Email sign-off: pronouns

[Jim1064]

Someone sent me an email, signing of like this:
Name:...
Email:...
Tel:...
Pronouns: he/him/his

Is this a new trend? Call me old fashioned but I think that's ridiculous

[CanAm]

Jim1064 said:

Someone sent me an email, signing of like this:
Name:...
Email:...
Tel:...
Pronouns: he/him/his

Is this a new trend? Call me old fashioned but I think that's ridiculous

Especially as in your reply, you’d be using you/you/your!
I’ve also noticed that the words actress and comedienne appear to have fallen prey to the woke generation.

[oddball1313]

One of my mates works for a large IT training company and it’s become mandatory policy because the 3 or 4 Trans employees feel it enforces their minority status apparently and will sue the employer if its not enforced acteoss the whole company (employes approx 1500 in total)
No one seems to know why this helps anything/anybody apart from its makes you look very WOKE and you can take a view on that being a good/bad thing

[Chimune]

And what do think being triggered by 4 words on some random company email sig, makes you look like?

I know we are all a bit bored atm, but ffs it's not even 1st hand info!

[InitialDave]

brickwall said:

This is increasingly common. I don’t see the problem. It doesn’t harm anyone, and if it makes a few people feel more included, then that’s great.

That's about the size of it. It normalises the practice so the people who "need" it aren't singled out.

[Johnnytheboy]

Couldn't give a hoot what pronouns people use, but could I specify that people actually spell my name right?

It's a special degree of stupidity to misspell someone's name in reply to an email when it is right in front of them.

[Sophisticated Sarah]

Saw this during correspondence from OFCOM. Although the individual did have a gender neutral name so it did help

[ro250]

People rarely do this because they have a gender neutral name. I've seen it at our work. I've met one bloke who has started writing him/he etc. at the end of his emails. He has a male name. His Outlook photo shows a male. He is male. I wasn't sure why he needed to tell me as well.

OK, I actually know. It's because he may wish to identify as something else. But in his case, it kind of isn't needed as he's identifying as what he actually is.

[Puggit]

I won't be doing it, and I won't be forced in to doing it.

[Big Pants]

Absolutely. Why go out of your way and make a minor change to a couple of words in your autosignature just to be inclusive and make colleagues/customers/clients feel more comfortable?

[HootersGsy]

One public body I deal with does this. All I can think is as already pointed out, i.e. to not indirectly discriminate against whoever in the organisation needs to point out the relevant pronoun.

I noticed it on the first few emails and now it just recedes into the usual "ignore everything in the signature" unless I'm actively looking for a phone number.

[Soloman Dodd]

This is the last straw, this has to end now!

I'm starting the Antinoun movement.

[toasty]

Pronouns: It/That/Its.

[deckster]

Pronouns: No/fks/given

The fact that this entirely harmless practice annoys somebody sufficiently to start a thread about it is proof enough that it's a good idea.

[Puggit]

Big Pants said:

Absolutely. Why go out of your way and make a minor change to a couple of words in your autosignature just to be inclusive and make colleagues/customers/clients feel more comfortable?

So it would make me uncomfortable to be forced to do something - and that's ok?

If someone wants to put words after their name, that's fine. Live and let live, but I would leave any organisation that forced that. That is NOT ok, that is divisive and unnecessary.

[Big Pants]

Puggit said:

So it would make me uncomfortable to be forced to do something - and that's ok?

If someone wants to put words after their name, that's fine. Live and let live, but I would leave any organisation that forced that. That is NOT ok, that is divisive and unnecessary.

It's not words after your name, Puggit. It's an indicator to others to help them understand how people prefer to be referred to.

I'm hardly the flagbearer for the movement, as a white, heterosexual bloke in his mid-fifties. But I'm sympathetic enough to understand that accommodating a population increasingly more comfortable with gender fluidity and ambiguous sexuality isn't a big ask. Just as it wasn't a big ask to remove racist or sexist terms from common parlance over the last half century or so, despite the mouth-frothing from the extreme ends of the scale.

I'm not sure what kind of organisation you work for that would "force" you to make such a change to your autosignature. In such a case, I would suggest the organisation is at issue.

A refusal to consider the needs of others, in the sense of "I won't be doing it", suggests you might be the issue.

I have no dog in this fight and I'm not looking to start an argument. But I am always a little disappointed by intransigence and a refusal to acknowledge change, or see things from both sides.

[alorotom]

Getting increasingly common in public sector organisations.

Saw it the first time probably 12mths ago - now I see it probably every day or 2.

Doesn't make much difference to me tbh.

[Puggit]

[quote=Big Pants]
I'm not sure what kind of organisation you work for that would "force" you to make such a change to your autosignature. In such a case, I would suggest the organisation is at issue.
/quote]
I was referring to Oddball1313's post above. It seems some organisations are forcing employees to do this.

[anonymous-user]

Wait till you get asked to validate someone’s neo - pronouns lol.

[Countdown]

alorotom said:

Getting increasingly common in public sector organisations.

Saw it the first time probably 12mths ago - now I see it probably every day or 2.

Doesn't make much difference to me tbh.

Absolutely the same here. Other people making personal decisions which have zero impact on me. Ergo I dont see what the fuss is all about (...other than a general curiosity about how gender issues impact on peoples’ lives)