As a member of Gen X, I’ll be the first to admit that incorporating pronoun use into my daily routine takes a conscious effort. Having said that, pronoun use is a positive step toward improved inclusion and one contemporary point of contact you might be overlooking is your Zoom display name.
Fortunately, Zoom makes it super simple to add your preferred pronouns to your display name.
- Go to My Account, it should default to the Profile setting, select the Edit
- Add pronouns to your display name. If you run into problems with them getting cut off, you can go with just the first (subjective) option).
- Select Save Changes.
That’s all there is to it.
Pronoun Guide
The most common pronouns are “he/him/his,” “she/her/hers,” and gender-neutral “they/them/theirs.”
If you aren’t sure which pronouns to use or want to learn more about the role they play in building diversity, NTEN has a concise and useful overview along with additional resource links.
What About Google Meet And Microsoft Teams?
Google Meet is surprisingly challenging on this front. For example, this can be done by editing your Google account name but it’s really more of a hack because you’re using the Last Name field for both your name and pronouns. If you’re a G-suite user, that may not be an option.
As for Teams, (in my best Vincent Vega “I didn’t go into a Burger King” impersonation), I don’t use Teams. But from what I can tell via some Google sleuthing, it seems like that’s not yet an option.
FYI, saying “preferred pronouns” makes them sound optional. They are just pronouns. After all, nobody introduces themselves with their preferred name.
I know it’s an evolving topic and is certainly not something that will be decided here so thank you for introducing it for readers.