Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hey girls,

Given the reality that surrounds our general employment situation and prospects, I decided to create this poll to assess the how being trans affects our professional future. I am very concerned about this, and I'd like to hear you thoughts and insight on this as well as your experience. I think this way we can help each other out better. Especially when it comes to our sisters who have survived discrimination when they were studying and/or working and are sucessful. 

Thank you for reading,

I want a job but my depression and nervousness/dysphoria makes it nearly impossible. I probably wouldn't have been fired from my last job if I wasn't trans as I wouldn't be social awkward/depressed and suffered from dysphoria.

 At my last job, my boss got herself fired for harassing me about being trans. I had that job for several more years and quit on good terms because i was moving.

I haven't worked for 10 months now because of problems with my bf and not knowing where to try and rebuild. I guess I'm fortunate that being trans isn't my biggest problem.

This article is interesting, though it only refers to USA reality.

http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/headlines/beyond-stereotypes-poverty-in-the-lgbt-community/

"According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, transgender people are four times as likely to have a household income under $10,000 and twice as likely to be unemployed as the typical person in the U.S. Ninety percent of those surveyed reported experiencing harassment, mistreatment, or discrimination on the job. Almost one in five reported being homeless at some point in their lives.

While these are among the most economically vulnerable within the LGBT community , they, of course, are not discrete groups. Those who lie at the intersections face even greater economic challenges. For example African-American lesbians have the highest rates of poverty among same-sex couples, and the National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that transgender people of color had an unemployment rate of four times the national average.

Understanding the diversity within the LGBT community is both the key to breaking down the myth of affluence and to beginning to understand where and how to combat LGBT poverty. It also points to a network of progressive collations, among women, people of color, the young and the old, parents, and LGBT people, who must all work together to fight poverty. Work focused on just one, or even a few, of these groups will not produce a solution that will work for any single group or that will address poverty as a whole."

Does this ring true for most??

I had been at my current job for 15 years before I transitioned... I was most fortunate to be working for a very accepting and supportive community organisation. How I would go looking for another job were that a reality I couldn't say. I hope to not be going anywhere until at least after my GRS which is still at least 18 months away.

S E L F - Employed!

Medical industry. Go figure.

Quote from: Evelyn K on August 26, 2014, 06:34:47 AM
S E L F - Employed!

Medical industry. Go figure.

Whoooops! I didn't inculde that option, darn it. Sorry!

Been looking for a job since April, I had my hours reduced due to not doing a good job as a receptionist since it was my first job and had lack of training.

Self employed also. I figure if anyone's going to get fired its not going to be me.

I just got my first job after graduating with Honours 1st class at University less than four hours ago. ;D

I will be working with kids as a 'Mental Health Social Worker' (MHSW). My role will be to assist school age kids facing discrimination, disadvantage and mental health concerns. Because of this I was informed at the interview that the workplace is a LGBTQ friendly organisation with strict rules with regards to bias, and discrimination towards practitioners and clients. I am excited to begin working there even if it is only 2 days a week right now.


Sorry I forgot to say I live in Australia and have not began HRT and will not be brining it up for several more months with HR.

Currently working for many years with my present employer, but not disclosed to my boss of my trans* status - yet.

I'm on disability

Quote from: Leila on August 26, 2014, 09:30:07 AM
Currently working for many years with my present employer, but not disclosed to my boss of my trans* status - yet.

Sorry but your post seems to imply you are pondering disclosure. But why would you do that? I don't see why you should disclose, since being trans doesn't affect your abilities and competency at what you do at all. I personally wouldn't.

Quote from: Auroramarianna on August 26, 2014, 09:39:01 AM
Sorry but your post seems to imply you are pondering disclosure. But why would you do that? I don't see why you should disclose, since being trans doesn't affect your abilities and competency at what you do at all. I personally wouldn't.

It's because I am presenting as male at work. :/

I just finished college and I'm looking for a job, but thus far my trans status hasn't come into play with the whole employment thing.

