myGwork Research: The Impact of the Pandemic on LGBTQ+ Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace

Mental Health and Organisational Support Survey Results

This year, everyone around the globe saw their lives turn upside down as we were faced with a global pandemic. It has affected communities on opposite sides of the world and impacted almost every aspect of our daily lives. Limiting social interactions and hiding away indoors are often cited as the opposite of what we should do when looking after our mental health, however, this became commonplace for many over the last months, and will continue to be the norm in places around the world for perhaps the foreseeable future. The LGBTQ+ community is disproportionately affected by mental health and workplace discrimination, and during a global crisis, as an already vulnerable group of people, are likely to need additional support and resources to ensure they are coping both mentally and physically.

As the experts in workplace LGBTQ+ equality, we wanted to use our resources to conduct vital research into the lives of LGBTQ+ people across the world and find out how organisations have responded to the pandemic, and if they have ensured that their vulnerable staff are supported throughout this period. Here we will share the results to this survey, where we examined mental health, access to support, workplace discrimination and more.

Why We’ve Done This research

Despite recent progress on legal entitlements in many western countries and more so in the UK, research and evidence have continued to suggest that LGBTQ+ people face discrimination, bullying and harassment in education, work and on the streets. On top of this, they commonly experience hate crimes and higher inequalities in health satisfaction and outcomes. As experts in LGBTQ+ equality, we aimed to investigate how the global Covid-19 pandemic affected LGBTQ+ people in the workplace.

Who Responded?

Respondents had very diverse identities. The range of terms used to self-describe respondents identities highlights the ever-changing linguistic denomination.

68% of our respondents stated identifying as either gay or lesbian.

Other identities included bisexual/pansexual (12%), queer/questioning (5%), transgender (4% ) and allies (just under 5%).

6% of our respondents chose to self-describe using a combination of terms, for example, one person identified as ‘Queer, transsexual, intersex, women, demisexual’.

Other common identities given include:

● Lesbian, Non-binary

● Bisexual, Questioning, Non-binary

● Polygender, Polysexual

● Bisexual/queer

● Non-binary Trans, Pansexual, Queer

● Trans, bi/pansexual, queer

● Pan Transman

Company Size

Our study gathered responses from a representative sample of organisations in the UK in terms of size, with the largest number of responses coming from companies having 1001 to 2500 in the UK and the lowest number coming from SMEs.

The size of a company the respondent worked for impacted the likelihood that they were out in the workplace, with those working in the either the smallest organisations (1 to 10 employees) or largest organisations (1000+ employees) being much more likely to be out to all, with each respectively showing that 40% were out to all in the workplace.

Experience of Discrimination

3 Quarters of LGBTQ+ People Have Experienced Some Form of Discrimination

Out of LGBTQ+ respondents, 73% shared that they had experienced homophobia, biphobia or transphobia. Of them, more than half had experienced rejection, exclusion and social isolation (52%), difficulties coming out (53%) and stigma and discrimination (55%).

Mental Health of Respondents

Anxiety is the most common mental health issue experienced by respondents (just over 81%), plus 41% of the respondents have experienced suicidal feelings and ideation.

Respondents who stated being out to all reported better health overall, with lower percentages of mental health and other related issues.

Those who were not able to be out about their gender identity or sexuality reported greater levels of low self-esteem, depression and anxiety, with all; of these respondents experiencing at least one of these conditions, compared to 69% of those who were out to all.

Those unable to be out about their gender identity or sexuality were also more likely to have an eating disorder (50% compared to 32% who were out), experienced greater risks of substance misuse (75% compared to 24% who were out) and had a greater risks of suicide and self harm (75% compared to 35% who were out).

Impact of Covid-19 on Mental Health

When asked about the impact of Covid-19 on their mental health and wellbeing 60% of the respondents stated that the pandemic had negatively impacted on their mental health, describing their wellbeing and mental health as ‘worse or much worse’.

We also saw a link between not being out about your sexuality or gender identity and a decline in mental health and wellbeing, with 100% of those not out to anyone reporting that their mental health and wellbeing had become 'worse or much worse'.

