Through our Lens: Supporting a team member coming out - Janice Cupit
My team member came out to me during a Teams meeting in 2020. There was no lead up to this conversation as it was at the end of a one-to-one meeting when I asked them if they had anything else to add to the meeting.
As an experienced manager I had had many conversations with members of staff where they had disclosed confidential information. As far as I was concerned this was another of those conversations.However, on reflection I hadn’t realised that they may have needed some support and advice, and I was not equipped to provide that at the time. The person concerned had already become part of the Serco Bi plus group and was already networking in this area.
At the time I didn’t realise how difficult it had been for the member of staff to come out to me in that conversation, and it would have been very helpful to me to have some tools and information at hand to enable me to provide support.
Since that meeting, the member of staff and myself have had many open conversations and we are both comfortable talking about the subject.
From my point of view, what could I have done differently to support them and do I need to be better informed?
If you feel like you might need additional support as a manager, please download the Guiding Principles for Managers guide for some helpful tips.
Colleagues and our business thrive because of our inclusive approach to our talented and diverse workforce. We are constantly looking to improve our ways of working in order to make Serco an even better place to work for everybody.
