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My Role:
I am an engineer and started my career in product engineering. In my career at
Symantec, I started the LGBT ERG in 2016 as I felt there is a need for
employers to show visible support to their LGBT employees. And as an out gay
person it was more important for me to have an inclusive workplace. This
journey lead me to talk about workplace inclusion not just for me but for
everyone.
Advancing
In Your Career:
Being a visible gay person in IT made me
realize that there aren't a lot of out folks there. This also meant that I
didn't have a role model to look up to. This realization made me keep pushing
the envelope for LGBT inclusion. My involvement within my organization and
speaking in international conferences provided me opportunity to meet other
people who are in Diversity & Inclusion. At that time since there weren't
many organizations that spoke about LGBT inclusion, there was a lack of
resource or best practices that a workplace could follow. I started sharing the
best practice we do in the conferences. This gay job of mine started the
curiosity to learn more about Diversity & Inclusion in workplace. I started
to get involved in exploring policies and benefits that needs to be changed for
an organization to be more inclusive. Eventually I realized I have more to
achieve in the field of Diversity & Inclusion and I have a natural knack of
understanding of communities and people. My experience in the grass root
activism in the queer movement and my experience in the corporate world
provided me the unique understanding of what would be a holistic path towards
inclusion.
Challenges Faced:
Being a marginalized community isn't easy. Everyone and everything around me
alienated me. And discrimination isn't always direct and on the face. At times
it is easy to spot and deal with direct harassment (that doesn't mean it is
good) but dealing with micro aggression and people's bias is the difficult
one. Also, many times I realized that people just saw me as a gay man and my
skills took a back seat. It becomes tough to deal with such unconscious bias
when I am reduced to my identity in the workplace. My real-life experiences and
my knowledge from the ground helped me address the issues. Being a D&I
leader, I was able to create trainings for workplaces that helps change
workplace culture and address such issues.
Advice:
Do not stay silent. Speak up. When we speak up, biased folks do not have an answer. If you are not an out person look out for folks within and outside the organization who can help you navigate the place.
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