"Guys" is an inappropriate word at work, says #WordsatWork campaign

If, like many of us, you are one of those who calls everyone in your office “guys”, regardless of gender, guess what, it’s inappropriate and disrespectful.

General Morrison, in his campaign Words at Work, says words like “guys”, “girls”,and “lame” are inappropriate for the workplace, as they have power to marginalise work colleagues. "I have now removed that from my lexicon as best I can, I think it's important," he told the ABC.

"All the campaign is doing is saying, look, it's a proven fact that more inclusive, more diverse workforces create real diversity of thinking and are more productive, more effective. And one of the ways that you can engender that type of environment is being careful about how you speak to other people, talking to them with respect and listening to their views with respect. A lot of the research done by the Diversity Council shows that these, almost like, tap-drips of exclusive language, gender-based language or inappropriate language, has as much a deleterious or disadvantaged effect as something where you're saying something blatantly inappropriate to another human being," he said in his campaign video on YouTube.

So what better words should we us? Below are some of the suggestions from Twitter: