Workplace Survey - did I put my job at risk?

[jeaux90]

I've just filled in a survey at work. It's a Silicon Valley based tech company. Asks general questions then asks the following:

What is your gender identity?
Male
Female
Non Binary
Rather not say

There is no option to not answer, and no option to put anything else in.

So I've emailed HR and asked whether they are trying to work out who is male and female or are they genuinely trying to work out how large the trans community is in the company.

I also said it wasn't factually correct as female is a biological category.

I also told them it wasn't inclusive of people who don't believe in gender identity.

I now feel like I've done the wrong thing and a little bit worried but I couldn't let it slide.

They can't fire me for asking these questions I hope. Anyone else challenged this at work?
What happened?

So I've emailed HR and asked whether they are trying to work out who is male and female or are they genuinely trying to work out how large the trans community is in the company.

I'm assuming they don't have a separate question for sex/gender?
It's a valid and perfectly civil question and shouldn't get you into any trouble, unless the HR person you're dealing with is an unhinged activist. Keep copies of all correspondence and don't engage in any discussion about the 'validity' of gender identities, other than to point out that you don't have one.

I have questioned similar wordings a few times (I work on short contracts) and it has always led to a civil discussion. It helps if you can point them to any regulatory or in-house reporting requirements. For example, measuring non-binary identities without asking sex-gender can skew the company's gender balance data, and not necessarily in their favour if they employ few women and many of them identify as non-binary.

Gender identity is NOT a protected characteristic of the Equality Act - 2010 for your employer. Sex and gender reassignment are - with single sex exemptions, such as toilets and changing rooms for purposes of safety, privacy and dignity - all legally enshrined. Work places are supposed to align themselves to this law. If you have any issues - point this out.

The phrasing you mention is the new ‘Stonewalling’ of companies. Lots of info on line re Stonewall and their allies use of slight of hand purposeful misrepresentation of the law on this issue.

You are in your legal rights.

Gender identity? Me neither...

Are you based in the UK? If so it's unlikely they could fire you for asking questions, provide you ask them in a civil manner, which I'm sure you did. It's not impossible, but they would need to show that it is serious enough misconduct to warrant dismissal according to their employment policies, and as I said, providing you were civil and professional it would be hard to prove severe misconduct (all in my opinion of course, others may think differently).

If you're silicon valley based, well California is an at will state so they can fire you for any reason they like, so I wouldn't like to speculate.

I've just been sent a form to complete and closed it because I fell at the first question:

What gender to you identify as:

Male
Female
Non binary
Prefer not to say.

I literally can't answer it because I don't 'identify' as anything. But I can't even tick 'prefer not to say' because that implies i have one.

Out of all of them, I suppose in terms of 'gender' I'm slightly more masculine in my presentation/interests than feminine but it's not asking me that. And I certainly don't 'identify' as male. But neither do I 'identify' as female. I am female.

So how do I answer?

I can't.

I closed the form.

The will have taken you very seriously... expect a reissue with 20 different options.

I doubt you will get into trouble, often HR like feedback as it makes them feel important, but they won't do anything about it. Mostly they just respond as if there has been a communication problem and you don't understand their brave new world.

Thanks everyone. I'm in the UK. I was very civil and polite. I think they could have worded it way better if they were trying to assess how large the trans community is globally at my company.

No they didn't have a question on Sex. I would think they already hold this data seeing as they are obliged to report the pay gap metrics.

I was really peeved because there was no other option apart from to answer it. They have the 'dare to be yourself" strap line so I'm going to use that as my discussion point with HR if they engage. They need to be inclusive of all view points surely.