Executives who advocate for LGBT+ inclusion in the workplace are increasingly focused on combating unconscious bias, The Financial Times reports.
Despite advances in LGBT+ rights and acceptance, many employees choose to not be out at work. Often LGBT+ young professionals go back into the closet when they start working to avoid possible biases. Implicit bias can “drive a wedge between LGBT+ workers and their colleagues.”
The FT reports: “HRC’s 2014 study about workplace inclusion, ‘The Cost of the Closet,’ found that more than half of LGBT+ workers surveyed in the US remain closeted and suggested a strong reason why that might be so — ‘water-cooler conversations’.
Four-fifths of non-LGBT+ people said they felt that their LGBT+ colleagues should not have to hide who they were in the workplace but less than half of those straight respondents said they would feel comfortable hearing LGBT+ workers talk about dating. The main reason LGBT+ workers gave for not being open was the possibility that it would make people feel uncomfortable.”
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