Preferred pronoun badges at the Halifax bank.

Well that's contrived...

If a person is wearing a badge like this and if someone has bad eyesight and if someone misgenders them and if the bank person is offended and if the client is thrown out of the bank and if they get reported for a hate crime...

Optional words on a badge. Marxist thought control, that's what that is.

It’s a Bank not a mouthpiece for Marxist ideology. What if a someone cannot read or has eyesight issues and misgenders a person because what their senses tells them is a man is now a transgender woman. they will be terrified they may be reported for a hate crime. Be thrown out of the bank. It’s an illogical insidious form of thought /speech control.

How many of us ever actually see any bank worker face to face?

When we do and talk to them we do not use any pronouns when addressing them.

Beware people.......this carefully orchestrated trying to whip up bad feeling about such things as pronouns is just another attempt by the media (most of it owned and run by right-wing tory supporters and donators), to prevent people getting angry about the continuing botch up being made by the government in every section of our lives.

Watch out as it will increase as the months go on - in the lead up to the next election.

I cannot understand why people should get so upset and annoyed as to what badges work people may decide to wear. What on earth does it matter?

Anyway, to those people who said they were leaving Halifax (and there were not really that many no matter how hard this story was built up), and probably did not - the banks they claim they were going probably already have a similar policy in place.

'This word 'woke' seems to me to be a substitute for saying being kind and respecting other people........but that would explain why the right wing are so opposed to it

The only female Robyn I knew spelt it with a Y. She was the third daughter and a disappointment to both parents.

That’s a much bigger issue to my mind.

Sago

Who’s she the cats mother?
Well bizarrely there are increasing numbers of young people identifying as feline.
Yes really!

My 7 year old grandaughter is ASD and when she gets stressed she goes into cat mode! Her mother is extremely up on gender issues (I have to confess she's taught me quite a lot in child rearing) so maybe this feline imitation is gender driven! Although we were bemused to start with, we just see it now as a coping mechanism and my only worry is how the world will view her feline behaviour if it carries on into her adulthood.

grannygranby

It’s Pride Month. Halifax is signed up with Stonewall for diversity points. Rules are being foisted to give publicity to self ID trans ideology. Halifax pay them lots of money to get points showing how inclusive they are. It is insidious.
If you see pronouns declared by an institution or company you know they have been captured by Stonewall Who have traded their respected name protecting same sex relationships to one that insists that men feeling they are women are women. Women in the meantime are being reduced to body parts in legal documents eg (persons with cervixes etc) It is Willy waving.

This is the truth. Stonewall capture is indeed insidious, and a huge willy waving exercise.

Who’s she the cats mother?
Well bizarrely there are increasing numbers of young people identifying as feline.
Yes really!

I don't mind what the staff wear on their badges if it makes them feel better about themselves. However, I left the Halifax because they were unhelpful, made stupid mistakes and it ties up too much of my time to sort things out. As far as I am concerned they need to spend as much time sorting out their customer services and processes as looking after their staff.

What if they had badges with Gransnet style usernames

PoshMoneyCounter

none_of_your_businessa/none_of_your_businessam/none_of_your_businessae

Who’s she, the person with a cervix that gave birth to the cat?

You're quite right D.d, equally calling somebody a 'person' sounds arrogant and dismissive. I can remember when I was about 10, maybe a bit younger, really wishing that I'd been born a boy, boys seemed to have more freedom, not exactly more privileges, but it seemed a bit that way. I loved to wear boys jeans, shirts and so on. (My maternal uncle had a Mens Outfitters shop,so we we got casual clothes from there - cheaper!) this wish to be a boy lasted till I was about 13, when I discovered "boys" and was extremely glad to be a girl and have never looked back. My mother put it down to a phase (tomboy) and made nothing of it,nobody did, and of course she was right. I have to say I think it's wrong to burden pre pubescent children with anxiety about their sexuality. How you feel at 11 can be very different from feelings at 13.

I can't usually read name badges because they are usually designed to be read from a much closer distance than dealing with a bank/building society cashier usually allows.

So they are useless as well as being silly woke nonsense.

I agree with Urms that the silly buggers (not the cashiers, obv) may well have shot themselves in the foot. The Halifax has been going downhill for a long time now, more oe less since it became a bank rather than a building society.

Good post Doodledog.

Doodle

I can just about cope with he, him, his and she, her, hers but what are all the others supposed to mean like Ve, ver and viz?

They are the ultimate in self-indulgence . Not only is a stranger supposed to know which variation on what is a personal matter applies on a given day, but to memorise a list of terms that didn't exist five years ago.

There was an item on TV News yesterday (can't remember which channel) in honour of Pride, and schoolchildren were interviewed about things like sexual orientation and 'gender'. They were about 11 years old. One girl said she was something I can't remember, bisexual and gender fluid, and stumbled over the definition as though she'd memorised it and forgotten bits. I thought that was perfectly usual for an 11 year old, really. She'd probably be just starting to become aware of herself as a sexual being - a bit earlier than most of us did, perhaps - but wouldn't quite understand it all. A boy of about the same age said that when he told people his own catechism of identifications they would laugh and ask if they could identify as a toaster or a tortoise, and he looked really hurt. I felt for him, as adults shouldn't laugh at children (it is hurtful, as is ridiculing something that someone takes seriously), but couldn't help thinking that these kids are being set up for a world of pain by this sort of thing. They take 'misgendering' very badly, and it is an entirely created hurt that didn't exist until recently.

