Pride Month Is More Than Just Putting Policies On Paper!
The LGBTQIA+ junoon sets out in full gusto in June. The corporate sky is overcast with rainbows and there is a downpour of articles, meet-n-greet and show-it-how-its-done conversations with cisgender, heterosexual crowds. Come July, the sun sets on queerdom and the corporate world starts focusing on the next shiny agenda. It gives the community a feeling of being used for more likes and views, and enhanced social capital for the corporate. There is a need for corporates to go beyond the obvious and go on even after the shutterbugs stop. In this day and age, when words spill faster on Twitter than the speed of light, people who are long subjugated, disregarded, disenfranchised will not silently lament. They would use their gift of the gab to bridge the gap between reality and propaganda, and content and intent.
As a seasoned activist who decided to take the corporate plunge, I have my cynicism about corporate intents intact. And it played on when I was choosing a corporate to work with. My matchmaking found a suiter in Axis Bank. I believe they thought that my spirit of activism and creative campaigning would make me a strong advocate to get different kinds of people into the Axis fold. And for me, what stood out was the fact that all the senior management, CEO, ED, HR-Head affirmed their commitment to DE&I. I wanted to go to an LGBTQIA+ aware organization, and all through the multiple interviews I tried to bring my best rainbow card out to test if there was any pretense. They came out clean and intentional.
Difference should not be met with diffidence, in fact, differences are the best defense. In biology, the amount of genetic diversity is directly proportional to affirmative environmental adaptation. In our hollowed corporate houses, if we are peas in a pod, we will not be adept in adapting to the changing nature of the markets. Regardless of business, we are in a metamorphic era where we are rapidly progressing. Adaptation to markets is the need, adaptable skills are the new currency.
People who identify as LGBTQIA+ become the most adaptable population. Adaptation to acute stress is our life story. To stand true to our identity, in a world that expects us to be the same as them, is a part of our everydayness. Our sheer existence and assertion of their identities is in their DNA, and this is what we bring to the workplace as well. No wonder, LGBTQIA+ talents are visible and loud advocates of the companies they work for when the companies ensure love and acceptance without making it look like charity.
To succeed in the competitive marketplace, where opportunities are plenty and where loyalty goes to the highest bidder… a queer positive mindset can become the most distinctive value. So take down your rainbow decoration and panel discussions if you may, we will judge you by what you do every day. Everyday environment for your queer employees needs to get better. Everyday business with you for queer people, needs to get better.
We all are in the learning curve. We are queer all 365 days of the year, don’t make us an item for a month. We are your forever bombshells.
(The article has been penned down by Harish, Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Axis Bank only for BW People publication)
