I came out at my corporate job as trans at my job of 10 years. My current manger is a paternity leave, and the guy above him just got in his role like a week ago. This made it a little challenging to get the ball rolling. But HR connected with my our LOB Executive who is over everybody in my dept. She's in another state.
I have a unique role where i work as a team with people in FL and AZ. I gave HR a "go live" date that was coming up in like five days. Well they had to communicate with our LOB Exec and come up with a communication plan for my team. I also support five other teams on my floor who known me for x number of years as my male name. My exec wanted to inform them as well. So Thursday of last week they put a telepresence meeting for my entire team of like 15 people. The LOB Exec told them I will be going by a new name as of this date, using women's restroom, and going by female pronouns. I was present in that meeting. A video was shown for educational purposes. It went positive. A few questions were asked. Lasted about 35 minutes.
Then I had to draft a list of people I interact with more often who I have a rapport with on the other 5 teams I support. So I pulled up the directory and went person by person and thought "Have I made personal connection with this person?" "Did this person ever have meaningful interactions where it may be different with my change?" "Have I worked with this individual for 5 years or more?" If the answer was "yes" to any of those questions I added them to the list. This list added up to 22 people.
The 22 people were invited to a meeting to discuss the upcoming changes to take place in a few days. I didn't join this one. They basically got the same message as my team did. I heard the responses and feedback were positive from those who was there. Whew but i still had anxiety about how each person took it. But I can't worry about others I am doing this for me.
I sit by a different team of people who see me walk in and out each day. I didn't know but I found out the next day that whole team was told in a brief team meeting, not from our LOB Exec though just a regular meeting that team was told.
Today was my first day coming in as a female. Dress, wig, makeup, flats etc. I was very calm leaving the house. I had a high point leading in to work. A couple people from my list came to check on me periodically. That was a little annoying because I was fine. Then I hit a low point at about 2 o'clock idk why. Eat lunch, took my vitapak then got on a high emotionally. Today I was myself. Didn't alter my voice at all. A number of people used my new name "Bree". Some called me by my birth name. I have to get used to this new name, because I am not referred by it often. But with time I think that will come. I made it and I am here to tell you all about it.
Thank you to everyone who post in this forum. Throughout the day i read your post and what you experience and it gives me a slighter of hope to continue. I am not on HRT at the moment. I won't be doing HRT until next year but I now am getting Real World Experience. That in itself is a BIG step. Thank you and love you all.
