http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/23/magazines/fortune/transgender_workplace.fortune/index.htm
The aftermath of his sex change . . .
“Rose kept her job as a technology manager. But she didn't get asked out to lunch much, and she was left out of the office football pool. "It was obvious that they weren't comfortable around me," she says, "and I wasn't comfortable with them not being comfortable around me." Before long, she quit.”
To be honest, I don’t know how I would personally react in this situation. While the liberal and open-minded side of me screams to react like it’s normal, or no big deal, it would be a big deal!!!! I would have no problem with the fact the my co-worker got a sex change, I would just feel like there would be this huge elephant in the room that everyone, including myself, would be wary to talk about.
Knowing me, if I knew them well enough, I would ask questions about the actual sex change, the process leading up to it, how they feel now, do they feel normal now? But I would do so at first very cautiously, I wouldn’t want to be nosy, or accidentally insult them, or make them uncomfortable.
Johnson talks about these situations, and how companies and corporations make efforts to develop programs that help teach people how to be accepting of diversity in the workplace in order to create a comfortable work environment. Many programs fail because they only deal with a crisis when it occurs, and then forget about it when the issues of privilege and oppression seem to have been dealt with.
When I think of corporations and big business, the feeling that comes to mind is how by the book and important being appropriate in the workplace is. This in mind, it’s hard for me to imagine a workplace in one of these companies that would be so laid back, and still politically correct, and yet deal with the issues of diversity, race, and sexual orientation in such a way as to not step on peoples toes, or accidentally go over the line, or insult someone.
I think many business’s see this and think How Can it be Done? And personally, I don’t blame them. Being able to address such touchy subjects in the context of a company sounds destined to create trouble.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I agree with you that it is indeed difficult to know what to say or do under such circumstances. Nobody really knows how comfortable a person is in talking about their decisions, such as a sex change, and that lack of knowledge prevents us from being comfortable in conversation. However, based on the introductory quote and my own experience with oppressed and generally uncomfortable people who have made changes that may be viewed differently or with discomfort, I think it is easy to see what people ultimately want: acceptance. This woman in the intro is not asking anyone to act in any different way than they did before, rather, she desires people to still converse and socialize with her as before. Is it so hard to socialize with someone merely because they have changed something about themselves such as their gender? Clearly, everyone will know what's not being talked about, but that does not limit people from general work-comfortable conversation. I believe that few references to gender or sex-change actually come up during at-work conversation, so I don't see why conversation can't continue, albeit a little less comfortable due to what's not being said. Regardless, this person wants to be treated as human and her operation has little to do with work or her relations with work and she should be accepted as much as she did before. The only reason I can thing of for a change in social interaction is if her previous social interaction was based off of a sexual intent. In friendly interaction, this should not be a big deal. (264)
Post a Comment