Is it reasonable to ask how the company is to trans folks?

Question

I'm soon to be a college grad, and starting to get job offers. I'm transgender and will be transitioning when I start working. This transition will be obvious. My body and appearance will become increasingly feminine over a matter of months. At some point, I will officially change my name.

My current plan takes me into an industry that isn't great to trans folks on the whole. I want to work in this industry because I love it and I am good at it. I'm trying to decide whether to bring this up before signing on. I have considered the following options:

• Absolutely mention it: My reasoning is if I do mention it and they're not okay with it, it's better to know upfront before I have signed up for my first job with an unsupportive or hostile group.

• Don't mention it: In my state, it's against the law to discriminate based on transgender identity. They're not legally permitted to signal any bias. In the best case, they do nothing with the information and it makes no difference. In the worst case, they might feel they've made a mistake. Hence, my reasoning is I should not share information that will only hurt me.

• Talk to my recruiter after I receive an offer: The advantage is I'm gambling on only one person. I don't need to communicate it to the entire team, so it is less likely to spread. I might be able to ask for a personal opinion, with a little less professional overhead.

When is the appropriate time to reveal my trans status in the hiring process?

Answer 1

Congratulations on pretty much everything about this!

You may be able to find some kind of employee resource group to reach out to. You could ask if there's any sort of LGBT group, and ask them the actual questions. That does mean sort of vaguely outing yourself, but then you can save the trans-specific questions for the folks you hopefully get referred to. If the company is too small there may be no such group (or not a formal enough one for your contacts to be aware of), but then it's hard to generalize about culture anyways. You might also be able to work toward good contacts for this by asking about things like organized volunteering.

(I know where I work this would be incredibly helpful - there's a great group, and there'd be plenty of people willing to talk to a prospective new employee.)

Failing that, my next inclination would be to try to get a one on one chat with your hiring manager (or maybe someone from the team you'd join), and try to gauge their attitudes. If it's a sufficiently friendly, social chat, you don't necessarily have to out yourself for that; you may be able to work your way into it, e.g. by mentioning a current event, a volunteering experience, or a trans friend or someone you admire. If it's in person and you're comfortable with it at this point, you could also just present a bit feminine and try to gauge reactions.

This is definitely more difficult, of course, because you ideally want to get a lot of information out of gauging attitudes. If it seems positive initially , you may want to progress to more specific questions and try to pin things down. The difference between token and genuine support is generally quite obvious - the former will come with few specifics and often some non sequiturs or flat out mistakes - but the more you ask the more you know! Still, I would try to avoid giving too much personal detail, because while it may be obvious down the line anyway, it's nice to retain that option to let things remain unsaid. For example, I'd ask about gender neutral restrooms, but not say anything about what restrooms I intend to use at what point in my process.

You may also be able to ask about some official policies without revealing anything, for example by asking to see the employee handbook, or health insurance policies. This unfortunately will only be able to tell you things at a very impersonal level, though; there's a big difference between policies on paper and day-to-day behavior.

If it's sufficiently feasible, you could try to do all of the above: learn about the overall company, others' experiences there, and the team you're joining. In the end you'll care about it all: the overall company can provide structural support (restrooms, insurance) while the people you see daily are the ones who can have the most direct impact. And there can be a lot of variation across a company, so an overall good place can have both welcoming and unwelcoming teams.

Overall, in terms of whether to ask, my personal advice would be to err on the side of caution and try to get whatever information you can up front. If the people you'll be working with are kind and understanding about these things, it can make your life immensely better, and if they're the opposite, it can make you miserable enough to leave your job. It is absolutely worth finding a good fit. My team has been solid and my manager has been incredible (thank you thank you!) and I can't imagine doing everything I've done without that support. (You could try to accomplish this by just promising yourself that you'll just leave if it's not working for you, but that sounds much more difficult to me both in terms of emotional burden and job-hunting.)

Ideally I would do all of this once you actually have an offer. Partially that's just to avoid spending time and energy before you know, but it's also about protecting yourself against possible bias from whoever you're talking to. Of course if the whole company has bad attitudes then missing an offer would be no big loss, but it'd be a shame to miss out because of one person.

Answer 2

Having transitioned on the job myself, I know how nerve wracking this is. I know that some of the suggestions in this post may be duplicated from other posters (Cascabel already mentioned ERGs, and hairboat already mentioned waiting for an in-paper offer), but I have put far too much thought into for the "if I could do it again" scenario.

