Halifax 'Inclusion' Policy Sets Twitface On Fire ... Again ..

[andy-hughes]

News followers may be aware of the latest furor about 'inclusion', this time involving the Halifax Bank.

The bank has decided to offer name badges to its employees with pronouns to advise their preferred pronoun address -

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/halifax-staff-pronoun-badges-customers-threaten-close-accounts

The badges are voluntary.

The company advises that this is about inclusivity, and ensuring that no-one is accidentally 'mis-gender identified'.

It also advises that anyone who does not agree with the policy is welcome to take their business elsewhere.

I feel that a simple reality check may be in order here.

I have been a Halifax customer for over thirty years, and in that time, as in every other walk of my life, I have never 'mis-gender-identified' anyone, probably because I am capable of telling the difference between a man and a woman in any social or professional setting where it matters - and personal in-branch banking interaction has never been one of them.

So I remain bemused but utterly disinterested in the notion that an employee thinks that their gender identity is important enough to me that they need to identify it via a badge on their front.

But, and this is where I am seriously bent out of shape -

If the company pushing this nonsense wants to confirm its 'inclusivity' by terminally excluding me if I choose not to agree with its policy, then I feel seriously motivated to take them up on their offer and move my account elsewhere.

They seem to forget, they are a service industry, and I can take my account anywhere I choose any day i fancy, and it's surely in their interests to ensure that I stay, not to push me away with their snotty 'my way or the highway' approach to my embracing their latest woke piffle.

I conduct my business without the need even to know the name of the person I am dealing with, and I have yet to feel the need to know which 'pronoun' they prefer to be addressed by.

I am all for inclusivity, but not when it only includes people who see the world their way, that is not my definition of the term, and I am not interested in dealing with an organsation that thinks it has a right to dictate my views on its staff policies.

Any thoughts?

[dave50]

Why are they indulging a tiny minority who the vast majority think they are bloody tapped?

[THECORBYLOON]

NJ "In fact I'm not in the habit of reading bank tellers' name badges at all unless I wanted to make a complaint about the individual (which I thought is what they wore them for)."

You are allowed to let their line-managers know if a member of staff has given good service.

The names can also be used for confirmation of information given to you. That need not mean you are complaining about something, only that you have complied with the advice given by a named individual.

"From the number of people involved I reckon I'd have a problem in no more than one in two hundred cases. I'm well able to live with that and frankly it doesn't justify the cost of modifying the badges."

Since you're not personally paying for the badges, it's no big deal is it?

If the same 0.5% of employees are being mis-identified by folk like you, "taking a stab at it", would the fact the badge makes it clear which pronouns to use not help you and prevent unintended offence?

[New Judge]

//Since you're not personally paying for the badges, it's no big deal is it?//

Yes it is. I am a customer of a number of banks and a shareholder of some (Lloyds, for example, relevant to this question). Any money wasted is a big deal.

//..would the fact the badge makes it clear which pronouns to use not help you and prevent unintended offence?//

It might do if I read them. But I don't and certainly have no intention of doing so - certainly not to determine whether somebody wants to be referred to as "he" or "she". Anyway as I said, there are now apparently hundreds of "gender identities" and only two varieties of pronoun (assuming the use of "it" is discounted, though personally I think that hs some merit). With the concept of "gender" having been rendered largely meaningless the idea is a nonsense and you might as well demand a "preferred pronoun" based on your hair colour or shoe size.

[naomi24]

Atheist, //That's what I was doing.//

No you weren't. You thought AH should have said nothing here and just quietly changed his bank.