I transitioned at work after 18 years with the same company.
I had a wonderful HR Manager, who I still keep in touch with and she really helped plan and organize with myself everything that happened at work.
We also employed a specialist in work place transition, who worked with the Senior Management Team and provided counselloring for anyone who wanted this after I came out.
I initially told me boss and along with the HR Manager worked with the Corporate function to put plans and a change the discrimination and other policies in place (including changing the employee handbook to incoporate the relevant UK Law).
I came out to the Senior Management team about 2 weeks later and discussed my plans and also fears with them, their response was quite overwhelming and positive.
Two weeks later, I stood up in front of 400 people at a meeting and read out a prepared statement regarding my transition, this was 3 days before I planned to leave work for FFS. At the same time the HR Department sent the same statement from me to all employees within the company, along with a copy of the new hand book and revised discrimination policy.
We also sent a letter to all the business contacts I had and dealt with on a regular basis, outlining that when I returned to work in 4 weeks time I would be known as Rebecca. The HR Department also prepared a press release (which was never required) to send to the local paper, if this became an issue.
After the meeting, the counsellor the Company had employed held a discussion meeting with the site women (28 out of 1,200 employees where Female) to discuss toilets, etc. During the 4 weeks I was away she saw over 100 people who wanted to talk about my transition and what it would mean.
Before I left, I had many people (both in person, letter, e-mail and phone calls) wish me well and wanted to ensure me I would have their full support.
I left work on a Thursday Lunchtime, went to a solicitors and did my name change before going off for FFS. During my time off the HR Department / Company changed all my records, computer log in, business details and even my work clothes etc into my new name. The HR Manager visited me several times at home with an update and to see how I was.
4 weeks later I got dressed to go to work for the first time. I cried, I cried a lot both with joy, fear and apprehension. I almost decided that the day was going to be a nightmare and decided to phone in sick! As I drove to work, I tried to imagine the horrors that would await me, this was really me at my paranoid best.
As I drove into the car park, the HR Manager was waiting for me, she came over and just simply said "Good morning, Rebecca!" and my heart lifted beyond belief. She walked with me to my office and when I got there a number of the girls where waiting for me. They had a bunch of Flowers and wanted to take me and show me around the ladies rest room (which was really cool of them) and they also took me to lunch.
Was everything smooth and easy with the work place transition?, well not really, there are always a number of small minded idiots who try and make life a misery due to their own predujices. I had some people refuse to use my new name, people leave voice mail messages of abuse and some people send me hate mail.
But we dealt with this, two people where disciplined and one eventually dismissed for their failure to follow company policy and rules. Fortunately the UK has very strong anti disctrimination legislation which covers work place gender reassignment and discrimination.
As for my company I cannot fault their support, they gave me every Monday morning off for electrolysis, never once complained about time off for medical stuff (including SRS) or speech therapy and rewrote their own internal policies and procedures to help me.
I never had an issue with any of the people I dealt with from outside of the work place, everyone treated me with respect and dignity.
Two years further down from the transition, I was offered the chance to seek employment elsewhere (this was about 3 months after SRS) due to plant closure and reorganization. After 20 years with the same company this was a move into the unknown but it gave me a chance to move on, enable stealth and the chance to build up my own business. It seems strange 8 years on that that defining moment really shaped who I am now.
Rebecca
