I wasn't planning on starting anything at work for a while, but last week I gave my manager a heads up. Told her what was appropriate - I'm transexual, I'm transitioning to female and that will mean at work as well. I let her know that it was a bit out yet and that I would update her as I figured out more. She asked if she could talk to HR about it to find out how to deal with it and I said she could.
Well, I also spent the last week telling almost everyone I know. And I realized that I cannot keep living this male life. Monday morning I ended up sobbing on my wife's shoulder because I had to go to work as him. Tuesday morning I was sitting at my computer freaking out again. At that point she just looked at me and said "Val, you need to transition at work. You can't go on like this."
So, I told my manager. Well, I asked to meet with her again as a follow up. She scheduled a meeting that afternoon that included a local HR person and the HR director. So I spent the day nervous beyond belief. Went into the meeting and tada! It's my transition team. Turns out the three of them have spent the last week researching TS, TG and how to have a successful workplace transition. We started nailing down some details, but when they asked me "When do you want to transition?" all I could answer was "As soon as possible. The sooner the better."
So they have some research to do. Find out when we can get a facilitator for a department training session. Then when that happens it's go time.
But I was so stressed from the meeting, and from coming out to all of my friends except two over the past couple of days, that I couldn't go in yesterday. There was no way I could be him and survive the day.
Val