When I transitioned I waited until after I had been an employee for a month to approach my manager about transition. My company was large enough that they had an "Equal Opportunity" office (the company you end up with may have a similarly named office or not). I contacted this office (Anonymously at first, I think), and they helped me through disclosing to my manager (in a face to face), and the rest of my team (during a bi-monthly staff meeting).

While waiting until after you start is an option, you may incidentally lock yourself into a position which is not amicable to you transitioning. In that case you can still search for another job. But you might want to save yourself the trouble by inquiring before you accept the position. You could ask before your interview, but you may invite "silent discrimination". I've heard of far too many trans people getting "passed over by every company they apply to", and even being laughed out of an interview because they did not pass. The most I would do before an interview, if anything at all, is inquire about the company's Employee resource groups or diversity stats or policies. Large companies may even have ERGs listed on their public website (albeit harder to find if you're not a current employee).

I think that waiting until you have an offer letter in hand, is the better time to inquire directly. Whether it is as overt as "how well would I integrate into your team if I were to transition from blah to blah?" (Insert specifics), or "How inclusive is your company of LGBTQ+ people?", would have to depend on the situation you are in. The answer to these questions may even help you decide between two companies which have offered positions, if you end up in such a situation.

Ideally, each employer is looking for the best fit candidate, and should treat you as a professional of whichever field you are entering. Don't let a company treat you as anything less than that.

Answer 3

I've been supporting someone close to me in her transition for the past year. The work side of things has been challenging, to say the least. Managers and colleagues have for the most part wanted to be supportive, but most people are frankly clueless about the trans experience. I think unless you've been through it on a very personal level, there are so many things you just don't understand.

I would not mention it before you need to unless you are going to need special considerations early on in the position (for example flexible hours to undergo treatments). Certainly not before you have any sort of offer. Even if potential employers aren't technically allowed to discriminate based on that sort of thing and even if they are relatively nice people who would befriend a trans person without hesitation, it will colour their view of you as a potential employee and they will easily justify their not wanting to employ you in some other way. If they are not personally acquainted with any trans people, their understanding of it is likely to be informed by the antics of the loudest trans activists, some of whom are frankly bigots or troublemakers. They may think you will be the same and therefore not a good fit for the company.

My friend had one coworker she was friends with outside of work worrying that she would transition into a humourless activist when she first came out to him. This person was no ultra-conservative whining about political correctness, quite the reverse, but all he knew about trans people was from the most aggressive ones he'd met and so he had a wrong impression of all trans people. Unfair perhaps but I think it's not uncommon. Even if people don't have that misconception, if they don't know you well (or even if they do!) they tend to be nervous about even acknowledging you are trans in case that offends. Whatever else happens, I think you will do better in your employment quest and in your new job if people know you as something other than 'the trans person' straight off. If they see you are a good worker and are on good terms with you they will be less likely to be too afraid of causing offence to have anything to do with you once your transition is something you must share with them.

Further to someone else's suggestion of trying to feel out any LGBTI groups within the organisation, you could ask if there is any diversity training you might be expected to do in the new position. The most anyone should assume from this is that you are gay yourself or an interested ally, neither of which is particularly scandalous these days. If there is no training this could be a red flag. There was none at my friend's job and she has had to fight management to get training going because it really does make a difference. If you know who the company is at this point (I know some organisations operating through recruiters can be a bit mysterious) then you could try to find their website and see if they have any documents outlining diversity policies. You can't necessarily believe that anything you read there actually represents on-the-ground attitudes and behaviour, but if you see they are actively trying to, say, support women in management positions (and not just saying that they should while their board remains 100% male), it's a good sign that there will be people there on your side.

This is only just relevant to your question in that it may inform your attitude towards the position but I feel I need to say it either way: if your transition progresses to the point where you can pass almost all of the time (which is easier than a lot of people think), you may then find you want/need to move to a new job where people don't know about your trans history. My friend did not intend to change jobs, but has changed her mind after this past year. It is incredibly hard to transition and keep the job you had at the time. You will probably want to be treated like any other woman, but people find it hard to do that if they knew your prior identity. My friend isn't one of the guys any more, and has lost some good friendships in large degree, but the women at her company don't properly accept her as one of them either. It's sad but you can't do anything about it at that point. Your coworkers may just never be willing to let go of the image of you as a guy who is doing something really weird. They might think they're "supportive" and that's enough.