I've got an evaluation lined up for a job with the state this week, and next week I've got an interview with a different position with the state. Mostly the pickings around here are pretty slim, especially considering I'm intentionally presenting as 'white, straight, cis-male' while job hunting. I'm thinking however, I've been looking for the better part of the year, if these jobs don't pan out for me, I might go back to school for awhile, or go visit some friends across the country or something... >_< sitting at home all day waiting for my transition to continue is driving me up a wall.

Quote from: Leila on August 26, 2014, 09:41:41 AM
It's because I am presenting as male at work. :/

Oh, I am sorry, I completely misunderstood you. :(

I wish you the best of luck really. Hope it turns out alright.

I chose the selection which best applies. I've worked for fortune 50 companies as executive assistant to c-suite. No one ever knew of my situation down there and to date, do not know. If they were to find out, my reply would be 'what about it?'; but I would have to be keyboarding with my feet while wearing a skirt.

Underemployed, less than half of my former wages.

I worked 3 years as an intern then one year full time at a startup company. When I told them I'd be transitioning, everything was fine and nothing changed. I haven't started present g female yet, but I'm close.

I am infrequently and underpaid. But that's because its a startup hard for cash, and nothing to do with being trans.

Retired.   I quit my last job a few years back, dissolved my businesses and am no longer in a band. 

Currently a housewife.   

I will probably end up helping run (ruin?) my father-in-law's business after he's gone. 

Been working for the same company over three years now, after being out of work for eight months.  I didn't figure out I was trans* until less than a year ago.  Even though I'm pre-hrt, I've been trying to transition the best I can.  Work "officially" does not know.  I have a feeling some people have an idea about it.  Some people I've told, including one of my supervisors (she's a lesbian with several friends who are transitioning it turns out).  I'm hoping to not have to come out at this job, as I will hopefully be starting a new job in a few months.  I'll be up front with them.

I was fired in retaliation to my Workers compensation claim. I'm currently suing the pants off the company and am waiting until my knee heals up before calling the staffing agency again

I would select the option: I'm out as trans at work and while I have faced some discrimination from a small faction of employees I have management on my side so I'm still employed with the same company.

Seriously I count my blessings as I've been VERY lucky to have a rather positive outcome to me coming out as transgender at work. I think I have to chalk it up to three things.
1: I have always been one of the nicest people you'd ever meet and just kind as can be. You couldn't help but like the fake me that I presented myself as and somehow I just garnered respect from my fellow employees for literally like NO reason.
2: I have always strived to be one of the best employee's possible, having ADHDDDHAAAHDHDHHHAHHD helps keep me active and busy
3: I have a very positive attitude and I am very understanding of situations

So when I came out my boss said he did not want to lose me as an employee, then later told management that if the company does not try it's hardest to make my transition at work go as smoothly as possible and I end up quitting because of discrimination then his department will go under. Because I've always been so likeable all the people I thought would have hated me have actually done really well and only a small handful of people are jerks every now and then but nothing really bad has happened since it was stated in our company wide email that anyone who breaks our non discrimination policy will be terminated.

Maybe I have the best boss in the world and that helps too! I'm so incredibly lucky that things have gone well thus far after being fulltime for the past month now.

Employed full-time, not out at work, but working for a federal agency with a very strongly pro-LGBT statement, including gender identity.

I got very lucky; my employer was 100% supportive, and now that I've started job searching (for unrelated reasons) I haven't had any issues there, either. Although I don't disclose on my resume - it's not relevant anymore - it will turn up in a background check.

Wowoowowow, I'm really soo glad so many of you have got support at work. That's undeniably such a gift. I'm happy for you guys!!

Quote from: Jill F on August 26, 2014, 01:56:59 PM
Retired.   I quit my last job a few years back, dissolved my businesses and am no longer in a band. 

Currently a housewife.   

I will probably end up helping run (ruin?) my father-in-law's business after he's gone.

Jill F is a mover-n-shaker. Evelyn senses teh bling bling vibe. 8)

I was promoted about 2 months ago. One of the reasons was I add diversity to the department. I got hung up on that for a while.

