For most, coming out at work is not an easy task. You can’t be sure how your company or peers will respond to your revelation. And despite recent reports that the workplace is growing increasingly accepting to LGBT employees, people often don’t know how to welcome a colleague who recently came out of the closet.
PricewaterhouseCoopers executive Stephanie Peel’s history is a corporate America coming-out success story. When she came out professionally more than a dozen years ago, she was welcomed by her colleagues. “I came out personally in 1997 and came out professionally in 1999. Fortunately, I never heard anything not positive,” says Peel.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is No. 1 on The 2012 Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversitylist and No. 6 on the Top 10 Companies for LGBT Employees. Peel serves on the company’sGLBT Partner Advisory Board,which consists of 11 leaders in the firm who are LGBT and provides guidance to the management committee to help further advance initiatives and activities.
