Mental health articles

The Link between Sexual Orientation and Performance When managers send signals or messages that it is not okay to be gay in the workplace, whether intentionally or not, they negatively impact work performance. Negative messages or signals force many employees to hide their sexual identity. This hiding takes a tremendous amount of psychological and physical energy. These employees divert their energies away from work performance to protect themselves by covering up facts, keeping low profiles, lying, changing pronouns, and so forth. When people feel exsear cluded, as sexual minorities often do, they are much less inclined to devote energy toward making the organization successful. Powers and Ellis (1995) believe that although everyone possesses some homophobia, most managers are not blatantly homophobic. However, they have found that managers usually lack the skills, knowledge, and resources to treat all employees fairly, and so tend to ignore issues and situations about which they are ignorant or uncomfortable. Powers relates the following all-too-common anecdotes: For years, I have consulted with a small group at one of America’s largest firms. It is a group that celebrates weddings, birthdays, anniversary, engagements and other similar events. It operates in a very collegial fashion. I do not believe there are many people in this group with a blatantly homophobic bone in their body. Yet, 6 months ago, the group hired a new staff member. He is a 30-year-old man who has a rainbow flag on his computer. He has been in a loving relationship for 4 years. Yet in this highly social organization, not one person has asked him about his personal life, inquired whether he might be in a relationship, or even remotely broached the subject of his sexual orientation. Neither he nor I believe this stems from homophobia as much as it does from simply not knowing how to talk about these things in a way that does not embarrass him or the person asking. I also believe that if someone were to ask, “What is it like to be a gay man in this group?” or “Are you in a relationship?” or any of hundreds of other questions that would open up discussion in this area, he would be delighted to respond and their working relationship would be strengthened. But people are afraid, and not just about gay issues. The fear is about differences. I recently attended a professional conference of an organization dedicated to improving work performance. At the opening event, I spotted, among two thousand participants, a very striking woman. Probably in her mid-forties, she was dressed professionally, and she had bright purple hair. I immediately walked over to her and said, “You have purple hair, what’s it like?” She beamed and proceeded to tell me how much she enjoyed it. She also said most people in the business world acted as if she didn’t have purple hair. We both laughed at the extent of people’s denial. I discovered that she was a highly successful management consultant from London, England. The next day, I addressed a group of 150 or so people and I asked, “How many of you saw the woman with purple hair at the reception last night?” Every hand went up. I then asked, “How many of you were curious about her?” Again, every hand went up. I then asked, “How many of you talked to her?” Not a single hand was raised. When asked why, they all basically said the same thing—they were afraid they might embarrass her or themselves, so they did nothing. (Powers & Ellis, 1995, pp. 8–9) Powers and Ellis (1995) go on to say that the fear of saying or doing the wrong thing is often paralyzing. Work relationships and productivity will continue to suffer until the issues of sexual orientation and other matters of diversity are openly addressed.
Consultants can help facilitate such communication within organizations.