I have been at the same employer 26.75 years. I am out to HR, Compensation, my boss a few co-workers, a Psychologist who works with upper management and some executive coaches. I have been asked a few questions by some senior leaders about being happy, hair and cloths. They gave me some funny looks too. My boss stated that even though Philly has Trans* protection's and we have an anti-discrimination policy he is concerned I will be openly discriminated against when I eventually fully come out.

Oh, I am a member of Pride at work and do membership drives in the atrium. So people think I am at least gay. I am on the work facebook page marching in the Pride parade. ( I hate the pic, I look fat)

I do not express and one reason is I look like a guy :( and the other is a threat of divorce.

I've had a streak of ->-bleeped-<-ty IT jobs lately, always in a corporate/business culture which I hate with a ->-bleeped-<-ing passion. Everyday is torture. I'm the "sore thumb" that sticks out because I refuse to fully conform and look like all the other clones. Transitioning fully in that kind of environment is 1000% unpossible. I only have to do it a bit longer until I get my FFS, then I honestly don't care what happens.

Its not official until October 23rd but I'm on my terminal leave so I can basically say I'm now medically retired from the Army. Its kind of weird saying I'm retired and getting a pension and full health insurance when I'm turning 29 Thursday. I'm actually going to be a full time student starting Spring 2015 I have to take some pre reqs first but then I'm aiming for Nursing school. I plan on going to court for my name change papers in October and doing the actual change after the 23rd to make it official.

Had the same job for 9 year.  But as soon as I came out I started getting bogus complaints about everything that can be taken out of context.  I've stood my ground and decried it as discrimination.  and so far the company is supporting me.  Its an international big company.  So personal ->-bleeped-<- only goes so far before some one sane realizes that this could be a massive law suit and kill there subordinates prejudice.  So far anyways...

I work in the IT Security field which is very male dominated, I've been doing IT for the last 17 years but only been with my current company for about a year, I'm quite comfortable by now and probably would not have any issues getting another job if I needed to but I'm super happy here.

My current company is around 70 people and I'm transitioning on the job, everyone has been super supportive and I feel lucky, the girls told me right away that I should just start using the girls bathroom even when I had not started hormones, the guys treat me with respect and seem to be comfortable with everything.

The only thing I've had a hard time getting used to is the guys opening doors, pushing the elevator buttons, etc.

Had a job for 2 years in an IT company. The owner of the company, who was my boss was really difficult to deal with, but I was the only employee there who got bonus right from the start so he liked my work mostly. I have done the job of at least 3 people, or at least I tried to do it the best I could. In 2 years 25 people left, while at any given time there were no more than 10 people employed.

I wanted to come out to the boss, wanted to find the best time to do it, but that never came.
It was increasingly difficult to discuss problems in depth with him, to the point where I could not say or do anything right in his eyes. It was impossible to give any explanations to problems because without listening to any of it he dismissed it as an excuse. Facts did not matter.

I had bad periods during that 2 years because of trans issues but not that bad that I would deserve that.
He started to give my tasks to other people, double checked my work with other colleagues, sent me home for days in the middle of a project and even went as far as calling me a liar because he was sure that I did not tell him the truth about some results. He even said, he has proof of his claims, but that would have been very strange because you cannot prove something that did not happen. He could not find the evidence of course, but as he is paranoid, it was enough to weaken his trust in me.

My biggest mistake was not coming out because that way I could not be really me and he probably seen that I was hiding something and that fed his paranoia even more. Coming out to him would have probably strengthened his trust in me but in the end it would not have solved his trust issues forever.

In some ways I'm happy that I don't have to put up with this anymore. I had bad dreams and even nightmares about work, it wasn't healthy.
Since I left, my colleagues have the "honor" to be the scapegoats, the problem is, they just follow the orders of the boss...

Currently I'm looking for a job, that means my transition is put on hold even more which I don't like and I'm not a very convincing man. That does not help my employment either. It would be great to be self employed but that would require some connections which I don't have or a bigger portfolio which I don't have time to build before I run out of money.

I chose I used to be employed but was fired due to reasons that have nothing to do with being trans but as can be seen above being trans and not doing anything about it on the job probably made things worse but that was not the only reason.

