Zander Butterworth, protection customer services representative at Canada Life, speaks to Health & Protection about being surprised at the great attitudes towards LGBTQ+ communities across the industry, why moving away from suit and tie dress codes matters as well as the importance of working in a sector that has your back.
What have been your own experiences with regard to attitudes towards LGBTQ+ communities in the sector?
My personal experience is that attitudes towards LGBT communities are really great in our industry. I have one or two negative incidents with people but overall, the attitude is that homophobia and transphobia have no place in our sector.
I worked with a colleague in the past who had met his husband years ago working for Canada Life, and I remember being surprised when I found out because there was a perception that financial services hadn’t been super LGBT-friendly in the past. But it is accepted.
Where I work has a lot of LGBT people, or really strong allies of them. In the same way that society has shifted its acceptance and mindset, I believe our industry has evolved to welcome and accept the LGBT community for who we are.
How have attitudes evolved in the sector?
I really think there have been some great positive strides in attitudes, such as the changing of the definition of partner to recognise it’s not just people who are legally married who have partners but also people who live together, as is really common in the LGBT community.
Many people won’t or can’t get married for their own reasons, so that shift, from your partner being the person you are married to, to the person you share your life with, is really important. It’s a protection that says we belong.
What is the sector doing well and where does it need to up its game?
Inclusion, across most industries, is improving. There is less of a mentality and attitude today that certain groups of people don’t fit certain jobs, for example in sport or more physical roles which in the past were seen as less for gay men.
The shift away from the suit and tie dress code across industries has helped people from all backgrounds feel included and comfortable. We’ve really moved away from the idea that someone’s appearance affects their ability to work.
I do feel an area that still needs to improve, and which isn’t exclusive to financial services or to the insurance sector, is regarding questions about knowing an individual’s sex, what their assigned gender at birth was or what their gender identity is.
And it does feel, with changes in attitudes in other countries, like the world has gone back a step.
I would question if people really understand yet how to speak to or deal with people who are non-binary.
Encouraging people to use their pronouns in signatures is great, but only if someone has the confidence to be out and share this personal information.
It’s a question, as a customer services team, we sometimes get from intermediaries when they contact us to ask “do we need to know?”, “how does being a trans person affect the premiums of protection insurance?” (because rates are calculated in relation to the likelihood of illnesses), and questions about whether we can document a third group.
The way we do business in group protection, in part because of the pooled nature of members in schemes, it matters less.
Individual protection cover can obviously be tailored, but I don’t think it’s ever really been made clear how much or little it can matter to the people affected.
The idea of a legally recognised third group of people – neither male nor female – is I feel a change that could very much start with businesses and the financial sector, then push to the government, rather than it needing to be the other way around.
Do you feel encouraged and enabled to bring your whole self to work?
I absolutely feel encouraged and enabled to bring my whole self to work. I don’t feel like I have to hide any part of myself.
I can talk with my manager about needing a half day for a gender clinic appointment, or I can vent to a colleague and we can commiserate together about long NHS wait times, or conversations like that.
It’s really great and makes for a good work environment when you can share yourself with your colleagues and managers.
It also makes a difference to know you’ve found a community. To know that a colleague who has a trans kid knows they can come and ask a trans person about it. Or know that someone who’s exploring their gender or sexuality themselves can think “I know I can talk to this person” and ask for guidance.
Being yourself means I, without wanting to be negative about who I am, can just be boring. If the only LGBTQ people we see on TV are a sensationalised exaggerated version of a person, we’re seeing an abstract of life.
I’m happy that someone is comfortable to see me for me and just have a chat about the bus, or the weather – it makes us real rather than a caricature.
The great thing is the world is now more accepting and inclusive of who we all are. We’re each quirky or unique in our own ways.
Whether you’re into historical re-enactments or play rock, if we can’t just talk about who we are and what we get up to at the weekend, we’re not learning about each other.
No-one should feel they need to hide their true selves and the world has come a long way in a short time. However exciting or mundane that part of our life may be, hiding yourself is not good for your wellbeing.
Whether or not you are LGBT+, or you just feel it’s something people will not accept about you. We all have a right to belong.
At a time when the trans community might feel the UK government is letting us down, it is good to feel our industry has our backs and accepts people for who we are.