Scottish Widows name is triggering, says owner

Parent firm advises staff to avoid the ‘unnecessarily vivid’ term, but has no plan to change the outfit’s brand

‘Do not use the term guinea pigs as this may not be inclusive of vegan colleagues’

STAFF at the bank that owns Scottish Widows have been urged not to say “widows” because it could trigger upsetting memories.

Lloyds, which owns the insurance company, has produced new guidance on “inclusive language” for its 57,000 employees that raises concern about several traditional words and phrases.

It says the term “widow”, to describe a partner who has died, is “unnecessarily vivid” and may “trigger unwarranted personal memories of trauma and upsetting situations” so staff should say “separated” instead.

Critics pointed out that Lloyds owns Scottish Widows, a life insurance and pensions firm, which manages almost £200 billion in assets, yet the company says it has no plans to change its name.

The guide, first reported by the Mail on Sunday, lists words “that have strong negative associations” and can create “barriers based on... social mobility, education, religion, accessibility, race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation” if used. The words in the non-compulsory guide have been submitted voluntarily by Lloyds staff in a whiteboard-like interactive document, after the bank’s inclusion team came up with the idea for a discussion about language, The Telegraph understands. Other phrases staff are advised to avoid include “guinea pigs” as this “may not be inclusive of vegan colleagues” by evoking images of cruel laboratory tests.

The guide also lists the phrase “sold down the river”, given its historical connections to slavery in the US, and “penetration testing”, a cyber security term for testing IT systems, that may “conjure up an unwarranted and intrusive bodily image”, Lloyds says.

Staff are advised that “you may agree with some terms and disagree with others – that’s OK! You don’t have to adopt alternatives, though do explore why we recommend doing so”.

Mark Brown, of the BTU trade union, which represents bank workers, said that if Lloyds “really believed in the use of inclusive language, then it would change the Scottish Widows brand name immediately”. He told the Mail that progress in diversity and inclusion in the workplace is “being drowned out by half-baked schemes which are ineffective and create resentment”.

A Lloyds spokesman said: “The voluntary inclusivity tool is designed to be a way for colleagues to explore how people may feel about different words and phrases. As is par for the course when crowdsourcing for ideas, some are better than others.”

For a company that runs a business called Scottish Widows, it is beyond parody to learn it is urging staff not to say “widows” for fear of triggering upsetting memories. Lloyds, which owns the leading insurance company, has produced new guidance on “inclusive language” for its 57,000 employees that raises concern about several traditional words and phrases. The term “widow” is judged to be “unnecessarily vivid” and should be replaced with “separated”. Other taboo phrases include “guinea pigs”, since this might evoke images of cruel laboratory experiments upsetting to vegan employees. “Headless chicken” is another no-no, apparently. Lucky Lloyds doesn’t own cheese-making companies with products such as Stinking Bishop and Black Bomber or there would be a complete nervous breakdown.