Friday Staff Survey: Office Space

This survey was compiled by TNG co-founder Zack.

Original illustration by Maggie. Click to enlarge for more details.

Are you avoiding gender-specific pronouns? Talking in only the vaguest terms about your weekend plans? Going so far out of your way to be the butchest guy or femmest girl that your own homo friends don't want to be around you? You must not be out at work. Navigating office politics is hard enough — when is it safe to leave early? Where is the safest bathroom for going number two? — that the question of if and when to divulge your abhorrent sexuality is only one more thing to make going to work difficult. Luckily, in this day and age such things are (hopefully) becoming less of an issue. With that in mind, today's staff survey question is as follows:

Are you out at work? How has this impacted your job experience?

Question once again suggested by Maggie. Please click on her above illustration to see all it's awesome details. After that, you can read the full survey below the fold.

1. Zack, Co-founder and primary contributor:

I am absolutely out at work. In fact, I have had hot, sweaty, condomless buttsex in nearly every corner of my office. However, I work from home and live with my boyfriend so it's really not that untoward. My old job was as a reporter for a gay newpaper. The only thing that could possibly overwhelm the stresses of being closeted in a mostly-hetero office setting is the outright lunacy of a workplace stocked entirely with friends of Ellen and Dorothy. There were times when I wished I could go back in time and pretend to be straight, if only to be spared from the frequent bitchy outbursts and unabashed manhunt surfing of several key drama queens at my old place of employ.

2. Michael, Co-founder and primary contributor:

I put some of my queer community building experience on my resume. They knew from day one. I have yet to bring in pictures of my boyfriend to put in frames on my desk, though...

3. Allison, Staff Contributor:

I wasn't immediately "out" at work. My coworkers knew something was up however because my girlfriend would send me flowers to the office. Every time someone asked "Who sent these to you!?" I would get really squeamish and vague: "oh, you know...a person sent these to me. Gotta go!" Soon I told some coworkers I felt close to that I was with a woman and it was out in the open from there. My favorite part is that all of the Jewish women who work at my office are lesbians. We all have frizzy hair and make fun of reality TV.

4. Matt, Staff Contributor:

I've always been out at work since coming out. When I applied for my first job after coming out, my internship coordinator advised me to take references to leadership within the Pride Alliance off my résumé. I did not. I told her that I didn't want to work anyplace where that mattered. I got the job, and as it turned out, two of my interviewers were gay.

At my current job, I'm out but I typically only talk about my personal life with my teammates, not with other colleagues or with my superiors. I'm not sure if they are all aware that I'm gay, but I don't think it would bother them.

5. Rocky, Music Editor:

I'm an interior designer. Being gay is my job, son!

6. Maggie, Staff Cartoonist:

I work at one of the most liberal private schools in DC where you can practically count the number of conservatives on one hand, so being out isn't an issue. Once a year the school holds an Open Forum Discussion for students, parents, and faculty. Last year's topic dealt with race and sexual orientation, and I chose to stand up in front of 250+ people to give the example that by looking at me you can tell I'm white but you may not be able to tell I'm a lesbian. After the Forum a parent approached me, looked me up and down, cocked her head, smiled and said, "well, now! You are just the cutest little lesbian," all the while patting my head Liz Lemon style. To this day, one of my coworkers still refers to me as the "cute little lesbian."

7. Corey, Managing Editor and Staff Contributor:

In addition to being the designated ice queen/bad cop bitch when dealing with our clients, managing our decorating and party planning, and having hosted High School Musical 2 sing-alongs in the office every Friday for an entire semester, I have tried to come out more directly in my office. I know that the small staff knows I'm gay, but it's like they don't want to accept it - as though they are trying to give me the "benefit of the doubt," or don't want me to be embarrassed by their knowing. Clearly they're the ones who have a problem with it, not me... cuz I'm pretty gay... and pretty out...

8. Chris, Theatre Editor:

Like most music majors, I have about four jobs and my out-ness factors in differently in each. In the arts-related office, I'm out and it comes up naturally in conversation, but I didn't go out my way to jump out of the supply closet. In the classroom, I don't mention it or hide it, which is what any good teacher should do in order to maintain their own privacy. In the musical theatre world...well...you should have seen the outfit I wore when we did Rocky Horror. Working in the arts has a way of outing you - not that the arts don't employ straights, but just that it makes it that much easier to come out and be out if you are indeed gay. I can't remember the last time I felt like I had actually "come out" to someone. I did all that in college and now it's just life.

9. Ed, Staff Contributor:

I've been totally out at every job I've had since I moved to DC in 1995. As I said in my "Out of the Bedroom and Into The Living Room" column, I talk about my relationship the same way heterosexual people talk about theirs. I discuss our weekend plans, vacations, home improvement projects, and I sometimes ask heterosexual coworkers for and, when asked, give relationship advice. I have had photos of Adrian and me on my desk or in my office, but that is an individual choice. I talk about Adrian a lot so I carry photos of us on my iPod. Okay, it's obnoxious, but what can I say? I'm a mushy romantic. I love him. I'm incredibly proud of him and I'm grateful to have him in my life.

Editorial Staff:

10. Jolly, Events Editor:

Since Rocky already broke that ice: I write for a celebrity gossip blog about how hot male celebrities are, so it's practically a job requirement. Also, I think it's a rule of the universe that you must have at least one gay man on staff for it to even count as a celebrity gossip blog. That being said, I don't really discuss any aspects of my personal life with my co-workers and vice versa, so it doesn't really come up all that often.

11. Andrew, Editorial Assistant:

I recently changed jobs after moving to the DC area and made it apparent from the time I was interviewing that I'm gay (repeatedly discussing my partner and *his* job being the reason for our relocation.) It hasn't been an issue at all and made it very easy to be "gay" in the workplace. At my previous job, I wasn't out when I started but around the time Brian and I moved to DC, I felt it was stupid not to come out. Everyone was just happy to hear I was happy ... and some were a little irritated that I hadn't let them in sooner. But all in all, it was a non-issue in either place.