Everyone does their jobs

Hi,
I think everyone does their job/jobs and everyone does their best.
Is this correct? Which one is better, job or jobs?
Say 'job'. It makes it clear that you mean one job per person, and not that one person may have more than one job.

Can I say bests?
No. Each person is considered to have one 'best'.

Clive

Perfectly understand! Thanks, Clive.

Clive -- I agree that "everyone" is often treated as plural in casual conversation, and I might well say "everyone does their best" myself. But technically, shouldn't it be "everyone does his job and everyone does his best," at least in formal writing?

I realize that the concept of "everyone" is plural by

Hi Khoff,
Yes, that's truebut the use of 'their' in this way seems well established. Many people use it, I think, because it avoids what they think of as the gender-exclusion of 'his', as well as the cumbersomeness of saying 'his or her'.
Clive

You're right -- it was late, and I wasn't thinking entirely clearly. I was just thinking of "their" as plural, rather than the gender-neutral singular it has become.

The problem is a common one because people do not realize they are mixing their pronouns; "everyone" is singular, but "their" is plural.

You have two choices of how to fix it:

1) I think everyone does his job and everyone does his best.

2) I think all do their jobs and all do their best.

Tim

The correct phrase is 'Everybody does their job'.
You can also say 'Everyone do their job'.

AnonymousYou can also say 'Everyone do their job'.

No, you can't. That's wrong.