At the same time (and this is what's really weird), most people will subsconsciously react to you as female even if knowing you are trans they don't want to treat you as one of the women. Be prepared to experience all the worst aspects of being a working woman - especially if your chosen field is male-dominated. Guys might talk over you or disregard your good ideas or patronise you. You may feel like you suddenly have to work harder to be seen as doing a good job. Some of your male co-workers might find you attractive the first time they see you in clothing that makes the most of your new curves, and this may make them very obviously uncomfortable!

Maybe you won't have these experiences with your set of coworkers, but it's pretty difficult to know until you're actually in the job and you see what happens. I live in a pretty progressive town and I can tell you for a fact that many people say 'LGBTI' without hesitation but so few of them have any clue about trans people. So I guess the point I want to make here is that it's good to be open to just seeing how this job goes, and that you should consider withholding certain information initially as the best thing you can do in an awkward situation to give yourself a chance to succeed.

Answer 4

It sounds like a reasonable thing to ask but I'd expect they're only going to tell you what you want to hear. Remember as much as you're selling yourself in the interview, they're also selling the job to you. They have a somewhat vested interest to lie emphasise the positive aspects. "Of course we're accepting of transgender people" - no reasonable professional person would say anything else, regardless of their personal feelings.

Perhaps the best way to get the answer you're looking for is to ask them to show, don't tell. "What support do you have available to LGBT staff? What's your policy on discrimination or workplace bullying?". These are questions with concrete answers. You can't BS your way through them.

As with a lot of aspects of a new job, it can unfortunately be difficult to get a true sense of the place until you're actually there. I don't think it applies to you, but you should always try to use any contacts you may have within the company to get an unbiased opinion - a friend, a friend-of-a-friend, an ex-colleague. If there's no one like that, you just have to try your best to get a feel for the company. Perhaps a start-up is more likely to have a younger, more liberal, more progressive view of your gender identity. Perhaps a larger, more corporate place may have more structured support available.

Good luck at the new place and with your transition. I hope it all works out well.

Answer 5

Many companies, state clearly that they welcome trans people if they are sincere. That is your clearest indicator. While companies cannot outright discriminate, they find other reasons to get rid of you.

People with disabilities often face similar problems. For example, a friend of mine has MS. He wasn't fired for having MS, but of course, that was the real reason, just not the one that was put down on paper. Company policies can be deliberately vague or difficult to follow for this very reason.

Look for transgender resources and lists for trans-friendly employers and trust those resources over any claims a company may make. Look for any negative reviews online for a company.

I agree with your reasoning for wanting to know up front, as I made that mistake once, and it turned out that the environment was hostile towards autistics and I even got pestered for calling in a flickering light.

It is better knowing going in than to have them fire you later "for cause", and they WILL find cause.

That said. Once you find a list of friendly companies, use your best judgment. Some employers are actually eager to welcome trans people on board, some are friendly to the idea and it doesn't really matter when you let them know.

This is why you research, research, and then research again. See if you can network with anyone in the target companies, and if you use a recruiter, ask them when they think a good time to come forward would be.

Good luck in your search.

Answer 6

Don't Ask Someone If There Is Only One Answer They Can Give

It's very difficult to ask this kind of question of companies and a) trust they're going to tell you the truth and not just give a well meaning/CYA "sure, no problem..." that doesn't reflect reality and b) ensure they're not going to somehow use this against you in the hiring process. It's illegal to answer this with "no, you won't be supported, get thee hence" so only the truly unprofessional would give you any useful information at all as an answer.

Ask Someone Who Can Answer Honestly

The best tack is to speak to someone who has left the company in question. Ideally someone LGBTQ+, or at least an ally. You can often find folks like that via LinkedIn or other social media or Google searching, looking for profile flags, affiliation with groups like HRC, and so on. Or failing that, just someone who is a friend or relation or connected to someone who is. "Were there any trans people there? What did people say about them? How were they treated?"

Other general company research on Glassdoor and Google and similar can reveal information about whether diversity is really valued there or whether people have experienced issues around it. (Make sure and look at people you've talked to in the process and their connections.) Most industries have affiliated LGBTQ groups/associations that might have guidance as well.

