November 20th Matters
November 20th matters. And it should matter to ethics and compliance professionals because it marks a day where many have not stepped up to their responsibilities as the ethical and moral center of their companies.
Many of the rules, legislation, and regulatory issues companies face are at their core a protection of marginalized people. I would be remiss as the CEO of an ethics and compliance company not to speak out today, on the Transgender Day of Remembrance, and point to the wrongful marginalization of a community not always included in these discussions. I think few would argue that the transgender community, or anyone on the gender spectrum, is not a marginalized group. But many also try to “grade” the worthiness of marginalized groups. That discussion demonstrates explicit bias and shouldn’t be tolerated.
It has taken far too long, and far too many people have suffered greatly, to diminish the need for non-binary gender protections in the workplace as well as in society. In this blog, I am going to contain my thoughts to the workplace as that is where the most relevance is to ETHIX360 as a company, but it is much more than a footnote to include the other areas of our lives.
Transgender Discrimination Issues in the Workplace
Let’s try to break down some of the issues at the highest level, including accommodation, discrimination, and harassment and the role ethics and compliance professionals play, and by extension corporate responsibilities.
My mind is often boggled by people who try and create a false equivalency, or better said a false non-equivalency, amongst marginalized groups. Some people will try to set standards for accommodations, discrimination, or harassment by some factor. But I suppose universal human rights and the resulting accommodations and issues of harassment and discrimination are somewhat evolutionary. Large groups of affected people were helped with the Civil Rights Act for example, but then people tried to decide who and under what circumstances did it apply. Save some time – all people. Access to services (accommodations) was based on the degree of disability, or the level of access. Discrimination was based on the highest common denominator, like race, rather than the lowest.
The downstream fallout is disproportional enforcement based on non-specific guidelines…until specific guidelines exist. So where should companies stand? In my opinion, simply on equality, justice, and fairness. It should not be up to the company to determine the degree of disenfranchisement an individual faces to decide what accommodations should be made. It should be as simple as eliminating obstacles, period. Don’t decide what an individual deserves or does not deserve regarding accommodations or protections, just set the bar as high as possible. Don’t decide that enforcement of discrimination or harassment policies is “bad” if the discrimination or harassment is based solely on race, religion, ethnicity, or some binary gender definitions. Decide that enforcement of discrimination or harassment policies should be based on the act of harassment or discrimination solely, and not on a judgmental value if the harassment was warranted. Again, keep it simple – harassment or discrimination based on some random set of moral values is wrong. Period.
Transgender Workplace Policy
So what does this have to do with ethics and compliance? Start with a question asked of the famous bank robber, Willie Sutton. He was asked why he robbed banks, and his response was “because that’s where they keep the money.” This issue has everything to do with ethics and compliance because that is who writes the rules and policies companies follow and enforce.
Do your company’s policies include or exclude, for example, specific issues related to non-binary gender definitions? Is it simply silent on related issues? If so, take today, November 20th, a day set aside to acknowledge the needless deaths of transgender people, to memorialize their loss by doing your part to keep the field level. If your policies don’t specifically protect the rights of individuals who do not identify in traditional binary gender definition, fix the policies so they do. Don’t allow your employees to be bullied, harassed, or otherwise discriminated against. And you do that with clear and specific policies that are uniformly enforced.
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MEET THE AUTHOR
J Rollins is the co-founder and CEO of ETHIX360. J is a well known leader and innovator who has served on senior leadership teams ranging in responsibility from Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, SVP of Product Strategy and Chief Operating Officer.
ABOUT ETHIX360
At ETHIX360, our goal is simple: to provide an affordable, flexible, and comprehensive answer to employee communication, policy management, corporate training and case management on issues related to corporate ethics, code of conduct, fraud, bribery, and workplace violence.
