Salesforce's Promise of Equality, a Dream Deferred

I love Salesforce, and that's why I went to work there. But the reality of Equality at Salesforce doesn't match its promises. This is my story, and my ongoing plea to one of tech's most powerful leaders, Marc Benioff.

I was 22 when I graduated from my university and started my employment at Salesforce in Indianapolis. I was hesitant about joining a corporation because I was openly queer, so I made a wishlist of things that I believed would help other people like me thrive in a corporate culture:

• an active employee resource group (ERG) for people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities (commonly referred to as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender or LGBT groups),
• a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaigns Corporate Equality Index
• based in a city where discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was illegal

Salesforce met all these criteria, but I was still hesitant because I would be working in Indianapolis, and this office didn't have a chapter of Salesforce's LGBT group, Outforce. Additionally, Salesforce hadn't spoken out against anti-LGBT legislation that would amend the Indiana constitution to solidify marriage between one man and one woman, something that was already illegal based on a state statute. I was very attuned to this because I volunteered for the coalition that was working to change hearts and minds about this legislation and was successfully able to compel my Alma Mater to take a stand during my senior year.

However, I had met current employees who were working on starting a local chapter of Outforce and decided I could give the corporate world a try. I went in with the intention to get Salesforce to be involved in Indiana politics in preparation for the next piece of legislation targeting LGBT youth and families as well as make company events transgender inclusive. Just little things like having gender inclusive restrooms and awareness about pronouns when making introductions. To my surprise, those employees brought me into planning meetings to bring Outforce to Indianapolis before my actual start date and on my second day of onboarding we officially launched Outforce Indy.

Having this group gave me the courage to come out as gender non-conforming and it became immediately clear that there was a lot more education needed to be done. But at the time that was okay, because I was happy to be able to participate in Outforce and offer input about how to make the company more inclusive. I had the confidence to do so because Salesforce evangelized LGBT inclusion and I had plenty of advocacy experience.

I also met amazing people who pushed for inclusion across race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability - these folks are still my family no matter where we work. Salesforce attracts talented, passionate, and intelligent people.

But retention is a different story.

I spent two and half years at the company, including a move to HQ in San Francisco where I knew I could make a more global impact on LGBT equality. As a group, we made Dreamforce gender inclusive, obtained equal reproductive health benefits for lesbian parents, started more local chapters of Outforce, and convinced executives to let us use the Salesforce brand to speak out against discriminatory legislation or in favor of marriage equality in various parts of the world. I thought I could stay at this company forever, even if I never got promoted!

But then I became the president of Outforce. I connected with leadership in other Employee Resource Groups focused on women and on race and helped start the ERG focused on disability. My eyes were opened up to realities that diversity and inclusion initiatives - for ALL - were not a priority like the recruiting efforts promised. While Salesforce took grand public gestures like sponsoring LGBT events, I started to realize the lack of internal support for women and minorities. I became aware that what little diversity and support for diverse employees existed at Salesforce was largely a result of the strenuous efforts of ERG leadership - work performed on a strictly volunteer basis.

I was also made aware of Salesforces grossly outdated policy handling transgender transition in the workplace which, for example:

• advised managers that transitioning employees will likely be medically 'required' to dress as members of the opposite sex of their birth gender for a year before medically transitioning (a discarded Harry Benjamin standard)
• discussed appropriate gendered dress code which did not mirror the company handbook
• contained the disfavored practice of teaching managers the surgical details around transition, thus focusing on a transgender person's genitals when the only thing that should matter is being supported as an employee.

And when an Employee Success manager attempted to update the company's materials on gender transition, he was scolded.

I made the decision to leave one year ago. I didnt want to leave, but I knew if I stayed I would become an increasingly unengaged and unmotivated employee. I didn't want this to happen; I wanted to stay at Salesforce, to grow as an employee, and make greater change around the world. However, my heart broke and my resilience was shattered. Before I left, I made a last ditch effort to get the company to do more than make public statements of commitment to diversity and inclusion while failing to provide real support for marginalized employees in a non-diverse workplace environment.

Fast forward a year since my departure. Im still connected with many of my former colleagues, and through social media Im aware of Salesforces PR efforts on diversity. Take for instance the recent anti-trans military edict by our so-called Commander in Chief. Salesforce plastered social media with posts lauding support for transgender people, including the transgender flag and photographs of transgender people lit up on Salesforces massive lobby video screens. It made me wonder - do they even know who those people are? I saw images of Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos on the massive screens. Does Salesforce even know what they did for trans-rights and the price they've paid? Or did they just pull from The Trans List so they can boast diversity on a giant public video screen. Since Ive left, what has Salesforce done to improve the lives of the transgender employees they actually have - many of whom I personally know do not feel comfortable being out and asking their teams to use their pronouns, and some of whom have even left as a result.

