The Glass Closet

Starred review from June 23, 2014
With impressive candor, former BP CEO Browne (Beyond Business) examines the steep price that LGBT employees pay if they stay closeted at work, and shows how being open benefits individuals and organizations. He begins with the story of his resignation from BP, and the impact of living life in the closet both personally and professionally. Though support for gay rights is becoming more popular, Brown shows that there's still a lack of awareness of the difficulties LGBT employees face. Not surprisingly, 41% of the LGBT employees in the U.S. remain closeted at work, and at the close of 2013, there was not one openly gay CEO in the Fortune 500. Browne shares touching stories from other brave business leaders who came out professionally, including Xerox's Mike Feldman, Beth Burke of Ernst & Young, and Antonio Simoes of HSBC. What distinguishes this important and ground-breaking book is the author's focus on the practical side of welcoming LGBT employees into an organization; he helpfully identifies seven actions that companies can take to be inclusive of LGBT rights, including setting direction from the top, creating LGBT resources groups, and encouraging straight allies.

June 1, 2014
An appeal to LGBT workers and corporations about the benefits of inclusion, from the former CEO of a Fortune 500 company.Riverstone Holdings partner Browne (Seven Elements that Changed the World, 2014, etc.) resigned from BP in 2007 following a scandal that exposed his long-hidden sexuality. Living a double life destroyed his career, and he cautions others not to make his mistake. After a lengthy, needless primer on the history of homosexuality, the author focuses on the sphere of his fellow white-collar professionals; in 2012, there were no openly gay CEOs in the Fortune 500, and (presumably) straight white men held almost 75 percent of all boardroom seats. Brown also reports that an estimated 41 percent of LGBT employees in the United States are in the closet. He believes businesses should seek to employ "the best people, everywhere, on the single criterion of merit" and urges them to demonstrate to employees that coming out will not be "catastroph[ic]...regardless of their sector or the protections in place at their company." The author glosses over the fact that this will be the case for rank-and-file employees in companies, and countries, hostile to gays. Browne effectively presents both leadership lessons and workers' stories of how the closet has hurt their dignity and careers. An out senior banker at HSBC warns, "[a]t some point if you're not truthful about certain elements of your personal life it becomes a huge liability....People won't trust you and may even use it against you." If this book fails to inspire risk-averse business leaders, it will reassure gay workers that "kowtowing to those who disapprove of your sexuality suggests their comfort is more important than your own. It is not." Browne further urges them to take responsibility: "If a company opens the closet door, it is up to the employee to walk through it."Valuable encouragement to closeted workers who can afford to heed the author's advice.

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July 1, 2014

This work by Browne (partner, private equity firm Riverstone Holdings; Beyond Business) joins the increasing number of titles focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees, a field that includes Sylvia Ann Hewlett's research study "The Power of 'OUT, '" included in her book Brainpower. The author knows of what he speaks: he is a former CEO of BP who remained closeted until his controversial resignation. Drawing heavily from his own career, as well as from interviews with LGBT business leaders and the growing body of research in this arena, Browne discusses how European and American white-collar industries cannot afford to ignore the LGBT community. Nor can they ignore their LGBT employees--41 percent and 34 percent of whom remain in their respective U.S. and UK closets, surrounded by a worldwide cultural climate of discrimination. Browne maintains that corporate leaders can boost morale, increase productivity, and discredit homophobia by creating "cultures of inclusion codified not merely in policies and handbooks, but also in the thoughts and behaviour of employees." VERDICT Brown's rhetoric is businesslike and a little dry but also to the point, supported by research, and culturally significant. He has taken pains to provide strikingly honest personal narratives and uses them to put a face on the problems at hand.--Nerissa Kuebrich, Chicago

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