Saying ‘millennials’ is offensive, civil service told
Civil servants have been told to avoid using the word “millennials” because it is offensive.
The recommendation was included as part of an “Inclusive Language Guide”, which also advised staff against calling colleagues “Gen Z”.
In a section on age, the guidance warned against using such terms to describe different generations as they can “reinforce negative stereotypes”.
Staff have been told only to mention specific years or decades when referencing their colleagues’ ages, according to the Daily Mail.
Maybe point and grunt is the way to go, point at the person being referred to and grunt. Of course this discriminates against people who cannot point or grunt, but it's a start. Simply throwing something at them as an indicator of reference would come up against similar risks.
For more general references it may be sufficient to refer to "the group" or "a group". Of course this may not be specific enough to go further, but as we now know, being specific in relation to people is offensive, although maybe we should say in relation to people-like objects, avoiding unduly specific language, although that too...
Point and grunt it is then.
6 comments:
Why one earth would you want to refer to an age-cohort of your colleagues? Just get on with the job. Grading each other by birth date is a job done by HR for calculating pensions, years of experience, and the like. Not for anyone else, while my tax is paying for it.
Down the pub later, you can safely use the terms "sprog" and "wrinkly".
Sam - it's deranged. Thousands of stupidities adding themselves to an unseen accounting system which fires off consequences governments don't understand.
"Saying ‘millennials’ is offensive". Then use the expression popularised by the much missed Victoria Wood: minnellial.
What a joyless life these creatures live! Are Irish 'jokes' still offensive?
To paraphrase Nineteen Eighty Four - if you control the speech you control what can be thought.
dearieme - she certainly is missed, come back Acorn Antiques. Minnellial it is then.
Scrobs - that it isn't it? What joyless lives they lead indeed.
DJ - yes Newspeak is a genuine political project. Not officially as in 1984, but it's coming.
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