“You Guys” Is an Act of Exclusion

It’s on all of us to harness the power of language and create belonging with our words.

Sixteen years ago, I spent two back-to-back semesters studying Shakespeare at A&M. Some of the plays were incomplete, a bit of fill-in-the-blank, due to time rubbing away certain words. For weeks, we read King Richard III one way and then another, all based on one word — busky. One word can change the meaning. In college, I found it fascinating; with one word, my entire intent could fall apart.

In the workplace, despite what the sticks and stones adage led us to believe, words harm us, dismiss us, exclude us. All of us are capable of this — excluding someone or a group in a word. Taking responsibility for word choice is an individual and collective journey.

We had a concept at our tech start-up, Square Root, dubbed the Anti-Bucket List. We filled a bucket drawn on a giant post-it with all the behaviors we don’t want to embody. During our last session, the final addition was from our HR Manager, Kelsey. She included You Guys on the list.

As a Southern gal, I roll with Hey Folks or Hi Y’all. But once she brought it up, I noticed how often myself and others said, You Guys. It’s a common enough phrase, so why does it matter that we stop using it?

We stop using it to create belonging. It’s natural for folks to want to be seen, heard, and appreciated for who they are.