Corporate they/thems
Today, I received one of those letters from a pension trustee fund that I barely read. Who does?
I can be forgiven, at least by myself, for not reading this one too, because it's prefaced with For information only; no action required
. But I didn't have to go too far into it anyway, the opening paragraph was all that was needed for the WTF?
moment to hit me:
You may recall that the Fund's trustee, MegaCorpGB Pension Trustees Limited (we, us, our), proposed…
MegaCorpGB Pension Trustees Limited
Excuse me, we, us, our
? Really?
Pronouns may mean something to people who don't have enough of a life. But they're a non-issue for anyone who's lived before social media; it's not something we need give any thought to, and those who do come across as poseurs.
Use your pronouns on social media; knock yourself out; you do you. But it just looks totes gay in professional communications. If I receive a message with pronouns in the sender's signature, they immediately get a mental markdown, if not flat-out ignored thereon.
The funny thing is that MegaCorpGB is a traditional large-scale corporate enterprise, it's not the type that's likely to be attractive to the twinks who'd be impressed with this shit. And that might explain why the COO signed off with his name, but not his pronouns.
Am I a bad person for assuming that someone named Liam identifies as a he/him/his? Should I give a shit?