It is of great importance in today’s working world that employers rededicate themselves to creating a more inclusive workplace — especially for trangender and nonbinary employees.
Forty-seven percent of transgender employees experienced at least some discriminatory behavior on a daily basis at work — such as being the target of transphobic remarks, being ignored or being pressured to act in “traditionally gendered” ways, according to a 2019 survey conducted by The Harvard Business Review.
Oftentimes, the bulk of the issues
“They’ll say if your driver's license isn't changed [they] don't have to call you by that name,” he says. “Or, the employer ‘liked them better’ the other way so they’re just going to keep going with who they were and not really realizing that it's not their decision to make about those things.”
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Some of the largest pain points companies fail to address are policy driven — such as
“Many places of employment assume if they don't know about transgender or non-binary employees, they must not exist in the workplace — this is highly inaccurate as there is no way to ‘look transgender,’” he says.
As a transgender man navigating a corporate setting himself, Bartel says he has experienced both unhealthy and oppressive workplaces, as well as collaborative and supportive environments, which he says made up the bulk of his experience.
“I'm thankful that most people were supportive,” he says. “But I did have some
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The landscape for trans employees has changed significantly and continues to change drastically, according to Bartel. One of the largest changes being greater dialogue about transgender individuals, which is now open for discussion in many places of employment.
“Transgender individuals are now being acknowledged as existing versus in the past where there was little or no dialogue,” he says. “There is more and more awareness; but there is still a lot of improvement to be made.”
Dr. Bartel shared a few ways employers can make work spaces safer and more inclusive for their trans employees.
What are some specific things employers can do to better serve trans employees?
Changing resources and policies. A lot of transgender individuals do not use their legal birth name, they prefer another name and a lot of workplace documents don't necessarily have a basis or an area for them to note that. So, often people assume what their name is and they're called by the wrong name and wrong pronouns.
Also, do you have appropriate accommodations in your office locations that offer gender neutral restroom options or changing rooms? And if you don't have the ability to have gender neutral restrooms, do you have products [in gendered restrooms] for everyone? Something that gets missed a lot is that some transgender men have menstrual cycles, so if they're using a men's restroom they may not have access to some products that they may need. Those are just little things that get left out that other people wouldn't think about but that can be really big and important to somebody in the community.
What part of LGBTQ inclusivity often gets overlooked by employers trying to make change?
A lot of companies are doing a really wonderful job, but there's still little pieces that get left out here and there. This concept of inclusivity is really wonderful, we have these diversity, equity and inclusion committees and a lot of major companies are putting [queer] people in charge. But outside of warm bodies to fix meeting [inclusivity] numbers and outside of the non-discrimination statements that you see, we find that a lot of companies aren't truly including these individuals. Just because you're not excluding somebody doesn't mean that you're necessarily including them either. So, do your policies reflect those of the community? Do you have resources available specifically for the needs of that community? It extends outside of just having people on staff who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — are you really making sure that their needs are met?
Are there pandemic-specific stressors that employers should also be considering in their return-to-work strategies to better support their LGBTQ staff?
One of the biggest concerns that's come up is people being fearful about navigating coworkers. Maybe they've had difficulties in the past due to lack of support and when you're working remotely or from home it's a little bit easier to avoid people. I have a lot of people that are really fearful and just want to know how to best effectively communicate with people around them who maybe don't have the same level of comfort with the LGBTQ community, or aren't supportive and maybe have said really hurtful things in the past.
Making sure as a company that you really have policies lined up and in place about where you stand on [issues such as] the use of pronouns and using someone's affirmed name. What are you doing outside of just pride month to make sure that you're supportive of [queer employees]? Do you have resources out and available in the office — whether it be brochures, magazines, flags or stickers? Do you have things that show this is who we are and we're supportive of you? Because most LGBTQ employees, they look for those signs and signals.
