Inclusive Language — A Quick Guide
Imagine this, you’re working really hard to recruit diverse individuals, or to build a more diverse workforce. You’re committed to your diversity work and you wanna change your workplace — but the new members never stay. They always leave and you’re back to square one. This is one of the most common pitfalls for companies trying to be more diverse. And often the cause of the problem can be traced back to the language people are using. One of the quickest ways to exclude people is with the words that we use.
Often, we don’t think about how the words we use can affect other people, especially if you don’t belong to a minority group. What we say directly influences people. We wanna make sure that our message is delivered in a way that doesn’t shame them or make them feel bad about themselves. In this article, I’m going to (or try at least) break down the do’s and don’ts of inclusive language in the workplace.
But before I start, you might be thinking of that person you know that always go “we can’t say anything anymore. That political correctness has gone mad, people are just getting too sensitive”. And to all those complaints that you often hear around the dinner table, people really think that this is all nonsense. But stick to this: a new word is added to the dictionary every two hours. On average during the course of the year, almost 4,000 words are added. For me, 100.000 words have been added in my lifetime. My point is that through the years we created more and more words to describe things, so it is not “political correctness”, it is progression and evolution, and this happens since the dawn of times. I’m pretty sure that I can find new words to describe people without making them feel awful about themselves, or making them feel excluded.
So, let’s go to the principles of Inclusive Language!
— Principle 1: Put People First
Instead of saying a disabled person, say a person with a disability. Don’t say an epileptic child, say a child with epilepsy. Identifying people by their conditions eliminates their humanity. It makes the focus of the sentence their physical or their mental health, instead of making them as a person, the focus of the sentence.
— Principle 2: Use Gender-neutral Language
Don’t use guys to address people of multiple genders, use folks, or everyone, to talk about a group of people.
Some people do argue that words like guys have become gender-neutral, but it actually hasn’t. Can you walk into a room of mixed-gender people and say, “Hey girls”, and it applies? No. Therefore hey guys, isn’t gender-neutral.
Referring to groups of people by male gender language reinforces the idea that male is the default, and anything else is othered. Therefore, in the workplace, you can use gender-neutral terms, for example, say they/their/them instead of he/she or him/her. Use everyone, colleagues, instead of men/man or women/woman.
— Principle 3: Don’t use gender-specific words as insults.
I bet my life you’ve heard “he’s being such a pussy”. And it’s a hard no. Using female genitalia as an insult is never okay. Or you might hear “don’t be such a girl about it”. That’s another hard pass. It constantly reinforces the idea that women are less than, that anything to do with a woman is derogatory and deemed an insult. Get rid of that.
— Principle 4: Always check Pronouns (and use yours where you can)
In your email signature or your social media bios, you can add your pronouns. Or when you introduce yourself to someone, you could say, “Hi, my name is Tiago and my pronouns are he/him”. This lets other people know that you’re aware and you’re open and understanding to other people’s pronouns. It lets people know that you’re a safe space.
— Principle 5: Avoid race-related acronyms when we’re talking about race.
This one is easy. Instead of saying BAME, say Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic People. Instead of saying BIPoC say Black, Indigenous and People of Color. Always refer to people’s color and use the full words instead of shortening and abbreviating everything.
— Principle 6: Recognize the impact of mental health language.
So, for example, people often use words like crazy, mental or psycho to describe everyday experiences or people. Using those terms to describe everyday behaviors downplays the impact or the seriousness of someone’s experiences with a mental disorder. It’s hard to remember, but if you can start to change your language every single day and find alternatives to those words, do that.
— Principle 7: Age is rarely ever relevant in the workplace.
Age might be relevant for things like “this school is for children between the ages of five and eight”. Other than that, we don’t need to be using age-related terms to describe people or our workforce. So for example, avoid using phrases like “mature employees” or “a vibrant and youthful team”.
— Principle 8: Always ask.
Asking is the cornerstone of inclusivity. It’s the golden rule. Ask people their pronouns. Ask how they’d like to be referred to. Ask if you’re unsure or afraid. Ask if there’s any doubt at all.
And what should I do if I hear language that is offensive?
Now that you are “fluent” in inclusive language, what should you do when hearing bad language?
A big part of being more inclusive with our language is helping others around us do the same thing. People might be using exclusive language because they hadn’t realized we no longer use those words, or perhaps they’ve just never considered it before.
When we do hear language that’s offensive or upsetting to other people, there are various things that we can do to mitigate them:
1 — If you hear derogatory language being used in the office and you don’t feel able or confident enough to address it directly, that’s fine. Take that person aside privately and have a conversation with them. Start by telling them that you used to use words that weren’t acceptable, but you’ve been working hard to change them. Let them know why that word is offensive and offer some alternatives.
2 — If you feel able, have that conversation at the time so that other people around you can hear and learn. It’s not about being confrontational, but rather about highlighting changing language over the years and how some words are archaic.
3 — If you don’t wish to address the person using offensive language, you can always start a conversation with the person it offends. So, for example, if someone refers to your colleague as a disabled person, you can turn around to that colleague and say, “Are you happy being referred to as a disabled person or is there a term that you’d prefer we all use instead?” It gives them an opportunity to vocalize their preference while also educating those around you and avoiding confrontation with the person who said it.
Now that you know some principles to communicate better, you are ready to be more active in the fight for inclusion.
Remember, respect pronouns, ask when you don’t know, don’t use other gender or physical/mental disorder to categorize someone or something, and always put people first.
The inspiration for this article came from a training session by Salma El-Wardany, via Social Talent, for which I’m really thankful for the thoughts.
