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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ChezEden on 2025-03-20 13:46:02+00:00.
Disclaimer here: I am not located in the US, but in a country where LGQBT rights, anti descrimination policies and DEI (actual DEI, not whatever the GOP has conned people into thinking DEI is) are very common things.
I work for a large company that has a template for email signatures. On this template is a spot for pronouns beside your name. Many of us put our pronouns there. Honestly it's super handy because we have a very diverse workforce and never meet half the people we interact with (internal or external) in person so sometimes I don't know the gender of who I'm talking to. I find it especially tricky if it's a name I'm not familiar with and isn't obviously masculine or feminine (to me- who only speaks two languages). I have accidentally offended cisgender people before by misgendering them (once it was a man named Lindsay and I fucked up).
Anyway ... while our head office is in the middle of a huge city, many folks work out of satellite offices, some in VERY rural areas. One of these folks thought it would be hilarious to list his pronouns as "it/thing". I have met this man before and do know for a fact that it was to "make fun of the use of pronouns" and not genuine in any way.
So those are the pronouns I am going to use for him then. I called him "thing" in front of a big boss at a meeting awhile back and acted very innocent when people looked confused. I explained that I was trying to respect his pronouns in his email signature but that I don't have experience with it/thing pronouns so I was struggling a bit and hoped I got it right. The big boss (who isn't a fan of bigots) looked very confused and asked him what I was talking about. He actually started explaining how it was a joke about how "pronouns are stupid". I politely excused myself to go to the washroom and when I came out they were still talking and the boss did not look pleased with him.
He no longer has any pronouns listed in his signature.