Prague, Aug 13 (CTK) – Big firms in the Czech Republic do not deal with their approach to employees from sexual minorities very much, according to a poll conduced by the Business for Society platform and released at an economic conference, held within the Prague Pride LGBT festival Thursday.
Though 80 percent of these firms care for diversity in their working teams, only 10 percent have a strategy directly focused on the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
This problem is hardly ever reflected during the debates about diversity, Pavlina Kalousova, from the Business for Society non-governmental platform supporting the development of socially responsible business in the Czech Republic, told reporters Thursday.
The poll shows that 50 percent of the big firms addressed in the survey do not perceive the situation of their employees from sexual minorities as a problem to be solved and they do not plan to deal with this issue in the future either.
However, it is important even for the firms’ commercial success, participants in the Pride Business Forum 2015 pointed out Thursday.
Prague Pride festival director Czeslaw Walek said some 80 percent gays and lesbians do not speak openly about their sexual orientation at work in the Czech Republic. They either hide it completely, or reveal it only to their close collaborators, he added.
IBM Vice-President Claudia Brind-Woody said she considered openness the key factor of a business success. If people are hiding something, they spend a lot of energy on it that could be used for their work instead, she said.
The employees who keep their homosexuality secret have also problems to speak about common private affairs, such as summer holidays and weekend activities, with their fellow workers, she added.
John Browne, the main speaker at Thursday’s conference, was hiding that he was a gay in his company for decades. He resigned from the post of the British Petroleum general director in 2007 after tabloids revealed it.
Secret members of the LGBT community experience the same feelings heterosexuals would have if forced to hide their children’s photographs and wedding rings, he said.
This is an immense problem and these people live a terrible life, he added.