The closest I can remember to that was when I was about 6, and my mum had taken me to the hairdresser where they used a nit-infested comb. I had waist-length hair, and when I got nits she had it cut to a short bob. I remember getting off a bus and an old lady who I'd let off before me said 'thank you, son'. I was really upset, as I hadn't wanted my hair cut in the first place, and in those days the gender signifiers were very strict (buttons on cardigans, suitable colours, toys and definitely haircuts). Being taken for a boy flew in the face of everything I'd been taught was 'right', and I was sure that everyone would be laughing at me.

I can, therefore, understand a bit of what children feeling 'misgendered' must feel, and sympathise massively with the ones who feel that they are 'in the wrong body', but can't help thinking that they only feel like this because they have had 'gender' thrust at them so relentlessly.

Until the obsession with 'gender' began, I thought we'd moved on from the strict gender rules of the past, and that children could express themselves how they liked. IMO that is much healthier than when I was six; but it seems that we are going back to those days, and that children will feel the way I did every day of their lives if they buy into it all. It's very sad.

(And yes, Jaberwok. I think that referring to people by their given names is presumptuous, too. And almost worse when it is 'customer to employee', as it feels like a Lady talking to her maid.)

I was brought up not to ever use somebody's christian name unless they specifically asked to do so, equally at nearly 80 years old I don't wish to be called by my christian name at the bank or anywhere else unless I am very well acquainted with the person concerned. My surname with the prefix Mrs has served me well over the years and no doubt will continue to do so, a point I made clear some years ago at our local bank. Therefore I would never refer to anyone working in the bank by their christian name, but rather 'your employee advised me etc' (saying 'that person' sounds rather rude). or just 'hello, I've been advised that you can help me'? This neatly avoids having to use a name and saves having to put on glasses to read said name!!

I can just about cope with he, him, his and she, her, hers but what are all the others supposed to mean like Ve, ver and viz?

grannygranby

It’s Pride Month. Halifax is signed up with Stonewall for diversity points. Rules are being foisted to give publicity to self ID trans ideology. Halifax pay them lots of money to get points showing how inclusive they are. It is insidious.
If you see pronouns declared by an institution or company you know they have been captured by Stonewall Who have traded their respected name protecting same sex relationships to one that insists that men feeling they are women are women. Women in the meantime are being reduced to body parts in legal documents eg (persons with cervixes etc) It is Willy waving.

Absolutely.

One bank employee might send you to speak to another and you could say something like "Sam's computer was playing up so s/he sent me over to you."
But you could just as well say "Sam sent me to you because there's a problem with the computer over there."

It’s Pride Month. Halifax is signed up with Stonewall for diversity points. Rules are being foisted to give publicity to self ID trans ideology. Halifax pay them lots of money to get points showing how inclusive they are. It is insidious.
If you see pronouns declared by an institution or company you know they have been captured by Stonewall Who have traded their respected name protecting same sex relationships to one that insists that men feeling they are women are women. Women in the meantime are being reduced to body parts in legal documents eg (persons with cervixes etc) It is Willy waving.

I would be very interested to know what percentage of staff at the Halifax aren't sure what gender they are.

Cabbie21

I can’t see the point. When speaking to a bank employee I might need to say You, as in Could you give me my balance please? ( though a machine can do that). Why would I need to refer to a third person?
There is simply no need. I just don’t see why gender comes into a transaction anyway.

The last time I actually used a name that was on a name badge she/he/they looked at me as if I was a stalker.

I see that HSBC and NatWest are offering their staff the same choice. For all I know, other banks and building societies too.

I guess those it bothers will have to do a lot of shopping around.

If, for some reason, I need to mention 'Gemma' to someone else in the bank I would just say Gemma.

Speaking elsewhere, about the helpful/unhelpful bank clerk, say, what does it matter if I get their pronoun wrong?

I have a Halifax credit card that I use for online purchases only.
I have no other banking with them so it won't be difficult to use a different credit card, which I haven't used for a while, instead.

I just recalled that I used to be mildly admonished if I used a pronoun when describing someone.

"Who's she? the cat's mother?"

would it be 'the cat's person' now?

I think it's all rather silly and maybe someone should have a word with the Halifax's Twitter guy, Andy. He's got a bit carried away.

I'm not concerned about anyone having any pronoun. It won't affect me. They can call themselves what they want. However I do wonder if telling people to leave and actually giving them instructions on how to close their accounts is a rather foolish thing to do.

Most people who wouldn't have cared about the pronoun business might not like Halifax's response to those who do.

Just waiting for someone other than Andy to clarify the situation.

I really don't care what Halifax put on their badges - I would like it if they just reinstated counter service. My local branch has a line of ATMs with two very bored looking staff sitting around doing very little.