Employee and Gender Change
ezbell
3 Posts
One day an employee comes to work as "Jim" and the next day he is "Jane". The employee is undergoing a gender change operation and must dress as a female for six months while undergoing hormone treatments. The employee is also a Sales Representative who interacts with customers on a daily basis. This is new to me and our HR staff. How to we counsel managers and employees? What/how do we tell customers? By the way, legal is involved, but they are baffled as well.
Comments
We have had a couple of male employees undergo gender change. They were also store employees who did cashiering and stocking. Jane should be receiving some intense counseling that should be addressing her work issues and I would think that she has received advise on a recommended way to handle this. I would ask her and involve her in this process. Our store employees tend to very close knit and so were already aware of the situation and were very supportive therefore it wasn't an issue. The customers weren't told anything.
Elizabeth
I mean, Oh, Girl! Whatever
When I first read it I had 3 or 4 smart replies I started typing and stopped. But it does not surprise me that someone who has gone through this is from San Francisco!!!! All the lunnies are there!
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The BalloonMAN
Jane should pick up an application from human resources and apply for a position if she wants one.
She is no longer Jim. She is no longer employed by the organization. What am I missing?
Paul
Balloonman,I suppose it is a matter of perspective. We believe that we are more open-minded and more accepting of people. We also try not to sterotype people by who they are or where they live for that matter.
And, I may be very wrong on this, but I don't believe I have ever seen Don make fun of people because of race, gender etc.
Elizabeth
Okay, tomorrow, my husband and I will be escaping the "lunacy" of San Francisco and heading for the sedate and conservative ol' South for a week. New Orleans.
Elizabeth
Just avoid any references to the Confederate flag and you'll be just fine. x;-)
>
>Okay, tomorrow, my husband and I will be escaping the "lunacy" of San
>Francisco and heading for the sedate and conservative ol' South for a
>week. New Orleans.
>
>Elizabeth
Hate to tell you but you are just trading one form of lunacy for another. lol I live about an hour from New Orleans and I don't think I have ever had a sedate or conservative time there!
Johnette
[link:www.hrhero.com/cgi-bin/employersforum/employersforum.cgi?az=email_user&userid=Squishypig|Spread your HR wisdom, e-mail me!]
We neither. Why do you think we go there every other year or so! So who is really "further out", San Francisco or New Orleans?
Elizabeth
>>
>>Okay, tomorrow, my husband and I will be escaping the "lunacy" of San
>>Francisco and heading for the sedate and conservative ol' South for a
>>week. New Orleans.
>>
>>Elizabeth
>
>Hate to tell you but you are just trading one form of lunacy for
>another. lol I live about an hour from New Orleans and I don't think I
>have ever had a sedate or conservative time there!
>
>
>Johnette
>[link:www.hrhero.com/cgi-bin/employersforum/employersforum.cgi?az=email_user&userid=Squishypig|Spread
>your HR wisdom, e-mail me!]
that's the truth!! My husband and I went to New Orleans one Labor Day weekend. Coincidentally, also Southern Decadence weekend in the Big Easy! For those who have never heard, it is Gay Mardi Gras (or something like Mardi Gras). DEFINITELY NOTHING conservative about it! We were there with about 60,000 gay men and women. Talk about a wild party!
>"Jane". The employee is undergoing a gender change operation and must
>dress as a female for six months while undergoing hormone treatments.
>The employee is also a Sales Representative who interacts with
>customers on a daily basis. This is new to me and our HR staff. How to
>we counsel managers and employees? What/how do we tell customers? By
>the way, legal is involved, but they are baffled as well.
I have worked with an individual going through this process. While I was not involved in any decisions as to how the company was going to handle it, I know that the final decision was to treat the person with sensitivity and understanding. No big announcements were made, but it was clear that no one would be allowed to make disparaging comments of any kind. The person was in marketing, but as far as I know, no outside vendors were told anything.