‘Why do the gays always feel the need to bang on about their sexuality at work?’ Stonewall hear this kind of comment worryingly often and believe that people perform better when they can be themselves. Over 700 major employers across Britain are members of Stonewall Diversity Champions programme; Britain’s leading employers’ forum on sexual orientation. It’s the largest non-governmental intervention of its kind in the world. The business case is backed up by research; EY’s global research of its offices shows staff working in fully inclusive environments bring in $125,000 per year per head more to the organisation than employees working in parts of the business where they feel they can’t be themselves at work. Article by Simon Feeke, Head of Workplace Programmes at Stonewall.
Being open about your sexual orientation at work isn’t about being militant; it’s about being authentic. When you’re authentic you can develop close working relationships with your colleagues and not waste time and energy trying to be something you’re not. Few people go to work on a Monday morning and never mention what they did at the weekend, or who they spent time with, or where they visited. But this is the reality for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff unable to be open about their sexual orientation. Some will give evasive answers and seem distant in conversation. Others will lie if they expect a negative answer. And some choose to play the pronoun game, switching the gender of their partner to something that they think will be more acceptable to their colleagues.
Of course, some LGB people do choose not to come out at work. A YouGov poll found that a quarter of lesbian, gay and bisexual workers are not at all open to colleagues about their sexual orientation. It was only in 2004 that the law changed to protect staff from discrimination on the grounds of their sexual orientation. If your career is built on decades of people assuming that you’re heterosexual then coming out can seem like an insurmountable barrier.
Stonewall believes that all employers should strive to create a working environment where lesbian, gay and bisexual people can be open about their sexual orientation if they want to. That’s why interventions like the Diversity Champions programme are so important. They don’t just tackle the physical and verbal bullying, they can help employers create a workplace where all staff can achieve every ounce of their potential. When your staff are engaged and motivated they will perform better and this help your organisation understand how to better interact with your LGBT customers.
While we’ve come a long way in recent years, there’s still much work to do. Polling conducted by YouGov estimates that in just the past five years 2.4 million people of working age have witnessed verbal homophobic bullying at work and 800,000 have witnessed physical homophobic bullying. That’s a huge number of people who go to work fearing harassment and abuse and consequently remain private about being lesbian, gay or bisexual. This isn’t just bad for the individual – it’s incredibly bad for business.
