Remember when it was polite to address a crowd as “ladies and gentlemen?”
Apparently, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a different view; NYC Transit staffers have been instructed to eschew using “ladies and gentleman” and utilize non-gendered words such as “passengers,” “riders,” and “everyone,” in their announcements, according to the New York Post. which reported the missive to the employees read, “Please don’t use any greeting other than these.”
Just in case employees thought no one will be watching them too closely, MTA reportedly sent a memo to its employees warning that “line managers and train service supervisors will be monitoring them” for compliance with the new policy.
Not only is the MTA instructing its employees to change their live verbiage, audio recordings of “ladies and gentlemen are being updated, which means that until the changes are implemented, operators will have to manually override the system and make the announcements themselves.
An MTA spokesperson said that gender issues were involved in the decision.