27 November 2023
Building Bridges Together
The employee would not stop addressing her as a “sir”, no matter how hard Eva tried to make him understand that he was taking to a woman. During the call that went on for about 3 minutes, we could hear the masculine pronoun excessively used – 13 times to be exact. Eventually, Eva asked to talk with a supervisor. This could not happen again; a change in the system needed to be made from the inside of the company.
As a key member of the Customer Service Supervisor Team and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEI Committee), I was assigned the job of telephoning her.
Before calling Eva, I attentively listened to the conversation, and I noticed that she was talking about making a complaint based on how disrespected she felt she was being treated. She said she had a voice, a capacity of action different to most people in the trans people community, who can go through this kind of disrespect every day without being heard. When I googled her name, I could not believe what I was seeing: journalistic articles, podcasts, videos, pictures, a Wikipedia profile. She even had a verified account on X (former Twitter) and Instagram, with thousands of followers, among which I could recognize many mass media accounts, influencers, artists, and public officials. She was a renown trans activist for the Gender Identity Law and the Transgender Job Quota Law, secretary of the Bureau of the Peronist Party of the City of Buenos Aires, parliamentary advisor of the Lower Chamber, and first trans candidate to be a member of the Lower Chamber in Argentina.
Not only the possibility of a complaint made before the regulator body (the Superintendence of Insurance) or a possible judicial action was now on the horizon, but also incalculable potential damage to the company’s reputation was now on stake.
And so, I called her cellphone. She answered. She sounded surprised somebody from the company was reaching out. I listened and I apologized, in the name of the company and in the name of the employee she had spoken to. I told her about the work we do in La Caja regarding training on diversity, equity, and inclusion. I tried to make her understand that there are a lot of us who work daily to create a respectful working environment. Even though she understood, she wanted the company to act accordingly to what had happened to her; she wanted us to take exemplary action. She did not accept commercial attentions or discounts of any kind. She explained to me that a simple “sorry” was not going to be enough, no matter how sincere it sounded. She requested to meet face to face with the employee that had disrespected her so she could explain to him how she had felt. While I did not sense she was a violent person, I felt I needed to shelter the employee; and even though I am only used to talking to customers through telephone calls, I offered then to meet her face to face. She accepted.
This was going to be a huge challenge. In the 16 years I have been working for this company, I handled many different situations by phone, or e-mail, even chat; but never had I met a customer in person.
I started seeking advice from the Legal and the Sustainability Departments. I booked the meeting room where I was going to greet Eva, and I got her a parking space so she would not have to worry about it. I talked to the Security Manager beforehand so everybody would be ready for her arrival.
I was accompanied to the meeting by the coordinator of the DEI Committee. Eva arrived a few minutes later than we had planned. In the beginning, she was annoyed and irritated about what had happened, but I did my best to make sure she understood we were on the same wavelength, that we really understood each other, and that it made complete sense why she felt disrespected. She saw that, from the moment it happened, we started working so it would never happen again to anybody else. We informed her about the work of the committee when approaching different axes (such as generation, culture, LGBTIQ+, disability, and gender); the different partnerships with foundations and consulting firms to tackle gender perspective; the impending training to all personnel delivered by the Ministry of Women, Genders, and Diversity.
She opened up about her own life experiences, her long history in the trans people rights activism and the leadership she has in a militant group. A piece of information she shared with us that shocked me to my core was that the life expectancy of a trans person today in Argentina is 35 to 40 years old. I am 42.
The Transgender Job Quota Law was enacted only two years ago. That means that all rights most of us possess, such as formal employment, limited working hours, the right to rest, paid holidays, bonuses, union representation, salary negotiations, health insurance, or retirement, were beginning to be guaranteed to a trans person only two years ago. Before the enactment of the law, they were limited to precarious jobs such as street selling, beauty salons, or prostitution.
As I stated before, Eva was not after an economic indemnification, but a different kind. Therefore, we offered her and her militant group to join the training we did in the company as trainees. She happily accepted. In that moment I knew I had met an inspiring person that carried an incredible life experience, and who was full of sensitivity and love; she was definitely somebody who strived to make this world a better and a safer place.
From the moment Eva’s call was answered by one of our associates who treated her poorly, as a company we have done everything in our hands to prevent it from ever happening again. We have been working on updating our customer service protocols, adapting our system in cases where there has been a gender and ID name change, reviewing each and every process, and modifying the life insurance policies related to gender.
Two weeks ago, we have had our first “Space for Reflection and Conversation for a Diversity Perspective in Customer Service and Dignified Treatment”, where 30 associates of our contact center took part in a dynamic seminar where they were showed a video where a transgender person was being discriminated against. We proposed some questions, and we asked them how they felt when watching the video and how they would act in a similar situation. Thankfully, everybody participated and the majority of them were moved in some way by the video. The general response to this first meeting was a good one. The seminar closed with a speech from Eva, in which she explained to the associates the reason for her attendance. She talked a little bit about the meetings we had together and the ones she had with the Human Resources Department, and a bit more about her activism. She invited us to appreciate what we have and treat everybody with respect. She also told us to talk with a big smile on our faces, because even though customers cannot see it from the other side of the line, it can be felt and transmitted.
This seminar was the first of many we will do with all our customer service associates. We keep on working on training our employees, promoting mentoring programs for the talent development of women in the organizational field, creating gender awareness campaigns, realigning our management system, and improving our web page and mobile app. We keep on working on turning crises into opportunities. We keep on working on building bridges together.
