At least 154 new anti-trans bills have been proposed across the US in 32 states so far this year, NBC News reported in March. And in the first week of April, Georgia and Alabama passed legislation targeting transgender youth and athletes, after similar measures were signed into law in Texas, Iowa, and South Dakota earlier this year. In most cases, the legislation focuses on preventing access to gender-affirming medical care or banning trans youth from sports that correspond to their gender identity.

In the workplace, transgender individuals continue to face discrimination, with a 2021 study from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law noting that “43.8% of transgender employees reported experiencing verbal harassment at work, compared to 29.3% of cisgender LGB employees.” And a 2021 McKinsey report found transgender adults are twice as likely as cisgender adults to be unemployed.

The wave of legislation this year comes despite research showing that a majority of Americans support LGBTQIA+ rights. A recent Public Religion Research Institute survey found that 79% of people in the US favor laws that would protect LGBTQ people from “discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing.” Public transgender visibility has also increased in recent years, with prominent celebrities like Laverne Cox and Elliot Page speaking openly about their gender identity. And on the federal level, the Biden Administration last year nominated Admiral Rachel Levine to the post of US assistant secretary for health for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Levine is now the nation’s highest-ranking openly transgender official ever.

Levine began her career in public service in 2015 as physician general of Pennsylvania, and more recently served as Pennsylvania’s secretary of health. She has two children, is a “rabid” fan of the New England Patriots, and a staunch advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, telling the Today show in 2020, “As an openly transgender woman and a proud member of our community, I hopefully educate people that LGBTQ people are here. We’re part of the community and we really try to work towards the common good.”

HR Brew recently spoke with Admiral Levine about her dedication to DE&I, coming out as transgender at work, and her view on the responsibility of employers to speak out against anti-trans legislation.

What role, if any, did supportive HR leaders have as you embraced your identity in your career? Read the full interview here.—KP

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

If you’ve been working from home for the last two years, you probably swapped out your suits and work slacks for sweatpants and slippers a long time ago. And now, as more companies call employees back to the office, you may find yourself at a loss for what to wear. You’re not alone: In March, Google saw a huge uptick in searches related to “business casual outfits” and “casual work outfits.”

According to CBS News, workplace dress was already beginning to trend more casual; the pandemic just sped up the process. As the Great Return expands, employers are divided over what’s considered acceptable attire when employees are in the office.

How important are clothes anyway? Whether employees should be expected to wear suits, button-down shirts, or even skirts and dresses in an office setting depends on who you ask.

• Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley loosened their dress codes before the pandemic.
• A lawyer at a New York-based firm told Fast Company that employees there could wear denim without rips when they go back to the office as long as they wear business attire for client meetings.
• Staffers on Capitol Hill, who are known for wearing ties and pencil skirts, have been opting for more casual attire like sweaters and even sneakers.

Another sign of changing times. Yahoo! Finance reporter Dave Briggs told Yahoo! Finance Live that companies need to adapt to what employees want to wear. “I think there are things we will never go back to,” Briggs said. “There may be certain companies out there that prefer suits. They’re going to be very few and far between. In particular with younger workers, I think there are some shifts that happened in the last couple years, and the formal dress is one I am happy to leave behind.”

The Wall Street Journal highlighted a conundrum facing employers: “Be too strict and you risk alienating people who weren’t thrilled to come back in the first place; be too lenient and the environment no longer feels professional.”

A professor’s take. Christine Porath, an associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, said that given the mental health challenges that have arisen during the pandemic, employees are looking for things that provide them with continued comfort. She recommends leaders “err on the side of supporting more varieties of dress codes and more flexibility. We know autonomy is one of the big pillars for how people feel.”

For more on the clothing conundrum, keep reading here.—KP

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

“Dyslexic thinking” is now a skill that LinkedIn users can add to their profiles. The popular networking site added the term at the end of March in partnership with Made By Dyslexia, a global charity run by people and celebrities with dyslexia. Dictionary.com reportedly plans to define the term “dyslexic thinking” as “strengths in creative, problem-solving, and communication skills.”

Both announcements were part of a broader campaign by Made By Dyslexia to reduce the stigma around dyslexia. The advocacy group also produced an accompanying report, in partnership with staffing firm ManpowerGroup, on dyslexia in the workplace.

Zoom out. The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity defines dyslexia as “an unexpected difficulty in reading in an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader.” Yale also notes that dyslexia is the most common neuro-cognitive disorder, impacting one in five people worldwide.

Scientists have explored and discussed the unique capabilities of the dyslexic brain for years, but the Made By Dyslexia report says that many employers are still unaware of the skills associated with dyslexia. While people with this neurodivergence can have trouble with spelling and reading, Made By Dyslexia research claims that some dyslexics have a “differing combination” of valuable soft skills like communicating, creating original work, visualizing things like new concepts, being curious, and connecting with others.

Martin McKay, founder and CEO of TextHelp, a software company that creates solutions specifically for people with dyslexia, told HR Brew that “if someone’s dyslexic, they very often won’t disclose that they’re dyslexic because they think it’s a career-limiting thing to do.”

McKay said employers have an opportunity “to create more inclusive workplaces by acknowledging that probably [a small percentage] of their employees are dyslexic.” He says it’s important to make tools like literacy software available to all employees, so dyslexic employees won’t have to disclose information unless they want to.

Star power. Sir Richard Branson, who is dyslexic, is one of the Made By Dyslexia campaign’s most prominent partners (other dyslexic celebrity partners include Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley). He told the Press Association news agency in March, “I know that I would not have been able to achieve what I have achieved in my life if I hadn’t been born dyslexic, so I am very grateful for it.”

Adding “dyslexic thinking” comes as LinkedIn moves towards what the company calls a “skills-first blueprint” for hiring, offering a more holistic view of candidates and their skill sets. Using its global skills data, LinkedIn says it is aiming to help its members identify career changes based on their skills, rather than “relying on unnecessary credentials.”—KP

Correction, April 13, 2022: An earlier version of this article stated that Dictionary.com had redefined the term "dyslexic thinking." The website reportedly plans to do so, but has not yet made the change.

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 30% of ADA-related charges filed last year were for accusations of mental health discrimination—an increase of 10% since 2010, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (Bloomberg Law)

Quote: “This is still hand-to-hand combat at the company level,” Matt Sigelman, president of the Burning Glass Institute, said about the effort to remove four-year degrees from job requirements. (New York Times)

Read: One possible factor contributing to the labor shortage: long Covid. One study suggested that returning to the office could be a crunch point for struggling employees. (Financial Times)

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Catch up on the top HR Brew stories from the recent past:

• What to consider when implementing a social media policy
• The EEOC just made a small but “significant” step toward greater inclusion for nonbinary people
• Inflation poses new challenges for recruiting and retention