In a job-seeker’s market, there is no room to let language get in the way of recruiting or allow it to exclude existing talent.
While restructuring workplace culture is a complex and multilayered challenge, updating language to be more inclusive is a step everyone at every level can take. If you don’t know where to start, try incorporating these four terms and phrases into your workplace vocabulary, according to Pamela Culpepper for Fast Company.
Drop “minority” and pick up “historically excluded”
For decades, the term “minority” has been used to describe anyone who is not a straight white cisgender man. Not only is it incorrect, as the majority of the world is non-white, but minority is a word that creates a dynamic of unequal power. There is nothing minor about Black or brown individuals, women, nor gay or trans individuals. They have been left out and excluded from opportunities throughout history, so try acknowledging that.
Flip “maternity leave” to “parental leave”
Let’s start off by acknowledging that any leave after welcoming a child into your family is not a vacation. It’s also not a “mother”-only job. Saying “parental leave” allows for families with same-sex parents, fathers and people who don’t identify as male or female to be included. It also is a reminder that this leave is not actually a “break” from work but rather the start of the new or expanded job of being a parent.
Forget “grandfathered in” and make it “preapproved”
Like a lot of outdated terminology in the U.S., this term has heavy roots in racist history. The grandfather clause was created as another way to take away voting rights from Black people while maintaining said rights for lower-educated white people. Next time you’re thinking of customers who are “grandfathered in,” consider instead saying they’re “preapproved.”
“Hey you guys”: Let’s use “folks”
Greeting more than one person with a “hey guys” has been a habit and subconscious choice for many of us. It feels harmless, but in doing so we are automatically labeling and identifying multiple individuals as males. This term may feel small, but for people who identify as female, nonbinary, or anywhere else on the gender spectrum, it can be isolating and invalidating to their experience. Drop the gendered term and pick up easier, more generalized and inclusive terms like “folks.”