On Sabrina Wang’s first day of work, they came out on Slack. They were curious to see if Mason America, Inc. really was the inclusive employer it made itself out to be.
Wang watched as the team lived up to Mason’s values. From warm welcomes to offerings of support and allyship, Wang has felt empowered to be their authentic self every day since then.
Now that it’s June, Mason and other companies are celebrating Pride Month. And it turns out that recognizing LGBTQIA+ employees and encouraging an inclusive and welcoming environment for all isn’t just the right thing to do. Employees who feel supported in being their authentic selves feel more confident and engaged, and record greater job satisfaction and performance, according to Simmons University’s Institute for Inclusive Leadership.
For Wang, Pride is about support, validation and empowerment in every facet of Mason’s operations this month — and beyond. Built In Seattle caught up with Wang to learn how Mason is recognizing and honoring LGBTQIA+ folks this month and continually learning how to ramp up its diversity initiatives.
Mason America, Inc. provides turn-key mobile infrastructure to build smart hardware products.
How is Mason recognizing Pride throughout the month of June?
We’re excited to celebrate Pride this year by highlighting LGBTQIA+ folks of excellence in the tech industry on our internal Slack channel. Representation, with intersectionality in mind, is critical to reducing stereotypes and helping individuals from marginalized communities feel validated and supported. We hope these highlights empower LGBTQ+ employees to unapologetically take up space at Mason. We’re also brainstorming ways to expand our Pride celebrations in future, with plans to bring in LGBTQ+ speakers for thoughtful discussions and designing some donation initiatives to support nonprofits impacting change in this space.
Representation is critical to reducing stereotypes and helping individuals from marginalized communities feel validated and supported.”
Beyond the month of June, what are some examples of ways Mason supports or advocates for the LGBTQIA+ community?
We’re always working on understanding our own implicit biases in our diversity, equity and inclusion journey. We welcome and implement constructive feedback from Masons and external candidates on how to improve the processes that disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ individuals. We integrate pronoun introductions early in the recruiting cycle and onboarding and held a pronoun workshop a couple of years ago, which lives on our internal wiki’s DEI section so new employees can get ramped up to our diversity initiatives.
Future plans include monthly evaluations of internal processes to reduce systemic discrimination and improve DEI, evaluating our medical benefits to ensure they continue offering support agnostic to the sex and gender identity of employees and their partners, and leadership coaching to create a psychologically safe space and help individuals as they navigate workplace dynamics and their own career growth.
How does Mason support and empower the LGBTQIA+ members of your team?
When I first joined Mason, I outed myself on Slack on the first day as queer, non-binary and disabled to see if Mason really did reflect their values as an inclusive and trustworthy employer. To my pleasant surprise, I received nothing but supportive, welcoming comments, and some folks even sent me direct messages sharing that they also belonged in these communities. My teammates have consistently remained considerate about using my pronouns, and my story is just one of the ways Mason supports LGBTQIA+ members.
We have queer leaders and gender nonconforming Masons. We have a Mason who transitioned during her time here, shared her story with the entire organization and hosted a pronouns workshop. We hope that being radically transparent about our identities will empower others at Mason to be vulnerable, open about their identities, and free to come out on their own terms and pace. We’re also excited to roll out a gender transition resource page in the near future to assist employees who transition during their time at Mason. We want everyone to feel empowered to show up at Mason as their most authentic selves.
