I adore my etiquette teacher, Maria Everding, a gracious, funny, ball of fire. I attended Maria’s etiquette school – The Etiquette Institute– to learn all that I needed to know to become an etiquette consultant. I often turn to Maria for advice or perspective. She is also not afraid to tell me when she feels I’m wrong. Her latest email was about a question I posted on the Image and Etiquette Consultant’s group I created on LinkedIn where I called a woman a “gal”. This is Maria’s email:
“How about discussing using the word “gal” in the workplace. That’s your downfall little cutey! And honesty, I don’t care what anyone says about the use of gal it is unprofessional and slang sounding. You sure lit my fire, didn’t you.
I’m still sending you bunches of hugs and kisses -
Maria”
I responded that if I wasn’t scolded every once and a while by my etiquette teacher I would worry she didn’t care. But, she’s right. “gal”, “guys” “yeah”, they are all slang and they don’t sound real pretty now do they?!
So as Maria suggested, let’s talk about using the word “gal” in the workplace. What do you think about it? Do you use it? Are there other words you use instead? Do tell.
Maria, thank you for the blog post fodder, you keep me on my toes!
