Words are a powerful tool that can be used to make this world a better place to be or vice versa. The same goes for creating a unique workspace where employees can bloom in or dry up. Working in a multicultural company consisting of 12500+ employees from different parts of the world – from Austin, Kyiv to Singapore inevitably puts you at crossroads of different cultures, mindsets, biases, etc. From my personal observation, at SoftServe people do care, and work a lot on creating a workplace culture of being curious and respectful, open to new experiences, and valuing the unknown with the attention of each word being said.

My name is Snizhana, I am a Global Mobility Specialist at SoftServe dealing with business-driven relocations across the world, have a legal background behind my back, and am keen on human rights protection. This article would be helpful to you if you want to know how to be politically correct in your communication, which words are not acceptable and what is the alternative?

What is political correctness?

Some say that the devil is hidden in detail. Nothing may outline better the political correctness concept than this proverb. Do you know why?

Firstly, this term is not fixed meaning it is subject to review and change. For instance, something that was politically correct 10 years ago, maybe not now. Some say that this should not be considered as a drawback. The new knowledge appears, and it naturally influences our state of mind. If it is for good, then why worry.

Secondly, we are defining what is acceptable by majority voting. This is handled not via legal process, but more comes as some common sense that is constructed based on our social reality, history, tradition, religion, and millions of other things that make us united as a group. Yes, we all know “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.” So, society may have made some errata in the past, and by changing the mark from acceptable to not – we may admit the mistake. So, from this perspective, being agile is great!

You may ask reading the abovementioned points: how should I know what is politically correct or not if the concept is not fixed and human erratum etc.? Should I check it on a daily basis or what? No worries, you may easily nail it without making this check as a part of your day-to-day morning routine. Kidding!

The core of the political correctness concept is unchangeable. Politically correct language always reflects empathy, fairness, and justice. It aimed to protect one human being from being hurt by the other human being deliberately or negligently.

Political correctness includes some simple don’ts that enhance respect and minimize possible conflicts. So here are top-3 recommendations:

avoid using only male-only terms, pronouns, or titles
avoid stereotypes regarding professions
avoid generalizations of ethnicity and race

WORDS MAY HURT, YOU KNOW: QUICK DIVE INTO BASICS

PRONOUNS

Pronouns are words used to refer to people without using their names. Plural pronouns are becoming more widely accepted as gender-neutral singular pronouns. It is permissible and grammatically correct to rewrite singular pronounces using a form of ‘them’.

/uploads/stories/mind-your-language-dot-or-ensuring-respect-at-the-workplace-by-using-politically-correct-language/1table.jpg?1644580538877

If you don’t know what pronouns to use, you can do next things:

use singular “they/them/theirs” until you can ask about their pronouns
if you have an opportunity, please ask what their pronouns are (e.g., “What pronouns do you use?” or “How would you like me to refer to you?)
use their name until you learn their pronouns

/uploads/stories/mind-your-language-dot-or-ensuring-respect-at-the-workplace-by-using-politically-correct-language/2_table.jpg?1644580680063

General rule: pronouns are not equal to gender.

PROFESSIONS

/uploads/stories/mind-your-language-dot-or-ensuring-respect-at-the-workplace-by-using-politically-correct-language/3_tables.jpg?1644581416184

General rule: now focus on work-related terminology (job names/titling) is switched to gender-neutral nouns, not sex (man, woman).

/uploads/stories/mind-your-language-dot-or-ensuring-respect-at-the-workplace-by-using-politically-correct-language/4_table.jpg?16445814589723

General rules

as a 1st step that we refer to a person (so-called “person-first language”) and only then provide a descriptor, e.g., not deaf but a person who is hearing impaired
that a person “has” a problem, rather than “is” the problem

Also, avoid eliciting negative associations (stigma) and punitive attitudes.

ETHNICITY & RACE

Ethnicity & race is the most fragile and sensitive topic so far. Please see below some explanation on the term and recommendations for usage.

/uploads/stories/mind-your-language-dot-or-ensuring-respect-at-the-workplace-by-using-politically-correct-language/5_table.jpg?1644581718328

Self-test: consider the necessity of using race within your talk/e-mail. Ask yourself: “Would I mention ‘white colleague or ‘white manager’ when discussing others?”. If not, please avoid it.

Also, it is interesting to know that due to immigration crises in different countries,using terms “illegal immigrant” or “illegal alien” to refer to individuals who are not citizens/permanent residents of some country, who do not hold visas, or who have not applied for official residency, is not recommended. Instead of saying “illegal immigrant” or “illegal alien”, use “undocumented”, e.g., “undocumented individuals”.

WHAT IF I HAVE ALREADY SAID SOMETHING POLITICALLY INCORRECT?

We are all human beings. No one is perfect and it is okay to make mistakes. But once it is made, please:

Own your mistake
Apologize
Learn from your mistake — seek to understand what may be hurtful to another human

We may not be aware of every cultural and historical pattern, and some acceptable words for us can be offensive to other people.

What is at our hands is to stay curious, not judgmental. So, if you unintentionally hurt another person, you may just ask what was wrong (e.g., could you please explain to me more as I did not intend to offend you/ sorry / I just what to make sure that I understand what is behind and not to repeat this in the future).

If you witnessed the situation when someone used offensive language, please do not react through ignorance. There is a term in a social psychological theory that is called “the bystander effect, or bystander apathy”. It states that individual human being is less likely to offer help to a victim when there are other people present. He or she would think that someone else should help. So don’t be ignorant, instead please help to understand if it was negligent or not and then explain that it is unacceptable and damaging for enhancing a respect-oriented workplace and culture.

Remember we are all humans first and ONLY after we can be differentiated by gender, race, citizenship, etc. If you are Ukrainian by nationality, does not mean that your favorite meal is salo and borshch. Please do not stereotype people and make some biased conclusions by default without asking them and getting acquainted with them as the HUMAN first.

Be curious and respectful, not judgmental.