Should You Say “You Guys”?
In episode #1, we spoke about an article in Lifehacker that mentioned phrases that make you sound immature at work. One of them was the controversial phrase “you guys.” A “guy” is a male, so when you are talking with a group of people where at least one of them identifies as female, you are not talking to a group of guys; however, since the word “you” can mean one person or billions of people, it is extremely common for the word “guys” to be added afterwards to specify that we are referring to more than one person. But is this okay?
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Robyn mentioned that some people might not even realize that “you guys” technically means “you males,” and they may not be bothered by the use of this phrase, even if they don’t identify as males. While this is the case, it is also true that some people may take offence to being referred to as “guys,” so the safest bet is to either use a different word or ask the group of people you are talking to if they are okay with the use of “you guys.”
If you prefer to go the safe route, you can replace “you guys” with “you all,” “everyone,” “folks,” or even “y’all.” It may take some time to get used to it, but once you do, you won’t have to worry about making people uncomfortable with this phrase.