Whilst, on the other hand, those able to be out at work showed the most improvement, with 25% of respondents reporting their mental health and wellbeing had become 'better or much better'.

Organisational Response to the Pandemic

Workplace response to the pandemic tended to be better with smaller organisations.

The way in which organisations have responded to Covid-19 have overall been generally good, with over half (55%) of the organisations surveyed being cited as either extremely or very responsive.

We saw a trend with smaller companies tending to respond faster, with 71% of the company under 10 employees in the UK being cited as extremely responsive.

Organisations with 11 to 50 employees were cited as the least responsive with 33% of respondents working for these organisations rating them poorly.

Half of the companies surveyed stated Moving to work from home/teleworking (46%) as the most common response to the pandemic, closely followed by providing hand sanitisers (44%) and regular Covid-19 briefings (44%).

Plus:

• One third implemented a staggered approach to working in the office (half staff at home and half at work).
• One third started weekly wellbeing briefings.
• A quarter provided additional wash spaces, soap and updated contact details of employees.
• 1 in 5 changed the layout of the office/provided a greater space between desks.
• 1 in 5 provided PPE for their staff.
• A smaller number of organisations provided additional training for managers, eg. to spot the symptoms, manage well being (13%) and provided extra pay for taxis/courier services (10%).

Support in the Workplace

Over half of the people surveyed stated not having any support facilities available in their workplace with the highest gap in provision being:

• 65% of respondents did not have a dedicated Covid-19 hotline
• 52% of respondents did not have a Mental Health First Aiders
• 54% do not have an LGBTQ+ network or ERG
• 46% could not access limited counselling sessions or professional emotional support
• 59% could not access unlimited counselling sessions or professional emotional support
• Many transgender respondents did not have access to any support in the workplace, those that did were most likely to only have access to a limited number of sessions for counselling (50% of transgender respondents)
• 31% of companies with more than 2500 employees in the UK do not have an established LGBTQ+ staff network/ERGs but for those who do, this support system was cited as the first place people would turn to for support

For those that had access to support in the workplace, 45% stated the LGBTQ+ staff network as their number one place to seek support, closely followed by a dedicated Covid-19 helpline (43%), access to counselling/professional emotional support (33%) and only 1 in 5 said would contact their dedicated mental health first aiders.

The Positive Impact of Being Out in the Workplace

We found strong evidence of a positive impact between being out at work and better wellbeing, including that:

• 83% of respondents said that being out at work gave them the freedom of self-expression and self-acceptance.
• Just over 3 quarters of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that being out at work had a positive impact on their wellbeing and increased resilience (77%), increased confidence (70%).
• Many found coming out improved relationships with friends and family (62%) and provided a sense of community and belonging (60%).

Conclusion

This survey makes a strong case for the need for additional support at work to support people through the current crisis. Work should be places that promote wellbeing, enabling all staff to thrive and succeed to their best potential. It provides supporting evidence for the need to support LGBTQ+ people in the workplace and shows the value brought by LGBTQ+ staff networks. We can also see that the push for workplace LGBTQ+ equality is far from over, and should not be given backseat just because we are working from home. The wellbeing and mental health of an organisation’s staff needs to be a priority, both during the pandemic and beyond.

Additional Information and support

Companies which had already started the transition to remote working pre-pandemic found it easier to adapt to the confinement brought about by the pandemic.

In "Adapting to the Medium"​ but with empathy and inclusion at its heart Kamran Khan states that managers cannot ignore the importance of trust, inclusiveness and empathy in understanding the ways in which colleagues wish to work if a company wants to be effective when working remotely.

University UK has just published comprehensive support on fostering a mentally healthy space for students and staff Stepchange: mentally healthy universities

As part of our global online conference, #WorkPride2020, we dedicated a whole day of webinars to Well-Being and Support, which can be accessed here: https://www.mygwork.com/en/work-pride

For more information about how myGwork can support you in creating an inclusive workplace environment contact support@mygwork