If you don’t like our pronoun badges you can close accounts, says woke Halifax
A bAnk has infuriated customers by telling them they can close their accounts if they don’t like seeing gender pronouns on staff name badges.
Halifax is the latest major firm to encourage employees to show their preferred forms of address to guard against ‘accidental misgendering’.
It posted a photo online of a branch assistant’s uniform badge with the words ‘she/her/hers’ below the name Gemma.
‘Pronouns matter,’ announced the bank’s Twitter account, adding: ‘It’s a people thing’.
The move provoked a backlash from thousands on social media. Some said the move was unnecessary because customers don’t normally need to refer to a bank cashier in the third person.
Others said they only expected to be served quickly and efficiently when they went into a branch.
Apprentice winner and TV presenter Michelle Dewberry asked the bank: ‘If you really want to focus on “people things” why don’t you start properly passing on interest rate rises to your customers with savings products – or even being slower to pass on interest rate rises to mortgage and credit card holders?’
Other critics questioned Halifax’s commitment to gender equality by pointing out that official pay gap figures show women earn 59p for every £1 that men are paid at the bank’s parent company, Lloyds banking Group.
but the Halifax social media team hit back defiantly, even telling several customers personally to take their business elsewhere.
In response to one man who dismissed the pronouns badge as ‘pathetic virtue-signalling’, Halifax replied: ‘We strive for inclusivity, equality and quite simply, in doing what’s right. If you disagree with our values, you’re welcome to close your account.’
When another Twitter user insisted: ‘You don’t compel my speech’, Halifax said: ‘We care about our customers’ and colleagues’ individual preferences. For us it’s a very simple solution to accidental misgendering.
‘We want to create a safe and accepting environment around gender identity. If you disagree with our values, you’re welcome to close your account.’
Tory peer baroness nicholson of Winterbourne told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s an unseemly way to treat customers.’
She suggested that those who are unhappy with the move and with the bank’s response to criticism should write to the boss and major shareholders of the former building society.
Halifax said that having badge pronouns was optional for staff.
‘It guards against misgendering’ Halifax @HalifaxBank June 28 We strive for inclusion, equality and quite simply, in doing what’s right. If you disagree with our values, you’re welcome to close your account