Murray Lambell of eBay UK: ‘I was not comfortable to be out at work … and that limits you’

To read the full article, please click here .

The online retail giant’s boss is on a mission to make employee inclusivity a ‘moral obligation’ and to help his company adapt to a difficult post-pandemic marketplace. 

When corporate executives start discussing their efforts to influence company culture, a healthy amount of scepticism is advisable. But Murray Lambell, the UK boss of US online retail giant eBay, can draw on personal experience of the importance of how a business cares for staff. For many years he hid his sexuality from colleagues in a culture that was “more stifled and stuffy internally”.

“It was probably my own baggage,” he says. “I was not comfortable to be out at work … A lot of the leadership was white, middle-aged, from a very specific demographic and academic background, which didn’t all resonate with me. I didn’t feel comfortable to be a complete person at work and then that limits you.”

So what emboldened him? Until now, Lambell has been speaking briskly, beneath vivid images from graphic designer Alba Blázquez in the bright surroundings of eBay’s UK headquarters in west London. He takes a deep breath, visibly emotional. “I was married and my partner died. I had to come into work for the first time and tell my boss: ‘Oh, by the way I’m gay and my partner is actually in hospital right now.’

“I was thinking: ‘I shouldn’t be dealing with this issue right now, when I’m trying to deal with an existential crisis.’ I was having to deal with too many things in one go. I realised there was probably nothing to be fearful of.”

Lambell says his bosses at the time, in 2014, were “horrified” that he hadn’t felt comfortable discussing his sexuality earlier and the experience has emboldened him to treat employee inclusivity as a “moral obligation”. (The board is now more diverse and he’s taking a Yale University course on the subject.)