1Last week, along with companies using a certain service provider, I got a communication about some minor changes to its operations. This was the closing:<\/p>\n
Wishing you nice frosty days,
\nThe girls in Customer Service<\/i><\/p>\n
The words gave me pause, so I asked for other opinions on the Language Police forum. The discussion was lively: I ended up with 51 comments.<\/p>\n
In general, people considered the wording favorably; 40 people gave their approval with likes. A positive tone is often crucial, and it helps us overlook small shortcomings. People praised this closing, rightly I think, for its lightness, its good temper, and its friendly warmth.<\/p>\n
The most interesting issue to me was the word “girls.” While I’m not oversensitive to gendered language, it did bring me up short. The wording didn’t seem appropriate for a business communication. In the discussion on the forum, people considered \u201dgirls\u201d from many angles. About twenty people shared the view that \u201dgirls\u201d is fine if the women use it themselves. “Girls” was considered light, friendly and warm but perhaps a bit too familiar.<\/p>\n
Twenty other participants considered “girls” unsuitable. “It shouldn’t be allowed.” “It’s not businesslike. It’s unprofessional.” “It really stuck out.” One interesting question was what the impact would have been for “the boys of Customer Service.”<\/p>\n
Many comments dealt with the impact of the wording: would this usage give a kind of permission to use “girls” for women in other situations? And what image did “girls” conjure up? Does it imply that customer service is women’s work, something not to take seriously? Would professionals end an announcement with a phrase like “Best regards, the girls of Acme Corporate Lawyers?”<\/p>\n
Based on the discussion, I came to the conclusion that in general the word \u201dgirls\u201d in this kind of message didn’t bother most readers. However, it did raise mixed feelings and that\u2019s why it\u2019s better to choose a more neutral expression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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