I'm in the process of transitioning M2F, with the tentative goal of being full-time by the end of 2016.
My question is: when is the best time to start the process at work?
I work for a large multi-national corporation with not only the usual LGBT protections, but I've actually located on the company website a document with gender transition guidelines and a gender transition "action plan" template, both posted and maintained by an HR person in the US.
I was originally thinking of contacting my HR rep in September, about when (I'm told) I should put in the name change petition. But the "Coming out at the workplace" page on
susans.org suggests much earlier.
I'm wondering if I should do it now (or very soon)?
FWIW, here is where I am:
* 6 months HRT already.
* Have been presenting gender non-conforming male everywhere outside of work for several years.
* Have told many people outside of work, including at church; I expect to come out to my family
this month, and plan to be using my female name and gender everywhere but at work by the end of the summer.
* Still in the process of getting my presentation unambiguously female; that's my chore for the next 3-6 months.
One other factor: I'm having more and more (psychological) difficulty not talking at work about the fact that I'm trans and am transitioning. I.e., having to not say, "I'm not really a guy."
A trans man I know notified HR something like 8 months ahead of his top surgery (top surgery = deadline for coming out), but felt they didn't really do anything until just a few months before the deadline.
