A few months ago, the large multi-national bank I work for had our charming and delightful HR Department send us all an email with a link to select our "preferred pronouns."
At the end of a very long list was an option to check a box "Other" and type in our own.
Being the shit-stirrer that I am, I decided to check "Other" and typed in "Lord Master Hizzog of the Planet Zork!" and submitted the form.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, a back end script then went on to update my email signature, my Microsoft Teams profile, HR profile and more. It wasn't long before I got a call from HR to ask me to "change my preferred pronoun" to something on the list, to which I replied "I did! You gave me the option to choose "Other" and create my own so that's what I did."
It wasn't long before co-workers noticed what I did and I started getting calls asking how I did it, so I told them.
Then I started getting the emails about "how to change my preferred pronoun" again, so I deleted them and ignored them. I didn't open them up, I just deleted them.
Knowing what was coming next, I consulted with my GF who's a retired HR Professional and she told me what to say & do.
So when the phone call came from HR that they "strongly recommended" I change my preferred pronoun, I replied "Ok, I'll change it -- but you may not like it." That statement was met by a threat to involve the bank's Corporate Attorney to which I replied: "Please tell so-and-so I said hello and that I miss our days playing in the band together." The silence on the phone was deafening.
The phone calls and emails stopped and these months later I still have "Lord Master Hizzog of the Planet Zork!" as my preferred pronoun on every email, every Microsoft Teams chat, my HR Profile, etc.. And there's not a damn' thing they can do about it because they gave me the option to choose "Other" and fill in my own. Once that was done, they had zero legal recourse to make me change it.
Now, they can find a reason to fire me and frankly, I say go ahead and do it. That itself would get me out of a legal burden I do not want to carry anymore and would force my worthless, fat, stupid hypocritical ex-wife to get off her fat ass and get a job. :-)
Either way, I win.
That is funny.