[PaulRobinson]

The thumbs up gesture is an offensive gesture to Muslim cultures. Equivalent to the middle finger in US culture.

The "OK" circle with thumb and finger is offensive in Southern European countries (e.g. Greece), also somewhere around the same level of offence as the middle finger.

GDS might be part of the British civil service, but the UK is still a multicultural society with workers from all over the World here, including I believe, GDS. That might change in the next two years, but right now, it's who we are (and I personally hope it's who we remain in years to come).

It's not "political correctness gone mad" to choose a hand signal that isn't offensive over one that a third of the room might find offensive. It's just polite.

[legostormtroopr]

No body said "political correctness gone mad", you are projecting.

What was said was "It's weird that they chose the English-speaking-world's hand gesture for "stop" as their "agree"" - which it is, I see two hands palm up at me and I see "stop".

[vacri]

As a native English speaker, if I'm talking, and someone does that two-palms-gesture, it's mildly offensive. It means "just stop. I'm not really listening to you anymore". On the other hand, if I've agreed to use that gesture with my colleagues to mean something else, it's not offensive, because I'm not a moron. My problem with that gesture is repurposing a gesture that already means the opposite - it introduces an element of ambiguity.

It is also unbelievably patronising to suggest muslims or greeks that work in the article's team and are trained in this unusual form of comms, that they don't have the quite low bar of maturity required to not be offended by a gesture that is offensive in their orginating culture.

As for suggestions of "PC gone mad", that is 100% your injection. I'm actually quite in favour of PC, as really it's just the extremists of that movement who are fools. As Dara O'Briain said to a heckler who shouted out "Fuck PC!": "Yes, fuck those PC people and their manners".

Frankly, offense should only be taken from a person's intent, not from words or specific gestures (negligence can also be a form of intent here). Compare the phrases "He's a slimy, despicable excuse for a human being" and "He's a lovable old cunt". Which one of those means the speaker holds the subject in contempt? If you're taking offense at a phrase or hand gesture regardless of intent, location, culture, or context, then you're a moron and shouldn't be pandered to[1][2]. People that try to make the world safe for those kind of idiots are those PC extremists mentioned earlier.

[1] inject video of Mr Rogers 'flipping the bird' here - only a moron would be offended given the context [2] or for another example, an anglo visiting a tribe where the women don't cover their breasts - we would think them an idiot if that anglo took offense

[briandear]

Polite doesn't mean creating cognitive dissonance. "Point of order" looks like the word for vagina. And agree looks like the word for stop.

Must one run their hand signals through a worldwide hand signals dictionary to assure non-offense? That's ridiculous, they're a British government agency and thus British is the only culture they should consider. Words and gestures mean different things in different places, if some Greek Muslim working for the U.K. Government is offended, that's too bad. They ought to get over it.

[hanoz]

It doesn't get much more offensive than raising two palms at someone speaking, the universal shut up already gesture.

[danielrhodes]

In scuba diving, using the thumb and index finger circle to indicate OK/understood while under water is used worldwide. Communication is contextual and it's more important that there is a shared and understood convention than universal cultural awareness.

[witty_username]

> The thumbs up gesture is an offensive gesture to Muslim cultures.

Source?

I've heard a similar claim with Muslim cultures replaced by India and that's blatantly false (I live in India).