I am about to come out - how do I know my employer's position on Transitioning?

[Cecilia]

Hi.  I have not had a ton of success "googling" this.  Can anyone tell me if my company supports having transgender employees?  My company is Dell Technologies. It used to be called Dell EMC.   Thanks!   On the Dell website we have these things called "employee resource groups".  Under the "Pride" category I subscribed to the few for North America and asked that question;  but nobody wrote back.  And maybe I am a worry wart;  but even though Dell Technologies is now 140,000 employees there were only about 200 people in each Pride group. 

[SugarMagnolia]

Hi Cecilia,
It looks to me like you're at a company that has good high-level official support for diversity including gender diversity. A few resources I found are listed below. Perhaps you found the same one, but everyone searches a little differently so I thought I'd share what I found. I hope this helps somewhat. Of course, the biggest issue is how your workgroup and manager will react, but it sounds like you have good support for escalating up the chain if your direct colleagues are problematic.
 

• Main Diversity page: https://www.emc.com/campaign/diversity-inclusion/diversity-inclusion.htm
• Diversity Annual Report (see page 29 for shared coming out transgender story): https://www.emc.com/collateral/about/16-gvc-emc-annualreport-full-print-medres.pdf
• Inclusion (includes description of training to help eliminate implicit bias: https://www.emc.com/corporate/sustainability/workforce/global-inclusion.htm
• Great ratings on the Corporate Equality Index and health plans that cover transgender issues: http://www.hrc.org/resources/corporate-equality-index-list-of-businesses-with-transgender-inclusive-heal

Best of luck!
~Julie

[VickySGV]

I would use the HRC rating as your first line of attack as SugarMagnolia suggested. 

8 hours ago, SugarMagnolia said:

Great ratings on the Corporate Equality Index and health plans that cover transgender issues: http://www.hrc.org/resources/corporate-equality-index-list-of-businesses-with-transgender-inclusive-heal

 

[MarcieMarie12]

Things to look for in your employee handbook are mentions of sexual orientation or gender identity in the non-discrimination section. It also is dependent on the culture of the office or department your in regardless of the employee hand book. In my case the non-discrimination clause was a blanket ones that was vague. But the culture was one that made it the least likely places I'd have issues with transitioning. Did I worry, sure. Was the worry unfounded, yes. In the end I sent HR some sample non-discrimination policies at companies like Apple that included gender identity. This was used as the basis for our new one.

[Briana]

18 hours ago, Cecilia said:

Dell Technologies is now 140,000 employees there were only about 200 people in each Pride group. 

Hi Cecilia, that's not too surprising.  Most people tend to way overestimate the number of LGBT people in the overall population. i.e. We think that there are more than there are. That you have those groups within your organization is a good thing, I think.  And you have to remember that not everyone that falls under that LGBT umbrella participates in support or activist groups, especially at or through work.

In the past, I had a lot of contact with a few groups of Dell employees (health and wellness side...).  Most described it as a progressive and good company with lots of opportunity. Julie and Marcie laid out some good info there above regarding Dell.  Where it can get difficult is within your individual work group.  Bad coworkers/bad managers can make your life pretty darn miserable all the while avoiding getting in trouble for discrimination/harassment/hostile workplace/retaliation etc.  But in the end, like Marcie said, most of our worries go unfounded.

[Cecilia]

On 6/11/2017 at 4:11 PM, SugarMagnolia said:

Hi Cecilia,
It looks to me like you're at a company that has good high-level official support for diversity including gender diversity. A few resources I found are listed below. Perhaps you found the same one, but everyone searches a little differently so I thought I'd share what I found. I hope this helps somewhat. Of course, the biggest issue is how your workgroup and manager will react, but it sounds like you have good support for escalating up the chain if your direct colleagues are problematic.
 

• Main Diversity page: https://www.emc.com/campaign/diversity-inclusion/diversity-inclusion.htm
• Diversity Annual Report (see page 29 for shared coming out transgender story): https://www.emc.com/collateral/about/16-gvc-emc-annualreport-full-print-medres.pdf
• Inclusion (includes description of training to help eliminate implicit bias: https://www.emc.com/corporate/sustainability/workforce/global-inclusion.htm
• Great ratings on the Corporate Equality Index and health plans that cover transgender issues: http://www.hrc.org/resources/corporate-equality-index-list-of-businesses-with-transgender-inclusive-heal

Best of luck!
~Julie

Hi Julie.  Thanks for the links!  I posted in the employee resource group and a VP in HR called me today after reading my post.  Turns out she leads one of the Pride chapters.  She sent me the Dell Transgender Toolkit.  They really end up being very thorough.  Seems Dell is a leader in LBGTQ awareness and support.  Today is such a happy day!  OMG!

[SugarMagnolia]

That's fantastic news, Cecilia. Best of luck and please keep us posted on how things are going!