Mailchimp CEO Pronoun Controversy

A story about how Mailchimp's CEO Ben Chestnut had to step down after sending a controversial email about pronouns in the workplace.

Ben Chestnut sent an email to a small group of employees where he identified what he saw as a dangerous trend in his workforce - new hires introducing themselves using their preferred pronouns. He wrote: "This is completely unnecessary for a woman who is clearly a woman to tell us her pronouns as she/her, and a man who is clearly a man to tell us that his pronouns are he/him."

In the email, he said he understood the practice was rooted in kindness but added that "in the long run this approach does more harm than good, forcing people to behave in certain ways that are the opposite of inclusion."

He went on to write that there was "a tiny number of peeps at Mailchimp who consider themselves transgender" and that forcing 1,300 other employees "to adopt a new communication paradigm that humanity has never had to use in our 300,000 years of existence" was "completely illogical."

He also expressed concern that employees were no longer motivated by meaningful work but instead were "motivated to make political statements" and using company time and resources "to win a game against their opponents."

Shortly after this email, he had to step down from his position at the company he founded, which had previously sold to Intuit for billions of dollars.