If it feels like your work environment will not be a safe space to come out, you may want to speak to someone in human resources or an equity, diversity and inclusion role.Content from The Globe’s weekly Women and Work newsletter, part of The Globe’s Women’s Collective. To subscribe, clickQuestion: I’d like to come out at work, but I’m not sure that everyone in my office will respond positively about it. I work in a conservative industry and I don’t know of any other LGBTQ+ people on my team.
If you feel like it won’t be a safe space, my advice is always to speak to someone in human resources or an equity, diversity and inclusion role. Also, is there a 2SLGBTQ+ employee resource group in that company? Sometimes there is not because it’s a small company, but there is always someone who manages staff and who can inform you about their policies.
If you are in the closet, you may have to lie about what you did over the weekend, about your partner or getting married or having children. Then you are not concentrating any more. At the end of the day, you want to be authentic. When you’re authentic, you’re focused, you’re productive and you want to go to work. Corporations lose talent because of mental health. Somebody who is not focused or productive won’t succeed and won’t do their numbers. They’re always going to feel ‘less than.
To succeed, she says you must understand you are fighting your brain. It fears the unknown. It only has so much energy to handle the many tasks and obligations you face each day. “When you’re thinking about doing anything new, you are forcing your brain to use more energy than it normally does. In other words, your brain hates new things,” she writes in The 6% Club.If you’ve been on TikTok in the past month, you’ve likely heard it.
“However, as health professionals, we see downsides to the workaholic boss. While working excessively may seem like a win for their employers, it usually isn’t. When we dig into the psychology of what drives hard-charging executives, we see they derive significant satisfaction through work – they enjoy the achievement, positive feedback, recognition, promotions and, yes, money. But this situation is like a one-legged stool.