Read the article in original language
Building Bridges Together
On March 23rd of this year, Eva called our company; she wanted to know if the fee had been properly charged. The employee that answered the call requested her information, but he came across a problem: two names were shown when introducing her ID number – Eva and Juan. From that moment on, this employee started addressing her as Juan. It did not matter that she had introduced herself as Eva, he still called her Juan. The customer explained, more than once, that her name was Eva, not Juan. She even explained that in Argentina, since 2012, we have a Gender Identity Law which allows transgender people to be treated according to their gender identity and have their personal documents registered with the corresponding name and gender.
The employee would not stop addressing her as a “sir”, no matter how hard Eva tried to make him understand that he was taking to a woman. During the call that went on for about 3 minutes, we could hear the masculine pronoun excessively used – 13 times to be exact. Eventually, Eva asked to talk with a supervisor. This could not happen again; a change in the system needed to be made from the inside of the company.
As a key member of the Customer Service Supervisor Team and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEI Committee), I was assigned the job of telephoning her.
Before calling Eva, I attentively listened to the conversation, and I noticed that she was talking about making a complaint based on how disrespected she felt she was being treated. She said she had a voice, a capacity of action different to most people in the trans people community, who can go through this kind of disrespect every day without being heard. When I googled her name, I could not believe what I was seeing: journalistic articles, podcasts, videos, pictures, a Wikipedia profile. She even had a verified account on X (former Twitter) and Instagram, with thousands of followers, among which I could recognize many mass media accounts, influencers, artists, and public officials. She was a renown trans activist for the Gender Identity Law and the Transgender Job Quota Law, secretary of the Bureau of the Peronist Party of the City of Buenos Aires, parliamentary advisor of the Lower Chamber, and first trans candidate to be a member of the Lower Chamber in Argentina.
Not only the possibility of a complaint made before the regulator body (the Superintendence of Insurance) or a possible judicial action was now on the horizon, but also incalculable potential damage to the company’s reputation was now on stake.
And so, I called her cellphone. She answered. She sounded surprised somebody from the company was reaching out. I listened and I apologized, in the name of the company and in the name of the employee she had spoken to. I told her about the work we do in La Caja regarding training on diversity, equity, and inclusion. I tried to make her understand that there are a lot of us who work daily to create a respectful working environment. Even though she understood, she wanted the company to act accordingly to what had happened to her; she wanted us to take exemplary action. She did not accept commercial attentions or discounts of any kind. She explained to me that a simple “sorry” was not going to be enough, no matter how sincere it sounded. She requested to meet face to face with the employee that had disrespected her so she could explain to him how she had felt. While I did not sense she was a violent person, I felt I needed to shelter the employee; and even though I am only used to talking to customers through telephone calls, I offered then to meet her face to face. She accepted.
This was going to be a huge challenge. In the 16 years I have been working for this company, I handled many different situations by phone, or e-mail, even chat; but never had I met a customer in person.
I started seeking advice from the Legal and the Sustainability Departments. I booked the meeting room where I was going to greet Eva, and I got her a parking space so she would not have to worry about it. I talked to the Security Manager beforehand so everybody would be ready for her arrival.
I was accompanied to the meeting by the coordinator of the DEI Committee. Eva arrived a few minutes later than we had planned. In the beginning, she was annoyed and irritated about what had happened, but I did my best to make sure she understood we were on the same wavelength, that we really understood each other, and that it made complete sense why she felt disrespected. She saw that, from the moment it happened, we started working so it would never happen again to anybody else. We informed her about the work of the committee when approaching different axes (such as generation, culture, LGBTIQ+, disability, and gender); the different partnerships with foundations and consulting firms to tackle gender perspective; the impending training to all personnel delivered by the Ministry of Women, Genders, and Diversity.
She opened up about her own life experiences, her long history in the trans people rights activism and the leadership she has in a militant group. A piece of information she shared with us that shocked me to my core was that the life expectancy of a trans person today in Argentina is 35 to 40 years old. I am 42.
The Transgender Job Quota Law was enacted only two years ago. That means that all rights most of us possess, such as formal employment, limited working hours, the right to rest, paid holidays, bonuses, union representation, salary negotiations, health insurance, or retirement, were beginning to be guaranteed to a trans person only two years ago. Before the enactment of the law, they were limited to precarious jobs such as street selling, beauty salons, or prostitution.
As I stated before, Eva was not after an economic indemnification, but a different kind. Therefore, we offered her and her militant group to join the training we did in the company as trainees. She happily accepted. In that moment I knew I had met an inspiring person that carried an incredible life experience, and who was full of sensitivity and love; she was definitely somebody who strived to make this world a better and a safer place.
From the moment Eva’s call was answered by one of our associates who treated her poorly, as a company we have done everything in our hands to prevent it from ever happening again. We have been working on updating our customer service protocols, adapting our system in cases where there has been a gender and ID name change, reviewing each and every process, and modifying the life insurance policies related to gender.
Two weeks ago, we have had our first “Space for Reflection and Conversation for a Diversity Perspective in Customer Service and Dignified Treatment”, where 30 associates of our contact center took part in a dynamic seminar where they were showed a video where a transgender person was being discriminated against. We proposed some questions, and we asked them how they felt when watching the video and how they would act in a similar situation. Thankfully, everybody participated and the majority of them were moved in some way by the video. The general response to this first meeting was a good one. The seminar closed with a speech from Eva, in which she explained to the associates the reason for her attendance. She talked a little bit about the meetings we had together and the ones she had with the Human Resources Department, and a bit more about her activism. She invited us to appreciate what we have and treat everybody with respect. She also told us to talk with a big smile on our faces, because even though customers cannot see it from the other side of the line, it can be felt and transmitted.
This seminar was the first of many we will do with all our customer service associates. We keep on working on training our employees, promoting mentoring programs for the talent development of women in the organizational field, creating gender awareness campaigns, realigning our management system, and improving our web page and mobile app. We keep on working on turning crises into opportunities. We keep on working on building bridges together.