As I have posted here in the past, when I came out to my employer I was fired the next day. This was years before any kind of work place discrimination laws. So I picked myself off the ground, brushed off the dirt and went for it. It took me a few months to find a new job, but with patience and a lot of effort I did.

I did get a new job but it was for far less money than I made before. Still could have been worse. I managed to keep my transition alive, complete my electro and have my Srs surgery.

My life, my psyche, my being changed with Srs surgery. It altered me somehow. Once I reached the point where I never thought about my gender any more, it was like my mind was running on full throttle. I had passion for the work that I did and began to enjoy my interaction with people. I was drawn out of my shell at last. I love standing up in front of a crowd or coworkers and talking about things I am passionate about. I don't fear things anymore.

With all this passion I have done very well in life, far better than I thought I would have, and I am willing to bet far greater success than if I had "not" transitioned. I
Before I was timid, shy and afraid of the spotlight, not anymore. I am the 100% opposite of where I was those 20 years ago now.

I just started a new job 2 weeks ago, so I'm finally employed again, and as my true self this time. But before that, I was fired from my previous job for being trans. And I was unemployed for 5 months straight until this job finally came through.

Thank you everyone for your replies

Zumbagirl, I am so happy for you! That really sounds inspirational

Carrie Liz, does the new job fit your academic profile? Do you like it better than your previous?

Again thank you everyone for giving away time to answer this thread and questionnaire :)

I worked in finance accounting till I got married, I'm now a fulltime housewife.

Technically there is not an option that applies.  I transitioned at work in December.  Ive been with this company 6 years. I was the first trans at work. The bathroom was an issue for a while. Than there as the incident. .. apparently when your a women you opinion doesnt matter. Basically I ended up being demoted and put on probation for 6 months. I have a meeting to get re-instated next week but im not too hopefull. Whether or not my trans status had anything to do with it I dont really know....


-Liv

Well I own some trucks so I am a part time truck driver when one of my drivers need some time off or gets sick. Other than that I am a full time musician wannabe, but will be again. Hopefully.

Quote from: Auroramarianna on August 27, 2014, 02:19:51 PM
Carrie Liz, does the new job fit your academic profile? Do you like it better than your previous?

Again thank you everyone for giving away time to answer this thread and questionnaire :)

Technically my job doesn't fit my academic profile, it only requires a high school degree, but I'm okay with that. I decided to go away from my college field of study, and I found a field that I like working in, so I really don't care.

In terms of the job I'm doing, it's basically the same. I was a poker dealer at my last job, now I'm a poker host who deals sometimes. I wish I was still dealing, but it's not going to be very long before I get upgraded to dealing according to my manager, so I'm really not worried. The big deal is that I was full-time at both of my prior jobs, where now I'm down to part-time, working only 3 days a week. That frankly sucks, and I'm going to have to work my way back up to a full-time dealing job, but for now there's nothing I can do about it. Once I get up to dealing full-time, I'll be in WAY better shape than I was before, because the casino I'm working at now has much more consistent poker business. So once I've been there for a while, it should be an upgrade, but for now it's a bit of a step down.

Changed jobs three times due to poor fits. One place artfully cut out every need someone in the LGBT community might need. Second I'm pretty sure my boss wanted to, "Make a man outta me" and I didn't take to that well nor handle it well. Third, adjusting to all the BS that goes with being a woman in STEM.

Since going full time on January, 11 2013 I'm making about 9% more than I did at the end of my old life.

But, money isn't everything and I am unhappy in the career I inherited but, not liking your job is pretty common so that's not a big deal. It pays well enough to let me pay back my student loans and live comfortably and proceed with transition so it ain't all bad. Just sucks being called "smart" but yet treated like I'm 50 I.Q. points dumber than I am. Or caring about my colleges feelings, I've gotten flack over that too.

Quote from: Misato on August 27, 2014, 10:36:12 PM

But, money isn't everything and I am unhappy in the career I inherited but, not liking your job is pretty common so that's not a big deal. It pays well enough to let me pay back my student loans and live comfortably and proceed with transition so it ain't all bad. Just sucks being called "smart" but yet treated like I'm 50 I.Q. points dumber than I am. Or caring about my colleges feelings, I've gotten flack over that too.

