Northern Ireland Civil Service’s bizarre language guide

What isn’t deemed offensive these days? The latest version of Northern Ireland’s civil service ‘inclusive language guide’ has been published – and it appears that even some of the most benign language is too risqué for top mandarins. The newly released document, which advises readers that ‘we all have a role to play in championing diversity and inclusion to make our workplace a safe, welcoming space’, has issued warnings about how a ‘phrase that feels harmless to one person’ may leave another ‘potentially unsafe’. Good heavens…

Perhaps it’s a good thing the Northern Irish civil service has put together this handy guide – as Mr S would bet almost no one else would have picked up on the, er, offensiveness of these non-inclusive terms. The handbook is first sceptical of ‘gendered’ phrases like ‘chairman’, ‘a female CEO’ and even the all-encompassing ‘guys and girls’ greeting. Instead, civil servants should swap these out for ‘chairperson’, ‘a CEO’ and, um, ‘folks’.

Reference to age is something that rather worries the civil service too.