The business case for diversity states that inclusive workplaces attract a wider and stronger range of job candidates, allowing organizations to connect with a diverse customer base. But gay and lesbian employees are often left out of the equation. In many workplaces, gay and lesbian employees constitute an invisible group, more comfortable staying in the closet than fully joining the work community. Discrimination is illegal, but prejudices remain.
Some 12 years ago I wrote an article for this publication stating that it was high time that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was banned.
In the intervening years this has happened in all Canadian jurisdictions. While Alberta didn’t actually amend its human rights legislation, it did accept the judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Vriend decision. The court found that an Alberta teacher, who was fired because — and only because — he was gay, was a victim of discrimination.
Gay and lesbian Canadians have come a long way in the law. But have they come a long way in the workplace? Sadly, not as far as they need to in order to enjoy equal rights. Why do I say this? Consider the following real life anecdotes and experiences I have encountered in the course of my work:
•A young man in a manufacturing company is ostracized by his workmates because they thought he was gay. In fact, he is not gay. His colleagues walked out of the shower area when he entered, distanced themselves in the locker room and cafeteria, and defaced his locker.
•An executive found that information essential to doing his job was being withheld and criticisms of his job performance were making their way to the CEO. He finally realized the reason. An executive colleague who handled his recent relocation had found out that the second person involved in the real estate transaction for his new house was a man.
•A gay colleague was subjected to homophobic jokes while golfing with a client.
Convinced that there’s an invisible “pink ceiling” at work, a number of gay professionals and managers have started giving out this advice to gays and lesbians with career ambitions: stay in the closet until you get to the level you want to achieve.
Many gays and lesbians find themselves the object of mockery when they bring their same-sex partner to a company function — or worse still, dance with them.
Homophobia is the last “acceptable” bias. About one in three people doesn’t get the message that bigotry is unacceptable in the workplace. It is astonishing to me that, in a training group of between 15 and 25 people, one or more people will still make a homophobic remark. Apparently it hasn’t occurred to them that another participant, or another participant’s sibling, best friend or neighbour could be gay or lesbian.
We don’t know for sure what financial price gays and lesbians pay in the workplace for their sexual orientation. We will know more when the findings of a study on the career choices of gays and lesbians by Margaret Schneider of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education are published.
However, Schneider did confirm that the perception that gays and lesbians make more money than others is incorrect. People wrongly assume that gays and lesbians have more discretionary income to spend because they are less likely than others to have children. In fact, she points out, lesbian couples do particularly poorly because there is no one in the relationship “earning a man’s wage.”
So what can employers do to ensure gay and lesbian employees get a fair shake? Here are some ideas.
Be upfront with your policy on non-discrimination. If an employer’s values include diversity, make sure that the communication about the values states explicitly that sexual orientation is a dimension of diversity. Include sexual orientation in diversity and anti-harassment policies and include these policies in employee orientation. Make the organization’s position clear to new employees at the outset.
Ensure that the company benefits plan includes same-sex couples. This needs to extend not just to “traditional” benefits, such as life, health and pension, but also to relocation, incentive travel and conferences.
Train people, especially executives, managers and other key staff, such as human resource professionals. In my experience, getting heterosexuals to be open and accepting of different sexual orientations is much more difficult than getting people to deal with other differences such as gender, race, age and religion.
Many people have been taught by their religion that it is just wrong to be gay or lesbian — and especially wrong to have a same-sex relationship. These individuals believe that a being much higher than the HR vice-president or even the CEO has given them their marching orders. In other cases, people have been raised with values or cultural traditions that say that being gay or lesbian is wrong.
My tip: Do everything you can to make people aware of gay and lesbian issues, to educate them about your diversity strategy, your policies, the barriers faced by people who are gay and lesbian, and the company’s legal obligations to be fair and non-discriminatory. At the end of the day, however, you also simply have to decree that, regardless of one’s own beliefs and values, fairness and equal opportunity is what the company requires.
Show the organization is non-discriminatory by promoting deserving employees who are gay or lesbian to the jobs they have earned. Importantly, make sure that qualified gays and lesbians assume jobs that are central to the business to show that there are no barriers. This, in itself, will help influence the behaviour of employees who are resistant to changing their attitudes.
Don’t promote people who make homophobic remarks or jokes, are uncomfortable dealing with people who are gay or lesbian, or don’t treat them fairly in the workplace. This is not the thought police or a ban on free speech. You’re not asking people to change their religious or personal beliefs — just not to act on them while at work.
Ensure there is a credible and trusted process to resolve concerns of sexual orientation discrimination. It’s important to give employees several different avenues to raise concerns so that they will be able to choose someone they are comfortable with.
Include sexual orientation issues in your employee sensing mechanisms. If you have a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered) committee or taskforce, look to this group for input on policies and practices. Ensure that employee surveys or focus groups include items that probe the work experience and environment for GLBT employees.
Don’t stay in the closet. Include issues of particular concern to the GLBT community in the corporate donations program. Be visibly involved in events sponsored by the gay and lesbian community. These people are your customers and deserve your support.
At the end of the day, all companies need the best employees they can get. Organizations shouldn’t handicap themselves by having an environment that gay and lesbian employees won’t be attracted to or may not stay with.