A lot of women feel they are treated this way when compared to their male colleagues. Do you think you are treated like this for being a woman or do they know you are transsexual??

Quote from: Auroramarianna on August 28, 2014, 06:32:07 AM
A lot of women feel they are treated this way when compared to their male colleagues. Do you think you are treated like this for being a woman or do they know you are transsexual??

I'm 100% certain it's because I'm a woman. Other women at work even tell me it's because I'm a woman or share their own micro-aggressions the boys give them.

No matter their background, people don't generally give me any grief cause I'm trans. I hit a bad egg once in a great great great great great great great great great while but if I had to rank things that I'm likely to be discriminated against or catch flack over in a day I think that list would be:

• Woman
• Vegetarian
• ...
• ...
• ...
• Transwoman

My experience at work seems to be far different that other people's experiences have been.

I do computer programming for a smaller company here in the L.A. area. I nervously came out to the CEO and president of my company a couple of weeks ago and it went far, far better than I ever imagined it would. The CEO and president (a female, she holds both positions) is 100% supportive of me as has been every upper management person that's been told to date (about 7 of them). She runs the place with a firm hand and maybe she laid down the law to the other managers. I'll never know for sure about that but it would not surprise me one iota if she did. I've always admired her and the way she runs the company.

When we finished talking she even said that she was glad to have another female on the engineering team.

I show up at work sporting a purse and wearing heels in just a couple of weeks from now.

Its eerie...... I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall. I've read the stories of people getting fired and discriminated against and I wonder why none of that happened to me. After all, I'm not worthy of treatment that's more special than anyone else gets.

So I'm feeling tons of stress now to be the best employee I can be and make them glad that they were so great about accepting me. I also don't want to do anything that would ruin the acceptance that they have shown me. I'll work like a dog for this company to show my appreciation to them because they were so great about this.

   Currently a student but the company I interned at over the summer has already hired me on full time for after I graduate as a mobile developer! They are aware of my being trans and are incredibly supportive, though I haven't gone full time yet, but they are REALLY harping on diversity lately; they have an LGBT networking forum I am a member of (very large company) and they've chosen me to help run the company's booth at the local pride festival!

I've never experienced any direct harassment or microaggressions at work for any reason; I HAVE heard that trans people are disproportionately represented in engineering/programming fields, so maybe the people I work with are desensitized to these sorts of things!

Whatever the case, just wanted to throw out that sometimes things work out pretty darn ok!

Quote from: Eva Marie on August 29, 2014, 12:16:23 AM
Its eerie...... I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall. I've read the stories of people getting fired and discriminated against and I wonder why none of that happened to me. After all, I'm not worthy of treatment that's more special than anyone else gets.

So I'm feeling tons of stress now to be the best employee I can be and make them glad that they were so great about accepting me. I also don't want to do anything that would ruin the acceptance that they have shown me. I'll work like a dog for this company to show my appreciation to them because they were so great about this.

I've done work for a Board Game Store too, back in Wisconsin. They don't care I'm trans either. They just want people with common sense.

I get the fear of the shoe dropping but I do think what's important is just being someone that other people like to be a around. Same as is true for cis folk. Forgive me but, sometimes I wonder if some of the problems that the trans community experiences isn't due to us being trans but the collateral damage that comes from being in the closet and living in fear for a long time and having a lack of trust.

Quote from: Handy on August 29, 2014, 12:22:58 AM
I've never experienced any direct harassment or microaggressions at work for any reason; I HAVE heard that trans people are disproportionately represented in engineering/programming fields, so maybe the people I work with are desensitized to these sorts of things!

I wonder if the acceptance is more due to the plethora of extreme personalities that Engineering seems to attract. On that level being trans or the side effects from being trans are just par for the course when it comes to behavior.

Self employed now but the last company I worked for was a large family owned construction company that proved to be trans friendly when a close coworker announced she was going to start her transition, the company made the comfort level very easy and my coworker/friend had zero issues at all as far as work went. I worked there for 21 years, good people!