Here's an example; let's say we're talking about the transportation industry and you're looking at FedEx as an employer. 10 minutes of quick searching indicates their public D&I stance, HRC gave them a "Top LGBTQ Places to Work" award, there's a bunch of diversity related reviews on Glassdoor (and by a bunch I mean 7000), and that everyone there has to take mandatory LGBTQ training (I won't link this one because all the hits are from hate sites complaining about it), and looking on LinkedIn immediately brings up Skip Howard, "Chairman, LGBT & Friends Network At FedEx".

In other words, do the research first so that you're not telling your interviewer about your plans simply in order to figure out if the company supports trans folks or not.

Then Ask With A Purpose

Then, knowing the company's likely stance, you have to ask yourself, why do I want to ask, and what's the best way and time to ask to get the outcome I am looking for?

You can choose not to discuss it during the hiring process at all, which is your right. Do your job for a while and then mention it to your manager as transition starts so he can manage any employee issues.

If you really want to try to dig deeper into the company/your workgroup's attitudes even after research, I would reveal and discuss it only once you have an offer in hand. There is no upside in doing it earlier than the offer phase, and even "saving time interviewing if it's not going to pay off" isn't a benefit for a new college grad, every interview process is needed practice for you.

In this case, I'd ask the HR person specifically, and use a behavioral question like "Can you tell me about a recent time a transgender or other LGBT person needed support at the company, and what HR did to support them?" Or if you are looking for the finer grained attitude of your specific team, ask the manager "I'm transgender and will be transitioning to female in a couple months - I'm looking for an honest opinion on whether that'll be a problem for the team or not?" It will be very difficult to understand whether the answer you get is honest or not, but anything more moderate than "I will absolutely support you and not tolerate any problems from anyone on the team about it" probably means "eh, you're on your own there."

The manager and/or HR person may or may not know the "right terms" and all that, but that's not really all that relevant - it's like saying "I'm from foreign country X" and them not knowing the capital of your origin country and you using that to conclude they'll discriminate against immigrants. I'd only worry about this if you are only going to settle for an extremely welcoming environment where you "don't have to teach everyone about it," which is fine but I venture to say is a pretty small subset of overall companies at this point.

Answer 7

Just a tactical suggestion: Don't ask about the company’s attitude, but tell what you plan to do and let them react to it. The first sounds like criticism. It sounds like you’re asking because you expect something substandard. Or you might be some social justice warrior who is going to cause trouble. When you tell your plans, it sounds a lot more reasonable, and it is not about abstract policies but about a person.

And many companies have no experience with the subject and have no attitude at all. Asking about something they have never thought about isn’t going to get a good answer. Coming out with your plans will more likely tell you what to expect.

Answer 8

Absolutely mention it: My reasoning is if I do mention it and they're not okay with it, it's better to know upfront before I have signed up for my first job with an unsupportive or hostile group.

This is a bad plan.

The only reason it is a bad plan is because the one scenario that gives you actionable information won't happen. The employer won't tell you "avoid us, we routinely discriminate and harass transgender people" as if they said such words, they'd open themselves up to public ill will and legal liability.

Don't mention it: In my state, it's against the law to discriminate based on transgender identity. They're not legally permitted to signal any bias. In the best case, they do nothing with the information and it makes no difference. In the worst case, they might feel they've made a mistake. Hence, my reasoning is I should not share information that will only hurt me.

This is a safer path.

The company likely has a mandatory training for race / sex / creed / gender tolerance, and while having a "don't talk about it" policy isn't full acceptance, it's a heck of a lot better than "be forced into a conversation" where the outcome of that conversation can create real damage to people's employment.

You also can't be called out for making your gender an issue. Let someone else make the first move, as then you have more options in deciding how to respond.

Talk to my recruiter after I receive an offer: The advantage is I'm gambling on only one person. I don't need to communicate it to the entire team, so it is less likely to spread. I might be able to ask for a personal opinion, with a little less professional overhead.

I don't think this plan is a good one.

Most recruiters (or at least their companies) are literally paid based on your accepting the position. Perhaps you will have that rare recruiter that doesn't care if they get paid for the effort that's spanned the last few months. What would you do if you were a recruiter paid on contingency and were asked the questions you want to ask?

Answer 9

Some people have given good answers for when you are applying to mid-to-large sized companies, so I'll give some input in case you are interviewing for a position in a small company.

