Why Pronouns Matter

As the contemporary understanding of the gender spectrum becomes more widely accepted and understood, the commitment to using someone’s personal pronouns is a matter of dignity and respect. Always using someone’s correct pronouns communicates respect for that person’s identity and personhood. Adapting to someone’s pronouns, names, and forms of gender expression also communicates respect and a level of safety and trust. If a workplace invalidates or otherwise ignores this human element, a team mentality is impossible as respect is not universal.

As the societal awareness of institutional prejudices against trans and non-binary people increases, the necessity for businesses to have respectful protocols regarding the pronouns used by employees and clients is imperative. Businesses have been managing name changes successfully for decades on the human resources side when employees or clients marry or go through an official name change process. Leaders and co-workers adapt and revise documents as needed to respect those changes. These practices need to be expanded to pronouns, names, and forms of gender expression to create a safe, respectful, and comfortable workplace for everyone.

As a proud LGBTQ+ owned company with employees and leadership that identify in a multitude of ways, Mobilize is committed to inclusion and support – our current best practices are outlined below.

Inclusion Best Practices

All Mobilize team members are humans with equal value in all aspects of work and life. We are 100% committed to inclusion and will forever be evolving and growing our commitments as outlined below:

Current Commitments:

• Team members’ well-being is our #1 priority – above profit, deadlines, and any other “business” goal

• All team members are provided our in-depth handbook which covers the practical and conceptual practices our company takes

• All team member pronouns can be included in onboarding and company roster

• Email signature template includes pronoun option (not required)

• Legal name vs. current name option (not required)

• Zoom handle to include pronouns (not required)

• Meetings include written/spoken option to share pronouns

For more information about pronoun inclusivity in the workplace, check out these informative articles from Workplace Options and My Pronouns.