Lynne Sullivan is president of Lynne Sullivan & Associates Inc., a human resource consulting firm specializing in diversity and employment equity. She can be reached at (416) 306-2243 or [email protected].
In the intervening years this has happened in all Canadian jurisdictions. While Alberta didn’t actually amend its human rights legislation, it did accept the judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Vriend decision. The court found that an Alberta teacher, who was fired because — and only because — he was gay, was a victim of discrimination.
Gay and lesbian Canadians have come a long way in the law. But have they come a long way in the workplace? Sadly, not as far as they need to in order to enjoy equal rights. Why do I say this? Consider the following real life anecdotes and experiences I have encountered in the course of my work:
•A young man in a manufacturing company is ostracized by his workmates because they thought he was gay. In fact, he is not gay. His colleagues walked out of the shower area when he entered, distanced themselves in the locker room and cafeteria, and defaced his locker.
•An executive found that information essential to doing his job was being withheld and criticisms of his job performance were making their way to the CEO. He finally realized the reason. An executive colleague who handled his recent relocation had found out that the second person involved in the real estate transaction for his new house was a man.
•A gay colleague was subjected to homophobic jokes while golfing with a client.
Convinced that there’s an invisible “pink ceiling” at work, a number of gay professionals and managers have started giving out this advice to gays and lesbians with career ambitions: stay in the closet until you get to the level you want to achieve.
Many gays and lesbians find themselves the object of mockery when they bring their same-sex partner to a company function — or worse still, dance with them.
Homophobia is the last “acceptable” bias. About one in three people doesn’t get the message that bigotry is unacceptable in the workplace. It is astonishing to me that, in a training group of between 15 and 25 people, one or more people will still make a homophobic remark. Apparently it hasn’t occurred to them that another participant, or another participant’s sibling, best friend or neighbour could be gay or lesbian.
We don’t know for sure what financial price gays and lesbians pay in the workplace for their sexual orientation. We will know more when the findings of a study on the career choices of gays and lesbians by Margaret Schneider of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education are published.
However, Schneider did confirm that the perception that gays and lesbians make more money than others is incorrect. People wrongly assume that gays and lesbians have more discretionary income to spend because they are less likely than others to have children. In fact, she points out, lesbian couples do particularly poorly because there is no one in the relationship “earning a man’s wage.”
So what can employers do to ensure gay and lesbian employees get a fair shake? Here are some ideas.
Be upfront with your policy on non-discrimination. If an employer’s values include diversity, make sure that the communication about the values states explicitly that sexual orientation is a dimension of diversity. Include sexual orientation in diversity and anti-harassment policies and include these policies in employee orientation. Make the organization’s position clear to new employees at the outset.
Ensure that the company benefits plan includes same-sex couples. This needs to extend not just to “traditional” benefits, such as life, health and pension, but also to relocation, incentive travel and conferences.
Train people, especially executives, managers and other key staff, such as human resource professionals. In my experience, getting heterosexuals to be open and accepting of different sexual orientations is much more difficult than getting people to deal with other differences such as gender, race, age and religion.
Many people have been taught by their religion that it is just wrong to be gay or lesbian — and especially wrong to have a same-sex relationship. These individuals believe that a being much higher than the HR vice-president or even the CEO has given them their marching orders. In other cases, people have been raised with values or cultural traditions that say that being gay or lesbian is wrong.
My tip: Do everything you can to make people aware of gay and lesbian issues, to educate them about your diversity strategy, your policies, the barriers faced by people who are gay and lesbian, and the company’s legal obligations to be fair and non-discriminatory. At the end of the day, however, you also simply have to decree that, regardless of one’s own beliefs and values, fairness and equal opportunity is what the company requires.
Show the organization is non-discriminatory by promoting deserving employees who are gay or lesbian to the jobs they have earned. Importantly, make sure that qualified gays and lesbians assume jobs that are central to the business to show that there are no barriers. This, in itself, will help influence the behaviour of employees who are resistant to changing their attitudes.
Don’t promote people who make homophobic remarks or jokes, are uncomfortable dealing with people who are gay or lesbian, or don’t treat them fairly in the workplace. This is not the thought police or a ban on free speech. You’re not asking people to change their religious or personal beliefs — just not to act on them while at work.
Ensure there is a credible and trusted process to resolve concerns of sexual orientation discrimination. It’s important to give employees several different avenues to raise concerns so that they will be able to choose someone they are comfortable with.
Include sexual orientation issues in your employee sensing mechanisms. If you have a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered) committee or taskforce, look to this group for input on policies and practices. Ensure that employee surveys or focus groups include items that probe the work experience and environment for GLBT employees.
Don’t stay in the closet. Include issues of particular concern to the GLBT community in the corporate donations program. Be visibly involved in events sponsored by the gay and lesbian community. These people are your customers and deserve your support.
At the end of the day, all companies need the best employees they can get. Organizations shouldn’t handicap themselves by having an environment that gay and lesbian employees won’t be attracted to or may not stay with.
Lynne Sullivan is president of Lynne Sullivan & Associates Inc., a human resource consulting firm specializing in diversity and employment equity. She can be reached at (416) 306-2243 or [email protected].
