Can you use guys for girls

Prior to the 18th century, the English language had distinct pronouns for the second person singular and plural:. Hence, countries and regions have come up with alternatives:. English parliament established November 5 as Guy Fawkes Day to commemorate the failed assassination plot. This created the inclusivity problem. As one study found, subtle gender-exclusive linguistic cues can lead women to feel ostracized and to self-select out of professional environments.

In the study, women responded with a lower sense of belonging and less motivation during mock interviews that used gender-exclusive language he as compared to interviews that used gender-inclusive he or she or gender-neutral one language.

Leaders can also communicate guidelines for expected use of inclusive language in their organizations.

Nancy Lough has done. Similarly, if you know one or two colleagues well enough to be sure they're fine with the phrase "guys," it's probably fine to use the phrase, Ms Annese says. But addressing a broader group at work as "guys" is another matter altogether. Most of us have misspoken at some point, and "we can't lead a completely scripted life," Ms Annese says.

So don't beat yourself up if your language thus far hasn't been perfect. Just be willing to learn. And keep in mind the power of words and how they can affect people, even if you don't intend any harm. Arguably, one of the reasons "guys" has persisted for so long is that the English language doesn't offer many easy replacements. The term "folks" sounds, well, folksy, says Dr Tatman.

And "y'all" sounds too American for most Australians to comfortably use which is ironic because "guys" was also originally an Americanism, Professor Hajek says. Then there's the Aussie slang term "youse," which is often derided as grammatically incorrect. When addressing a group of women, there's simply no perfect female equivalent of "guys". The options seem patronising "girls", "chicks", "babes" or prim and refined "ladies". Melbourne-raised Tom McQuillen, who works in tech, says he makes a conscious effort to use the term "hey team" when addressing a group of mixed-gender colleagues.

Professor Hajek suggests "hey all" as an alternative to "hey guys". Other terms you might try include "everybody" or "people". I've now made a conscious effort to edit "hey guys" out of my vocabulary — and I'm grateful to that former co-worker who corrected me.

We used it for our podcast, The Humans Strike Back! They or them : short and sweet, although it could be confusing whether you're referring to the group or to an individual. Everyone or everybody : inclusive, but longer and perhaps more difficult to fit into everyday conversation.

Y'all : informal, rolls off the tongue, but the term struggles to overcome regional associations 'Are you from Texas? Peeps : less formal and more approachable than 'people.

This ended up being one of our favorite alternatives! Playing a game like this with virtual teams was also a challenge. We had to come up with a kind of 'virtual' guys jar to collect everyone's contributions. At the start of the challenge, we thought the winner would receive payment through PayPal; in the end, though, we followed the advice of one of our winners and donated the money to a charity of their choosing:.

The winners chose Bloody Good Period , a charity that gives menstrual supplies to asylum seekers, refugees, and other people who can't afford them. It's a wonderful cause that we're proud to support. Our day 'guys jar' challenge was a success, creating lasting change in the gender-neutral language we use every day here at Hotjar.

After a month of being acutely aware each time I used the word 'guys' in the wrong context, catching myself and finding alternate words to use has become second nature. While some obstacles to workplace inclusivity might be outside our direct control, we can control one very powerful component: the language we use with each other, our customers, and our applicants.

Here at Hotjar, inclusivity and respecting others are a big part of our core values , and building an awesome and inclusive team culture starts with what we say to one another. Everyone can benefit from becoming more aware of how we refer to others; for us, saying 'people' instead of 'guys' brought us one step closer to becoming an inclusive company.

Hopefully, our story will inspire you to create similar changes in your company. PS: for full transparency, thanks to the team at Animalz and our editor Fio who interviewed me and helped me structure my argument and drafts. PPS: we're hiring! Check out our careers page. Would you believe that we managed to get every discipline equally excited about a single OKR? One that encouraged paying down some expensive tech debt, brought in some much-needed delight to a rather dull area of our product experience, and drove impressive business metrics—all at the same time?

At Hotjar, we believe competency frameworks should be empowering. They should help others give feedback, provide transparent guidance about the expectations of a PM's role, and clearly signpost how they can reach the next step in their career. Sign in. Try it free. Toggle dark mode. Behind the scenes.