My life at Avalere, a part of Fishawack Health, has been really interesting, both in my career and my personal development. I’m trans and have been with my wife for more than 16 years and with Avalere for nearly 14. During my time here, I got married and we had a baby.
Being supported for just being me was hugely important, and it was part of what allowed me to feel like I didn’t have to be so rigid in sharing who I was with the people with whom I worked. I was able to bring my walls down and be more present in my interactions with my colleagues. I’m now very good friends with a lot of the people that I’ve worked with over the last decade, and that wasn’t something that I had intended at the time.
I got involved with the LGBTQ+ Alliance and we have done some important things. The company has leaders that are open to important changes, like adding pronouns to our email signatures or fixing language issues to be more inclusive in our benefits. When we raised those ideas, they just jumped on it.
We now have gender-neutral language in our benefits, and that’s important in creating a welcoming culture. Having people involved at every level has been beneficial across the board because we get to discuss issues openly in a non-judgmental atmosphere.
If you are constantly second-guessing whether you are being valued and supported for who you are, you, as an employee, are not going to be getting the most you can out of any job. And the company is not going to be getting the best and most creative ideas out of its employee workforce or have the most physically and mentally healthy crew of folks. To allow people to show up as their fully authentic selves and to be present—not to hide who they are—to use language and create a work environment where everyone feels comfortable to show up honestly and genuinely every day at work—that is huge.