I am in a bit of a bind as to how to deal with revealing myself at work. The county i live in has protections based on gender identiry so "technically" I am covered. My work performance is good, I meet benchmarks at least 90% of the time and get along well with my upper level supervisors and owner. It is a small private franchise, 4 locations and while upper level mgmt has made comments when anti lgbt comments have been made my immediate boss and one of the assistants tend to be less than PC.

I know a lot of ppl recommend going through HR, but our HR is sourced out, so I am not sure how I would arrange a meeting. Any recommendations on how to approach this?

I suggest...

If there is one person who owns all the franchises and they are friendly, set up a 30 minute meeting with them.

The conversation I would have is..
Me:. I would like to discuss something very personal with you and I would appreciate if you don't discuss this with anyone without talking to me first.
Them: okay
Me: have you ever heard of Gender Dysphoria?
Them: pause, ahhhh, no
Me: it's the clinical diagnosis for transgender people... Short pause... And I've been diagnosed with it.  ... Long pause...
Them: oh,....

Then you go without a script and see where things go from there

I've not experienced any issues with the 80 ish people I've individually come out to.

That's my suggestion.
Good luck
Dee


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Speak to the owner and/or one of the upper level management who you have a good rapport with.

I also work in a franchise. I am technically in charge of human resources as it falls under operations which I direct, so I couldn't exactly have a meeting with myself

I went directly to the owner, who I had known for a little over a year at the time. We had been having a conversation about something unrelated, he asked if I had a passport, and I told him I had been waiting to apply for one because I was planning to change my name and gender marker because I'm transgender and wanted to start transitioning that year. He didn't need more explanation than that - told me to let him know when I'd gotten everything updated or whenever I wanted to change email addresses/business cards, etc.

My advice would be to have a transition plan mapped out if you're able to. Let them know what your plans are, what you're hoping to do, and when. Ask about specific things like email accounts, ID badges, etc. Propose having a staff meeting to update everyone if it's a small office.

If you think your immediate supervisor would be offended by being bypassed in the chain, consider inviting them to your meeting. They may have ideas about how to move things forward.