re: New employee question

The fact that his gayness even crosses your mind speaks poorly of you.

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My companies first gay employee

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My companies

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Worry more about your use of possessives and less about where your fellow employees dunk their weenies.

Relax. I was the only heterosexual, white male on my unit at the hospital for 4 years. They finally hired a token married white guy. Lol

My job is pretty damn fun and we are an irreverent bunch. No big deal. He might help you to dress better too.

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Why? It's new to him. Why give him a hard time when he's trying to deal with a new experience.

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Person A being gay isn't an experience for Person B, especially at the workplace.

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My company is hiring its first gay employee, but he doesn't start for a few more weeks. At this point we know, but he doesn't know that we know.

This bring up two concerns:
1. If we ever want to fire him, is there a good way to legally protect the company so that he can't say he was fired because he is gay?
2. We have no control how clients feel about working with gay employees.


This is a Louisiana company if that matters.

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I feel sorry for this guy if you are any indication of what he is going to have to deal with. I wish I knew the guy to tell him what he is up against.

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At this point we know, but he doesn't know that we know.

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this is fricking weird imo

who tf cares if he's gay? people like you are so fricking strange

Several things:

First, instead of mocking the OP this should be used as a teachable moment.

OP,

1. This is not your first gay employee. It's your first gay employee that you know about.
2. Why did you hire this guy? Focus on his strengths, they are still there.
3. Having a gay employee should not hurt your business. Well, I can imagine scenarios it might, but I think that would be pretty rare.

Now more to your specific question.
1. Yes, LA is an at will state, so you can fire him for just about any reason (as long it is not because he is in a protected class).
2. BUT, don't just fire him (or anyone) willy-nilly. Your exposure is that he might make a claim that he is a protected class or (and this is the more serious issue) he might claim sexual harassment. Make sure you have a reason to fire someone, and there is a document trail. That's both risk management and good business practice.

Sexual harassment is some serious bad legal voodoo. Your attorney or HR professional can help train your whole office. Basically don't talk about sexual stuff. Not even as a joke. It sucks but that is the way it is.

And let me point out, you are far more likely to be sued by a women for sexual harassment than a gay man. But still, don't be stupid.

Don't make gay jokes. Don't ask about his personal life. No, "so what is it like to be gay?" questions. 99% chance it won't be a problem, but why risk it?

Note again, this does not specficially apply to gay men. Ask a female coworker "how has it been lately, been on any good dates?" could come back to bite you.

It's more complicated than that, but basically stick to business and talk about sports.

I'm about 99% sure that there are or have been other gay employees that you don't know about.

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Person A being gay isn't an experience for Person B, especially at the workplace.

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I work with plenty of Gay people so it doesn't bother me. However if Person B is unaccustomed to interacting with someone who happens to be gay then there is a time of getting used to something or someone new. Should it matter? Nope. Is it a new experience for him? Yes. Hence, it is an experience.