Coming out at my old job meant a lot of personal attacks and discrimination that ended with nearly one year of sick leave I was in the hardest stage (RLE) and transphobia combined with mobbing broke me. After managing to finally put all my crap together after fighting depression, anxiety, I told my bosses that I was feeling able to work again. Two days later they called me telling that they had a vacant in a new project and needed personnel fast.


I did not have to think about it a lot (no work, no thai pussy). I went into a controlled shopping spree in order to have enough semiformal clothing to look ok for five days a week and a week later I wast at the main office, working in a new project in a whole new different field of IT. So far I don't pass (my status is "suspected to be trans, but not confirmed"), but since only four persons know my background things are pretty calm. No trans questions, bathroom drama... They even had no issue when I needed three weeks off for my upcoming FFS. So I could say I'm on a rather trans friendly environment.

Best thing is that not having to do physical stuff anymore, I can wear anything I want; including dresses and shoes that otherwise wouldn't have been "apt for work". Yesterday I went to in a black casual dress for the first time and I loved it. Until I had to sit down in a cold stone seat while waiting for the train.

Edited to correct my awful touchscreen ortography.

Julia! That is fantastic, being able to be comfortable at work by wearing what you want is a big deal :)

Quote from: Misato on August 29, 2014, 12:28:04 AM
I get the fear of the shoe dropping but I do think what's important is just being someone that other people like to be a around. Same as is true for cis folk. Forgive me but, sometimes I wonder if some of the problems that the trans community experiences isn't due to us being trans but the collateral damage that comes from being in the closet and living in fear for a long time and having a lack of trust.

I think that you might be on to something with that idea Paige.

My specific field of programming work is very, very vertical - the job is specialized and these jobs are few and far between. When I took this job a couple of years ago I moved all the way across the country for it since I had not found a job that was closer to me in several months of looking and my bank accounts were getting desperately thin - I felt very lucky to find it. I had a family to feed and hanging onto this job was critical.

So, given that, I made every effort to be friendly to people and I jumped into anything that the company needed with an apparent good attitude and I worked my butt off. Meanwhile, I was in the closet and was suffering horrible bouts of dysphoria during this time but I managed to hide it from work. I was drinking like a fish every night after work just to cope.

I think that my cheerful, positive, upbeat attitude I projected went a long way toward them wanting to keep me around when I came out - I was lucky because I was able to successfully fake being that kind of person even though I didn't feel it prior to accepting who I am.

The damage from the years of suffering for who we are make it difficult for us on the job and during interviews. It is very hard to be cheerful and upbeat and positive when the dysphoria monkey is on your back.

Eva,

I was such a mean, nasty person to my family before transition the feedback I got back from them after was, "You're nice now!" And they embraced me. :)

I was also in a bottle before transition. Delightful kicker on that is my SO told me she nearly left me because of my drinking. Now, when I told her I needed to transition it wasn't a happy time but she stayed and we get along better now than at any other time in our 10 year relationship! :D

Transition gave me my life.

Good luck on your upcoming big day!

Quote from: Michelle G on August 29, 2014, 12:42:35 AM
Julia! That is fantastic, being able to be comfortable at work by wearing what you want is a big deal :)

Thanks. Check it again, please. that was only half of the story since I had to stop writing to get in the morning train.


PS: As usual, the trans knowledge on hair removal methods and the best places to do it gives me a lot of talk with the girls. Pretty much the thing that can out me the most is that I am a huge geek and the office is filled with comic book fans, LOTR and Star Wars Addict... Not very common in Spain, and less on women.

I have worked for the same company for about 13 years. I do project work and came out without changing projects. Everyone got an email on Thursday and I came into the office on Monday as myself and that was about 18 months ago. I was senior technical staff before and I am senior technical staff now. If you live in the UK I can guarantee that some of the things I have worked on affect your life pretty much every day.  So far as I am aware there has been no discrimination, certainly not to my face. I am very, very good at what I do though and transitioning has only improved my performance.

Rosie