Productivity Costs and Nondisclosure of Queer Identity

Researchers who didn’t disclose their LGBTQA identities in the workplace authored fewer peer-reviewed publications and those who did disclose their sexual orientation had publication counts more like non-LGBTQA peers, according to new survey-based study in PLOS One. “These results are most consistent with a productivity cost to nondisclosure of LGBTQA identity in professional settings, and suggest a concrete need to improve scientific workplace climates for sexual and gender minorities,” the study says. Co-author Joey Nelson, assistant professor of ecology and evolution at California State University, Northridge, told CSUN Today, “There’s long been an idea that not feeling safe to ‘come out’ at work creates stress and challenges that impose a cost on productivity and job satisfaction. This is, to my knowledge, the first study establishing that directly.”