The 'gender-inappropriate' words Qantas has banned staff from using
Qantas staff have been told to stamp out "gender-inappropriate" words from their vocabulary in a bid to make employees feel more comfortable in the workplace.
The airline's workforce has been addressed by people and culture group executive Lesley Grant via an information pack as the Aussie carrier begins its "Spirit of Inclusion" month, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Gender specific terms such as "guys", "love" and "honey" feature on a list of words to avoid, designed to help staff members avoid offending others.
Partner and spouse are preferred to husband and wife while parents, instead of mum and dad, should be used to avoid excluding LGBTI families.
The term "manterruptions", where men interrupt women when speaking, also featured in the information pack in an attempt to ease it out of staffs' daily routines.
“Research shows that in many situations, including the workplace, men interrupt and speak over women, while the reverse rarely happens," the information pack says.
The pack also touches on Australian history with staff urged to "recognise reality" over Europeans' arrival in the 18th century.
"Describing the arrival of Europeans as a 'settlement' is a view of Australian history from the perspective of England rather than Australia," it says.
Staff are told to use the terms colonisation, occupation or invasion instead.
Qantas unveils new menu to fight jet lag during long-haul trips
Terrifying footage from onboard Qantas plane caught in wild storm
“We have a long and proud history of promoting inclusion among our people, our customers and society, including support of indigenous issues, gender parity in business and marriage equality,” Ms Grant wrote.
A Qantas spokeswoman told Yahoo7 News the content of the information pack was created by the Diversity Council of Australia and was supplied to around 150 other companies.
“We want Qantas to be an inclusive workplace and we shared some factsheets created by the Diversity Council of Australia with some suggestions on more inclusive language, particularly on gender, age and LGBTI issues.”
