Today’s world of work is constantly evolving with the development of new technologies, labour reforms, etc. It must constantly adapt to change. However, today some things are not evolving fast enough, such as the fight against discrimination in the workplace, and more particularly against sexual minorities.
Sexual orientation is understood to refer to an individual’s ability to experience deep emotional, and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relationships with, individuals of the opposite sex, the same sex or more than one sex. A person is considered to be a sexual minority when he or she has a sexual identity that differs from the majority in society. Today, societies are still very much marked by heteronormativity and heterosexism, for example, homosexuals or lesbians, will be considered a sexual minority.
Recent US studies have shown, for example, that among those surveyed, gay men earned 10-32% less than heterosexual men for similar jobs, 41% of LGBT people reported experiencing discrimination in employment. In a national survey targeting transgender people, it was reported that 44% had been refused employment, that of those who were employed, 50% had experienced harassment at work, and also that 23% had been refused promotion.
Thus, it can be seen from these figures that the mere fact of having a different sexual identity from the heterosexual norm has negative, even harmful consequences for these individuals. This differential treatment is therefore considered discrimination because these individuals will be treated differently because of their sexual orientation.
The big issue facing these minority populations is that both work and our sexual orientation are central to our identity. First of all, work is part of our daily lives, as it is an environment that we come into contact with a lot and in which we will have interactions. These interactions can bring mutual support to the work, or on the contrary cause conflicts and unequal treatment. However, at first sight, unlike the interactions in our personal sphere, the consideration of sexuality is not relevant. Sexual orientation is an integral part of our personality, it is as important as our gender or skin color.
The problem today is that it is difficult to prove that one has been discriminated against, as sexual orientation is invisible at first glance. Thus LGBT persons may try to hide their sexual orientation in order to avoid discrimination. Thus they will find themselves in a conflict of approach and avoidance between being themselves and hiding their sexual identity at work. They find themselves in a constant dilemma between asserting themselves or hiding, which impacts on their psychological wellbeing, and therefore on life satisfaction, self-esteem, positive attitude at work, etc. For example, a person who hides their sexual orientation will not be able to fully engage in their work, because of their differential status, they are faced with additional stressors.
In general, it was found that being discriminated against, but also having to “hide” one’s orientation, has an impact on the productivity of the company due to a decrease in job satisfaction and well-being of these people. But it also has an impact on the health of the individual, whether physical suffering through acts of violence, or mental suffering through jokes or insulting remarks in relation to their category.
Micro-aggressions and acts of ostracism can also be cited in addition to acts of discrimination. Micro-aggressions will refer to brief and subtle everyday behavioural or environmental provocations or insults, brief and banal, intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory or negative affronts and insults to members of oppressed groups. This will refer, for example, to the use of transphobic language or the insinuation that homosexuality is a disease. This will generate frustration, anger or alienation for these populations. Ostracism refers to being ignored or excluded, and being subjected to it on a regular basis will affect self-esteem, feeling socially devalued, to the point of feeling totally excluded from the company. This will lead to dissatisfaction with one’s work, reduced performance or even depression.
However, today there are different ways of coping with it and putting an end to it. The first is social support, which has been shown in numerous studies to significantly reduce the negative consequences of minority stress. Indeed, being in a LGBT-friendly work environment decreases the risk of discriminatory acts occurring, and allows the person to affirm his/her orientation freely, so he/she can create social links with colleagues and feel part of the company by being him/herself, with the support of colleagues, managers, etc.
From a more local perspective, it is up to companies to toughen up their internal policies by first communicating unambiguously to all employees that anti-LGBT prejudice is not acceptable in today’s society. This way LGBT communities will feel included and will not need to hide their orientation or gender, especially if these policies are accompanied by administrative sanctions. In order to prevent micro aggression from occurring we could start by defining them for example. Companies could also create departments or managers to implement and evaluate these policies, in order to demonstrate the company’s real investment in ending this kind of discrimination.
Finally, diversity training would be relevant to prevent discrimination in the workplace and to provide employees of all characteristics with an inclusive and beneficial working environment. This could be done through role-playing, which would allow employees to put themselves in the shoes of the victims, but also to offer solutions to encourage acceptance and celebration of diverse sexual and gender identities, rather than ignoring them.
To conclude this article, we can see that discrimination based on sexual orientation does exist, that it is perceived and that there are solutions to remedy it. It is up to you to take matters into your own hands and set an example.
Ferré Quentin
Sources:
DeSouza, E. R., Wesselmann, E. D., & Ispas, D. (2017). Workplace Discrimination against Sexual Minorities : Subtle and not-so-subtle: Workplace Discrimination against Sexual Minorities: Subtle and not-so-subtle. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences / Revue Canadienne Des Sciences de l’Administration, 34(2), 121‑132. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1438
Steffens, M. C., Niedlich, C., & Ehrke, F. (2016). Discrimination at Work on the Basis of Sexual Orientation : Subjective Experience, Experimental Evidence, and Interventions. In T. Köllen (Éd.), Sexual Orientation and Transgender Issues in Organizations (p. 367‑388). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29623-4_22