Are we past peak pronoun?

yep, i'm seeing a lot less of it than 2 years ago

I saw it in the HR manager’s signature today, and the company I work for is probably the most unprogressive, oblivious companies on the face of this planet.

He/him, it should be for everyone they/whoever.

Consult the colleges. They started the widest use of it.

Maybe I'm slow today...can you give an example OP?

It's time for this fad to fade.

We've moved on to land acknowledgments.

Nnnnoooooooooo, OP, lol.

T’be honest, we nevah really undahstood it in thah first pleece. Meeks noo sense to us. Propah confyoosin. Nevah had it in our locker.

Oonly spaykin’ for ourself, though, like. Doon’t noo how oothah paypul feel about it.

It's spreading on social media, though.

It was always a dork thing.

OP here. It turns out they're back - at least at my company. Workday has developed a tool to specify pronouns and has enabled a new honorific, "Mx."!

What is a "Mx"?

What kind of genitals do I need to be a "Mx"?

Mx. Mxyzptlk

R12 hasn’t ‘Mx.’ been around for years? And isn’t it a title not a ‘pronoun’? As I understand it, it was first floated in the 1970s & 80s as an ambiguous title for women who did not want to disclose their marital status.

R15 No, that was Ms pronounced as Mizzz.

Their use has jumped thru the roof on my LinkedIn. That might be a lagging indicator, though.

We got the encouraging email last week from HR to include our pronouns in our email signatures. I am one of a handful not doing so. I now have to find a recent email from every person to see how they refer to themselves whenever I send an email.

Yesterday I was doing payroll and had to send a dozen 'Can you please ask Jennifer if Jennifer intended to only have 17 hours in Jennifer's timesheet' etc because I can't keep track of people who do the she/him/they. pick a lane.

Until last week these people were functioning just fine now 15 percent of the staff have mismatched pronouns and Mx.

A married straight guy with an enormous beard is Mx and they/them.

Whatever, just so long as it stays encouraged and not moved to compelled signature pronouns.

I'm a minx.

I work for a huge IT company, and we just implemented it in our HR system even, so no matter where you click on someone's name, it now shows our pronouns - MS Teams, Slack, and our internal Sharepoint and Yammer sites. It's ridiculous. Even though we aren't required to do it, I'd say 3/4 people have. I'm not doing it until we are required.

R20, that’ll show ‘em.

R21 Thank you, I thought so. I will turn this whole thing around with my single lack of participation!

Even the tineiest droplets can break a dam.

Every little bit helps.

Jeez, R18

I was going to suggest resorting to “Dear fellow employee…” then realized we probable can’t do THAT anymore, either.

What takes the place of ‘fellow’ now, anyway?

I wonder if anyone is participating in this crap with the idea that one of these days someone will slip and call them the wrong one and they can sue for hara$$ment.

Well, interestingly, the most rational, supportive of LGBQ, etc. people at work are some of the ones who are just ignoring it. Hopefully that shows a bit of "we have nothing against your pronouns, orientation, etc. but this is just stupid" message. At least that's what I hope. A fun coworker named John (really), is heavy set, scraggly beard, almost resembles the fat Hangover guy - said, "you can see my profile pic everywhere, and my name is John, if you can't figure out I'm HE, then you've got big problems."

R26 I hadn't thought of that, but you're probably right.

R10 it may be spreading on Social Media, but not in Real Life.

Some of you work in psychotic offices. It’s not like that at all in healthcare. In fact, we have so many religiously preoccupied blacks that it’s not safe to even be out as gay unless you’re a woman.

R27, I do think that’s generally true from a lot of dialogue I’ve seen on line. I think people that honestly support the community do so in a way that isn’t performative and know that all this pronoun bullshit is a lot of straight people with mental issues who want a piece of the Victim Pie since they can’t gobble down the BLM and illegal immigrant pieces without being called out on it. Just call me “they” and POOF, I’m the member of a underprivileged community and I do even have to fuck anyone of the same sex.

I think the people who play into are straight, mean well, and mostly don’t want to get in trouble. Gay people have bigger fish to fry like, say, the mass genocide of gay men in the Middle East instead of needing our wackadoo gender identity validated every second of the day at our place of employment.

I have a transgender colleague at my job and he does not have that preference (he/him/his) in his email signature block.

I don't understand the need for pronouns in e-mail signatures--if I correspond with someone via e-mail I will not have any reason to use the third person.

Back to Black as well.

People realized a) the world didn't end, because of gender pronouns, and b) the trolls have moved on to something else for shit stirring, like promoting and defending the anti vaxx caravan blockings.

I wonder if it's fading because the straights realized that special, made-up pronouns didn't really make them any more exotic or interesting than they were before? Like maybe the "non-binary" nitwits are slowly figuring out no one gives a shit how they identify.

I'm sure some weirdos will persist. Those are the 50-something straight women with purple hair who think they're "creative."

Email signatures? What decade is this? Some of youse still stuck in 2009 clearly..

It'll stick around online for a while longer, but it's not a thing anymore in real life.

I see that on an email signature and/or personal page online, and I run.

[quote]Are we past peak pronoun?

Themses is not amused, OP.

I am no fan of pronouncement at all. But I lead a company of 150 people of multiple generations. Despite avoiding it over my last several jobs, I finally acquiesced in this role. The main purpose has much less to do with you making sure you get my pronouns right and much more with stating you are a safe person on the subject of gender identity. Basically the a way to wear a safety pin in your email and on LinkedIn.

While I can empathize with the “get off my lawn nature” of some of the complaining here, it’s not a good look Gentlethems.

(And like I said, this garbage, the new rainbow barf flag(s) and every other adult friend having gender queer kids….when they are closed my eyes never stop rolling.)

It might not be a good look, R38, but it’s important for actual gays and lesbians to speak out on a lot of this bullshit because when it does fade, which it will, and the backlash hits, which it also will, we’ll be the ones dealing with the brunt out of it while all the they/thems are off building their heterosexual families and cringing at themselves in the past tense the way we all do when we think of our trendy experimental past.

Theybies are the wiggers of the new generation and they’re destroying the credibility that the gay community built up over decades.

I love when IN becomes OUT. Look at the recent history of gay tattoos: barbed wire arm bands, then celtic arm bands, then tramp stamps: and now all viewed as deeply naff. As soon as neo pronouns are seen as naff, and the obsession of dorks and goobers, it's over for them.

I always write thee/thou..

My employer has allowed pronouns in signature blocks for a while, but nobody has taken advantage. If encouraged (which is unlikely), I’m using he/her/they.

One. . . singular sensation!!!

Your lips to God's ears, OP.

r42, we have one of those for real. I just use everyone's first name in all instances now because I can't make my brain do that.

R35 In the corporate world, they are normally required. I'm sure you don't send email from the register at Taco Bell, but when you get out of high school, and into the adult world, you'll likely be stuck using email still.

R42 Good idea. If my company starts requiring pronouns, I'm just going to change mine from time to time to see who the fuck even looks at that shit.

I fucking hope so. I can’t help but judge anyone who feels the need to use them.

If this is about emails at work, why is the burden on the sender to tippy-toe around the hurt fee-fees of the recipient?

I know, I know, how else can they hijack others to give them the negative attention they need.

But if, when someone receives an email, the sender’s address is automatically added in the To: [space], why not have the honorific automatically added as well?

Then no one is troubled to keep track when sending, and the recipient’s identity remains as they want it.