Study: out equals job satisfaction

A study from the Center for Work-Life Policy links being closeted at work to lower productivity and diminished job satisfaction.

The paper, published in this summer’s Harvard Business Review, reported:

LGBT employees who are not out reported significantly greater feelings of being stalled in their careers and greater dissatisfaction with their rates of promotion. LGBT employees who are not out are 40 percent less likely to trust their employer than those who are out. LGBT employees who remain closeted are 13 percent more likely to leave their jobs within the next three years.

“Organizations that encourage all of their employees to bring their whole selves to work have the greatest innovation and growth,” concluded Sylvia Ann Hewlett, who co-authored the paper.

– Lisa Neff