LGBTQ – k8bisch LLC

My house was built in the late 1890s. It still has a dark closet that once functioned as a root cellar. It’s now full of odd, rarely used cooking equipment, Christmas ornaments, and creepy cobwebs. We now call it the punishment room as a threat designed to spur good behavior in my guys. No one wants to be in there, but technically, it is a functional closet.

The law is often like that room. It tells us the minimum of what is expected of us – what is the basement of how we can treat each other. It’s functional but undesirable. Just like my guys, no one wants to be in the basement.

But sometimes, the law isn’t even the basement. It’s lower. Much lower. Never has that been clearer than today. Today, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in three cases involving whether “because of sex” protects individuals based on their LGBTQ status. If the Court finds Title VII doesn’t protect the LGBTQ community, employers in 28 states will be able to fire someone because of who they are and who they love. What’s really scary is that here is a real possibility the Supreme Court will find that the LGBTQ community is not protected.

What will this mean for employers? I hope nothing. I hope employers understand how stupid (yes, I wrote “stupid”) it is to discriminate on this basis. Not only is it unlawful in many states – including Minnesota – it is bad for business. At least one prominent study showed how LGBTQ-supportive policies were great for employees and business alike. Being inclusive is the right thing to do. Period.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Equality Act that would protect the LGBTQ community regardless of how the Supreme Court finds. But, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to allow a vote on the bill. It’s likely the bill would pass if it reached the Senate floor. In the meantime, the message to employers is that Congress doesn’t care if you discriminate.

But you don’t have to. Employers don’t have to do the minimum. You can keep employees out of the basement. We should treat each other fairly and kindly regardless of LGBTQ status. Here’s hoping the Supreme Court does the right thing, and the Senate does too.

In the meantime, no one can define your worth. You’re all worthy. Sending love and hope to everyone today.

Photo by isaac jarnagin on Unsplash

This week, I had the enormous privilege of attending #workhuman. If you’ve never heard of Workhuman, where have you been? Remove yourself from under that comfy rock, and let me share all my learnin’, y’all. (Workhuman was in Nashville this year, and now, my drawl game is strong.)

Workhuman, formerly Globoforce, is a social recognition and continuous performance management platform that can integrate with lots of different HCMs to improve how your people see and interact with each other. Workhuman does a ton of research on the impact of social recognition on inclusion, gender, race, wellness, and performance issues that will make your jaw drop. They’ve come up with ways to inform, but not criticize, how we use language from a gendered and racial perspective when giving recognition or feedback based on the data they have collected from millions of interactions. It is this research informs how they do business. They’ve learned that being human makes workplaces better.

#workhuman is their signature conference, bringing together thousands of concerned humans for the sole purpose of trying to figure out how to make the workplace more human. The conference is all about how do we see, treat, encourage, develop, recognize, thank, and love – yes, I said love, but not in the romantic sense – the people we work with so we can all do better. This is more than just an HR conference, it is a business conference.

Here are a few of my takeaways:

We have to revel in being uncomfortable. Whether it was Brene Brown, Kat Cole, Candi Castleberry Singleton, David Lapin, or any of the other speakers, this was a powerful take away. As a society, we are at a tipping point. Our workplaces are also at this tipping point. We can’t simply put our heads down, our safety googles on, and focus on productivity goals if we’re going to be successful. If we’re going to have people in our workplaces, we need to accept and welcome them as they are. We’re going to have to talk to them about the heavy society concerns from gun safety, policy brutality, offensive tweets, gender and racial inequality, and the fear that prevents us from being our whole selves. Allianz does this, Kat Cole does this, we should all do this.

Recognition makes a difference. Data is the best. Data that shows we can make a dent in the problems that plague our workplaces is even better. The data Workhuman shared on how recognition can improve our connections at work, our engagement at work, and help plug the holes in our leaky buckets is so impressive. I want to know more. Luckily, there’s a resource page devoted to this!

Pobody’s nerfect, but we can all be resilient. If we’re going to have difficult, uncomfortable conversations at work, we’re going to make mistakes. We’re going to hear antiquated language that is now offensive. We will have to tackle our fear with a battering ram. We’re going to have to be brave and vulnerable. We’re going to have to rely on our integrity, strength, and humanity to deal with the mistakes, use them as teachable moments, and move on. I’m not saying that every mistake is just a mistake – some mistakes warrant termination – but as we encourage these conversations, forgiveness and resilience will be powerful to keep us moving forward.

Being human is hard. As a crier, I was moved to tears a couple of times – not gonna lie. It is hard to be vulnerable, willing to fail, learning from our mistakes, and sharing our failures so others can learn from them too. No one promised this life, in general or in business, was going to be easy. So, grab your friends, family, co-workers, and meet these obstacles head on.

I cannot oversell #workhuman. Every attendee self-reflects, does some mental gymnastics, and learned from this conference. Next year, Workhuman is in Denver. I hope to be there. I hope you all are too.

Tag: LGBTQ

The Law is the Basement

Photo by isaac jarnagin on Unsplash

Being Human

Photo by mauro mora on Unsplash