Being Out And Happy At Work

Should you come out at work? Is it important to you for your coworkers to know who you are? The first step to being out and proud is to be your authentic self, wherever you are. Taking steps towards living a positive, authentic life will help with your overall happiness. There are all kinds of people in this world and you never know how people may react, their beliefs or their own closeted sexuality! One thing is for sure when you come out you will have a roller coaster of emotions, but what you have to realize is so will your fellow coworkers.

You may have mixed emotions at first and that’s OK. Asking yourself questions like: Is this the right thing to do? Will it jeopardize my current position? Am I going to be constantly afraid of slipping up about my partner? You may also ask yourself do I really need the drama, the attention or questions? This is the roller coaster of emotions I was talking about.

What you ultimately have to remember is that being true to who you are and being unapologetically you is a space where you will feel the most breathing room. I know that when I came out at my new job I felt awkward for the first month but didn’t really notice a change in any of my coworkers. Surprisingly I noticed that most of my straight male coworkers were accepting and in a few cases where they weren’t all too comfortable with me they just didn’t say anything or interact with me much. I later found out there were other LGBT people at my work. Coming out at a new job can be especially stressful, making first impressions and looking to make friends at work. You can always speak to a manager or HR rep if you are having any issues.

Here are some pros to being out and happy at work

• You won’t have the stress of living in the closet
• You may create new / better relationships with coworkers based on honesty
• You can stop worrying about using the correct pronouns
• You can talk about your relationship

You can do your homework first by finding out if your work has a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. If you are being discriminated against check out this link about Employment Non-Discrimination Act here. Also check out the series called Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights here.