Until March 2015 , Salesforce did not have a single staff member dedicated solely to diversity and inclusion. Every other major tech company had entire departments doing this work. In a final act of exasperation, I made this plea to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his entire executive leadership team in July 2017 ahead of the annual management offsite in Hawaii. Shortly after, one of Salesforces top public relations employees was announced as the company's first diversity related director. Three months later, the company brought on Tony Prophet as its first Chief Equality Officer. Were it not for the grinding work of myself and like minded others, how much longer would it have taken for Salesforce to notice its own lack of diversity, let alone taken any action to remedy that. But more importantly, how is it working out for them so far? What is being done to support the diverse employees currently working at Salesforce? Hiring diverse employees is the easy part (easier, anyway). What is being done to make sure that those employees are supported, nurtured, developed and promoted once they're in the door? Do managers have an updated gender transition policy and training yet - one which doesnt make transgender employees into the sum of their (literal) parts? Or is it up to transgender employees to lead by external self promotion. And what about people with disabilities. Did you know that Salesforce - the 4th largest tech company in the world - has no staff dedicated to accessibility, let alone a company-wide accessibility strategy?

Note - bolded items in [brackets] have been added to be broadly understood as references to specific Salesforce were used.

[

Marc,

I considered taking this to Airing of Grievances [the internal system for sharing employee concerns company-wide], but this letter doesnt express a grievance so much as a grave disappointment: a disappointment so deep that my time as president of Outforce [the employee resource group for people of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations] and likely as a proud Salesforce product marketer is coming to an end. Before that, however, I want to share my two years of observations and suggestions with you and your leadership team.

In short, there is contradiction between our corporate message and our actions. Our public message is a strong voice for equality for all. Our brand is revolutionary and carries the expectation that our culture is inclusive. But there is a gap in our public messaging and private messaging; in our public mission and our product mission; in our c-level's perspectives and the perspectives of our employees; and most importantly as the customer company in our understanding of our customers and the lives and needs of their diverse customers. Our corporate focus on diversity and inclusion and even addressing unconscious bias is inadequate and, because of it, we are failing to attract, retain and support our highly talented yet underrepresented populations such as employees of color and transgender employees.

Here is my ask:

I respectfully request that Salesforce create an executive position that helps us prioritize each member of our Ohana [Salesforce culture is Hawaiian themed, Ohana means family]. We don't need a Chief Diversity Officer, we need a Chief Ohana Officer, someone who brings visibility, equity, and accountability to all the diverse people in the #SalesforceOhana [which includes all stakeholders - employees, customers, and partners], so that they feel valued, equal, and included in our family. There is currently an effort to hire a Talent Development Manager with a focus on diversity and inclusion. But a role at this level and from a Talent Dev angle would not be effective. A Chief Ohana Officer would:

• support, nurture, and amplify the Ohana [employee resource] groups, which represent our most diverse employees, and which our Recruitment team relies heavily on to develop our diverse pipeline (formerly ERGs, but we rebranded to reflect our value to the business and how we encompass employees, customers, and partners);
• empathize and grieve with our Ohana members when they need this kind of support; and
• share the success and innovation Salesforce achieves in the areas of diversity and inclusion with our customers and partners.

A Chief Ohana Officer should visibly represent our diverse and underrepresented communities, so that we can see ourselves reflected in our company leadership and could also, for example:

• Address the crisis of youth experiencing hateful anti-LGBT messages and bullying. We rely on youth to provide the next generation of tech skills to keep Salesforce at the forefront of the industry. Being an industry leader increasingly depends on being a social leader as well.
• Grieve with the minority parents who lose their children to violence. The saddest part of the BOLDforce vigil was hearing the parents fearful for their children. Who from Salesforce will continue to stand with them and give them our support?
• Carry the message of equality even after Salesforce leaders like Scott McCorkle who testified to the Indiana State Senate against discrimination have left the company. His absence leaves our LGBT employees, like me, wondering whether his voice and all of our tremendous effort building this movement will be for nothing now that he is gone.

Every member of every Ohana group essentially does two jobs here at Salesforce the one they were hired to do, and the one they must to do make our company live up to its promise of Ohana. As President of Outforce, I am openly "Mahu", a Hawaiian word that means "a person who embodies the male and female spirit". Everyday I do not only my job as a product marketer, but the additional exhaustive work of educating everyone around me regarding gender identity. I am tired, and ostracized, and I need help educating Salesforce about the true meaning and beauty of gender diversity.

