myGwork stories #7 UK - 'Being out at work can drive success'

I always felt fortunate for the childhood I had, I grew up in a small rural town in the north of Spain within a middle class family that loved me unconditionally and was always surrounded by loads of friends. I was a good student and quite skilled at sports in general, especially football, which let me gain some popularity within my group of friends. It was during my mid-teenage years that I started to discover my sexual tendencies, and soon after I started feeling uncomfortable about admitting that I was gay. My biggest fear was being excluded from a circle of people that I was very comfortable with. I didn't want to be rejected from where I belonged and I was very scared of leaving my comfort zone and popularity that I had gained over the past years.

Growing up in a small town is not always a bed of roses. After coming to terms with myself and felling comfortable with being gay, I wanted to find others like me; but where would I ever find them? There were a few gay guys in my hometown that were called “fag” and harassed on a regular basis. If people knew I was friends with them or talked to them, they would know for sure I was gay, and I was SO not ready for that! I was not ready to be the target of mean rumours and feel that everybody was talking and gossiping about me. Being part of a semi-professional football team in my early 20s did not help either. The macho environment with its intrinsic homophobic remarks and jokes that exist in football along with the hypermasculinity promoted by media, make it difficult for players to come out.

After finishing my degree in Business Administration and being granted a scholarship to complete a Masters degree in Finance I moved to London. London was the best city I could think of for my next adventure; not only because of the sense of freedom that one can feel; but also because it was one of the best places in the world to develop my career in the finance industry. I had the chance to make loads of new friends and soon I couldn’t care less about the small town gossip any longer. London finally made me able to be completely open and comfortable about my personal life. Yet, to be fully open during my professional life took a little longer.

The great importance of being myself at work

After a couple of years where I decided to hide part of my personal life from my professional life, I was lucky enough to land at Moody’s. Moody’s has very strong diversity and inclusion policies and management really strive in creating an environment where talent can be challenged, engaged and recognised for their contributions regardless of race, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Among other policies, there is a yearly mandatory training to ensure compliance with inclusion rules, a weekly company-wide email distribution from the LGBT group and senior management would be encouraged to put rainbow laces on their desks to show they are supportive of the LGBT community. Hence, I was ready to be myself and after a few weeks, I shared that I was gay in the most casual and natural way: during some after-work drinks with my closest colleagues.

Being out made my working experience at Moody’s unique; I had a few colleagues recognizing me that they had a very stereotyped view of the LGBT community and they were glad of having met me because it opened their view towards the community and its problems. In fact, having strong diversity and inclusion policies is not only beneficial for us but also for the colleagues around us who may have not had the opportunity to be educated within the values of respect, integrity and tolerance towards all minorities. But ultimately the employer would benefit the most from having employees from different backgrounds being able to see processes and practices from different perspectives and having increasing morale, productivity and retention rates within its workforce.

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