Leaving Cert results had to go in there.
 
It's recommened in the multi-national I work for but they know they can't enforce it without significant union negotiation and political, religous and public back-lash in other countries with different laws and attitudes.

It can be handy when emailing some of my overseas colleagues if I've never spoken to them before but most people just consider it pointless People are people
 
Gordon Gekko said:
trans rubbish..... it’s Arthur purporting to be Martha
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I'm unsure whether to report your post here.

I wonder do you understand the issues people face & how hurtful it can be to read remarks such as this?

It's hardly any skin off your nose as to what anyone's name is, or what clothes they choose to wear, or even if they undergo surgery.

So why do you feel threatened?

So far as the original question goes, I find it useful when people include their pronouns; but would strongly oppose employees being forced to do so.
 
Working in a company with sites around the world you can't really rely on names to indicate gender. I've always just used 'they' to avoid the issue. I don't really find the pronouns in the signature useful. If I'm replying directly to the person, I wouldn't use third person pronouns.
 
DannyBoyD said:
I'm unsure whether to report your post here.

I wonder do you understand the issues people face & how hurtful it can be to read remarks such as this?

It's hardly any skin off your nose as to what anyone's name is, or what clothes they choose to wear, or even if they undergo surgery.

So why do you feel threatened?

So far as the original question goes, I find it useful when people include their pronouns; but would strongly oppose employees being forced to do so.
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The made-up issues that seem to have only appeared recently. Issues such as this represent one of the greatest threats humanity has ever faced. Not in themselves, but because they fuel MAGA Republicanism. Wokeism will indirectly destroy society.
 
DannyBoyD said:
I'm unsure whether to report your post here.
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This is exactly the issue, you're trying to police speech because it might hurt someone's feelings. Authoritarian & chilling.

DannyBoyD said:
It's hardly any skin off your nose as to what anyone's name is, or what clothes they choose to wear, or even if they undergo surgery.
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That's fine, if that's all that was happening. However, when the government starts referring to "pregnant people" and introduces hate speech laws on foot of all this imported culture war stuff then we have a problem. You can believe whatever you want to believe, and people can self-mutilate themselves all they want, but the rest of us shouldn't be compelled by force to go along with it.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
This is where the gender nonsense goes too far. If Arthur wants to pretend he’s Martha, then Arthur should have the ability to stick ‘she/her’ into Arthur’s email signature. But everyone else shouldn’t be forced to embrace this rubbish. The default should be that if your name is Jack, you’re a man, end of story, unless you go out of your way to stick ‘she/her’ into your email signature to denote a gender issue.
Click to expand...
agree 100%, if someone wants to do it let them off, but i have to see there are few things that annoy me more than seeing e.g. Paddy Murphy virtue signalling with he/him pronouns on linkedin, nonsense.
 
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