Your Ohana needs a Champion, and only you have the power, influence, and attention to make this happen. I am thankful for all that I have learned about the tech industry and appreciate your work to foster diversity and inclusion. I came to Salesforce with the dream that this was a place that would allow me to be an equality trailblazer AND have a fulfilling career. I still believe in you and our Ohana promise, but speak for myself and many others when I say that this is not currently the case, and we need your help. Thank you for your time and consideration, and Im more am happy to discuss further if you would like.

]

In all honesty, this letter was drafted by more than just myself. In fact, it wasnt even my idea, but it needed to be sent. As President of Outforce I managed to meet with executives from various departments, including government affairs, legal, and human resources, and it became very clear that equality was not a priority. For instance, sponsoring Pride wasnt about engaging employees and taking time to advance LGBTQ equality, it was about getting photos and videos to be used in marketing material - both internally and externally.

This kind of marketing benefits the business and serves to attract and retain employees and customers by making them feel good about working at or buying from Salesforce. Everyone has their own criteria when evaluating where to seek employment and where to shop, and for an increasing many a commitment to the inclusion of people outside the proverbial good ol boys club is important. Even some people that fit the mold of the good ol boys club want this because maybe they have a gender non-conforming child, a hard of hearing brother, or are married to a person of a different race.

But the marketing of #EqualityForAll and #Dreamjob does not show the whole story to an external audience, and by external in this case I mean folks that are outside one of the Ohana groups. In fact, the feigned importance of equality for all makes it harder for the people who are actually doing the work because their peers suddenly perceive everything as fine and dandy. What I witnessed was very problematic and the stories need to be told so that - hopefully - all people at Salesforce will understand the realities of why diversity and inclusion initiative are important beyond the business justifications and join more movements of equality like accessibility and racial equity, movements (much like the LGBTQ movement) that have started long before the establishment of Salesforce.

For example...

When an intersex, asexual, transgender woman started getting left off team building activities and eventually fired because her new manager was overtly transphobic.

Thats a problem.

Or when a non-binary person of color files a HR ticket about a racial microaggression from a teammate, but the ticket disappears and the white male transgressor is promoted and then the victims gets demoted.

Thats a problem.

Or when the closeted transgender man or latina woman are actively discouraged from participating in employee resources groups by their managers.

Thats a problem.

Why am I sharing this? I am and always will be an advocate. Change comes from within, and if Salesforce publicly positions itself on the vanguard of Equality, then it should understand that this is more than just PR, it is hard work and mentorship to other corporate executives who look to Salesforce for guidance.

It took an immense amount of outreach by LGBT employees to get the CEO to speak out about harmful pieces of legislation and to make the company more inclusive to us. My plea to the CEO was to get an executive dedicated to these initiatives and take the burden off the employees who were pushing for progress in their own spare time. Even with a Chief Equality Officer and a whole team dedicated to equality, the efforts to date still rely on the ERG groups and focus on actions garnering the most publicity, for example, Salesforce:

• Held an Equality Awards Gala
• Doubled down on its Pride efforts
• donated space to host the Trans Tech Summit

But what about its own employees? When creating massive video screens in support of trans-rights, where were images of its own transgender employees? From what I can tell, many of them do not feel safe being out, leave rather than come out at work, or feel ostracized in the workplace. Its one thing to make video screens, it is another thing to make change that matters - this work is hard, but is the work that changes lives and the world.

Its no surprise that Salesforce treats its equality efforts the same as its go-to-market strategy: events marketing. Its also no surprise that it has gotten a lot of attention for its equality efforts. But to date, Salesforce is an Equality leader in name only. Many other companies are doing the hard work of Equality, they just dont have big screens and social media to promote it. And with all of its resource, all of its reach, Salesforce cannot claim to be a leader when it has ability to do so much more.

To quote Marc Benioff: we can do better.

Marc, when I was recruited I was promised better and I believed in your promise. And while I worked for you I did everything I could to make Salesforce better for LGBT employees, and employees across the diversity spectrum. Ultimately, I was left with the conclusion that, at Salesforce, Equality is a marketing effort, and that reality did not live up to the Salesforce promise.

Since leaving Salesforce, Ive continued my work advocating for diverse people who make this world a better place. Now I ask you: what can Salesforce do better? You are the CEO of a massive, powerful and global company with diverse customers and employees facing an increasingly hostile world around them. You have the ability to make profound change in peoples lives, and in the world. What can YOU do to bring diverse communities into Salesforce, support them, develop them, and create a workplace full of employees who believe in you and will dedicate their working lives to seeing Salesforce succeed?

That was me once, and I want to believe in that - in you - again. I am genuinely curious to hear your answer. Lets start this conversation, and work together.