Dear [First name],
For my master Human Resource Studies at Tilburg University I am conducting interviews to better understand queer employees' inclusion at gay-friendly workplaces in The Netherlands. Therefore, I want to shed light on both barriers and facilitators of gay-friendly practices as experienced by queer employees via semi-structured interviews.
Your employer is considered to be gay-friendly due to (some of) the following criteria: their listing on the Corporate Equality Index of 2018, former participation of Amsterdam Canal Parade, queer-friendly campaigns, or the existent of a queer community/ association within the organization.
Therefore, it would be extremely valuable for my research if you would be willing to participate in my interview study or if you can connect me with individuals from your organization who are belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community, in order for me to reach out to them. In order to balance my sample, I am preferably looking for asexual individuals at the moment.
Please feel free to share my contact details with them directly. (Ik spreek ook Nederlands)
Looking forward to hearing from you.
All the best, Stefan Zhu
Mobile: 0615835366 (also WhatsApp)
E-mail: stefanzhu@live.com / j.w.zhu@tilburguniversity.edu
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stefanzhu
Welkom op het forum Stefan, :cake: :cake: :cake: :cake:
Ik geloof niet dat we iemand op het forum hebben die [First name] heet ;D, maar bedankt voor je interesse in aseksualiteit.
Tot enige tijd terug werkte ik voor een bedrijf wat erg LHBT-vriendelijk was (eigen community, deed mee aan de canal parade, enz), contacten met de LHBT'ers daar heb ik bijna niet meer dus daar kan ik je niet mee helpe. Als je mij daar persoonlijk vragen over wilt stellen mag dat uiteraard, een PM is dan het handigst denk ik.
Great that you want to research this, good luck! :cheerleader:
I work at a university as well, but I never really looked into their queer support policies, I couldn't find if they had any. I do know that they have an acceptance week for students. I would like to add that your criteria seem to be mostly about formal (outward) ways of showing acceptance and support, while many workplaces are actually very LHBT+ friendly without official indexes or campaigns. In my experience some of the most valuable acceptance does not come from canal parades and queer groups (although they are great!), but from the teams you work with on a daily basis. Supervisors and colleagues that foster an open, accepting environment, that are happy to listen to everyone's experiences and try to support each other. Bosses that make clear that everyone is welcome and that queer-phobic remarks and jokes are not tolerated. So I think it is not only important to have queer groups and official inclusion guidelines, but also to have team leaders that are actually welcoming and open-minded, so they in turn can build a staff that welcomes queers.