First, there's hardly space for "diversity" in a small company. The sample size is just too small to be "diverse". Trans people accounted for 0.6% of U.S. adults. So, a company with 20 people selected at random from US adults has 88.6% chance of having no trans people there. And possibly many of the people working there have no close relationships with trans people. That being said, for the same company, there is a 60% chance that there would be some LGBT person in it. The chance for LGBT falls to 37% if the number of random employees was 10.

Given the fact that many companies start with a group of non-diverse friends (neighbors, college mates, family), chances are skewed that you are more likely to find companies with either no LGBT people or just LGBT people than what they would be if choices were random.

That does not mean you are going to find unwelcoming people. I believe most adults in the workspace are well aware that some prejudices should stay in the past, and that diversity should come naturally as a company grows, hence most reasonable people have the acceptance part sorted out.

What you may find is that some people are just not ready or used to deal with LGBT people, and a sane manager will expect you to have some degree of tolerance to this. For any person at all, some good quota of tolerance is required. So, if I'm interviewing you for a position in a small company, I'd like to know that you will not throw a tantrum every time some mentions a common misconception about LGBT people. I'd like to see that you will know how to keep your temper and leave clarifications for a personal conversation with a non-intentional offender. Know when and how to ask for help from a manager or to seek HR is also something I'd like to see but saying you may need advice on these also looks like a good sign to me.

In short, just don't be the snowflake that gets in trouble with everyone else and plays the discrimination card and you should be fine on your end.

All that being said, as others mentioned, no hiring manager would acknowledge that their company is LGBT unfriendly, yet those companies exist. For the sake of your mental health, you should avoid working on one of these as much as financially viable for you. As gnasher suggested I'd second that you should be upfront with your plans, preferably at the job interview if you can afford to lose a few opportunities. The manner in which the interviewer will react should tell you a lot. The actions he/she considers afterwards will tell much more. Remember the tolerance part, so don't judge if the person looks scared of what you are describing or if they ask dumb or borderline offensive questions. An example that comes to mind: "Are you sure you are going to do this? That is very drastic!", just give a polite answer such as "Yes, I've been planning this for X years, and now is really the moment where I get the best result/benefit for a fair cost and risk". Consider that ignorance can be remedied if you communicate well and the person is a good listener, but prejudice (whose signature is the unwillingness to listen) is a much harder wall to overcome.

Now, you should also think that the people hiring you know their staff... To some extent. If the company is filled with people who would have a hard time accommodating you, then I'd say myself it is not in anyone's best interest to pursue in hiring you. Discrimination may be against the law, but having coworkers who strongly dislike themselves for personal reasons is something that any company wants to avoid, especially at the starting point (i.e. job interview). And the preference lies with people already in the company not with the potential newcomers.

If during the interview, you see a good reaction to your transition plans, if they happen to mention similar situations in the company or with family (maybe ask up front if the person has already seen someone undergoing this process?), and if they reach out to you afterwards, then I'd bet you have a very good starting point at this company.

Asking for things like "LGBT groups", "Equal Opportunity Employer Office" or similar support organizations is likely unfruitful in a small company. Maybe you could propose starting one? If people do not have any notion of diversity, maybe there are some misconceptions that you could elucidate in a presentation to the company? The thing is just that small companies have much less structure for several things that big corporations are basically required to do. But being proactive, kind, and tolerant can help reshape the landscape of the company for a better future and growth.

Now regarding the options you've mentioned:

What if you don't mention it at all? You might prevent losing some opportunities, but they are likely at places you wouldn't enjoy in the long run. Up to you if the financial situation allows taking your time to find a better option. When you start transitioning, people will notice and have a hard time communicating if you resist or avoid communicating yourself.

What if you tell only after having a written proposal? Then you secure the job, but you'd still likely be on some probation period. That basically means that for a period of maybe three months you are still being closely watched, along with your colleagues to see if the cultural fit is working. Remember that the priority goes for the established employees, not for the probation period ones. The advantage here is that in some jobs particularly entry-level ones, "being nice" is about the only thing that matters, but now you've gained yourself an opportunity to show off work and deliveries. I'd work extra hard during this probation if you caught people by surprise with news of your transitions. As for communicating, remember to communicate well your intentions with your peers, this gives them time to adjust, and the more your colleagues feel comfortable talking to you, the better you can sort through social issues.