Perth worker sacked for incorrectly addressing non-binary colleague

[Bretrick]

Perth worker reportedly fired for incorrectly addressing non-binary colleague
The case has been reported by The West Australia who detail that the dispute arose after an older worker in his 60’s introduced a younger worker who is non-binary as “he’, despite previously being told of their colleagues preference for being addressed as “they”.

 

[Della]

I have nothing but sympathy for people with gender identity issues but if they really want to be called by a different pronoun they should have thought of something original instead of requiring the rest of us to use the term we have always used for more than one person. That plural term is one of the first words we learn as toddlers, it's ingrained and feels as wrong to use for one person as calling a car a house.

I think if I worked with a non-binary person I would have to use their name every time because I could do that more easily. I could say, "This is Pat, Pat works in the cash department," more easily than "This is Pat, they work in the cash department."

 

[JustDave]

One of the parts of the German language that I found most difficult was Its use of gender pronouns where objects were assigned feminine or masculine identities. You had to remember the gender of objects and/or special situations. It seemed to me as a high schooler who was taking German to meet the then college entrance requirements of two years in foreign language as extremely cumbersome. I wish I would have taken Spanish instead. It would have been more useful.

But I'm getting side tracked. I have not yet been reprimanded for using an incorrect pronoun for a person. But I rue the day I might misidentify a woman who wants to be a woman a man.

 

[CallMeKate]

I think there needs to be more of a defined line between every human's right to be what they want to be & live life the way they want... and expecting everyone around them to pander to it.

 

[GP44]

We hauled a couch clear across the state to give it to a grandson.
The grandson and his girlfriend friend had this guy living with them who wanted to be a woman.
The grandson and the IT came out and when it came time to grab the couch and carry it in the IT stood there looking stupid until I said “ if you want this couch you better pick it up and carry it in because I’m 75 years old and I’m not going to do it for you.”
Didn’t look like the he-she-it had any problems lifting IT’s half after that.
I don’t care if you paint your nails or if you wear long hair as long as you pull your weight.
Glad I’m old enough that I don’t have to abide that kind of stuff.

 

[GP44]

Like Call Me Kate said it’s not the person who wants to think they are a tree that is crazy- it’s the people who believe that they are indeed a tree who are nuts.