JohnMy man Webster defines pronoun as “any of a small set of words in a language that are used as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and whose referents are named or understood in context.” For example, he, she, it, they, someone, who.
For a long time, I have always tried to be as gender-neutral or use the correct pronoun when I can in the workplace. Not only am I trying to avoid embarrassing myself in the event I misspoke about someone, but I think it’s also important from a respect-perspective. Unfortunately, there were times when I found it difficult to avoid using a pronoun under the assumption that I was correct. For instance, I was writing a coworker’s review and I found it hard to avoid something like “John is amazing because he works hard”. Good thing for people like my friend Crow, he gave me a few tips on how to proceed in a struggle like my own.
- If you know the person’s pronouns, use them.
- If you don’t know, use they.
- If you don’t know, simply ask.
Pretty simple. Although I did have to question if they was plural: in the manner of speaking about one person. Crow gave a great example (altered):
John: “I went to a gas station and the clerk was a jerk to me.”
Barack: “Yeah it sounds like they were awful to you.”
My response:
In any event, if you’re wrong, apologize, correct and move on. On the other end, I hope you aren’t too mad when pronouns aren’t used correctly. One step closer to better humanity.