Taking Pride in our colleagues

Happy Pride! As the month kicks off, there’s a real sense of excitement and celebration at FCT, and it’s all thanks to our colleagues in the Employee Resource Groups.

What’s an Employee Resource Group?

An Employee Resource Group (ERG) is a volunteer, employee-led organization within a company. They’re an important channel between management and employees, helping companies be more inclusive and responsive to their people’s needs.

Lyndonelle Bacungan is the chair of Pride Plus, an ERG that focuses on issues facing LGBTQIA2S+ employees.

“Right now, our membership is about 90% allies, which is actually a great thing,” he explained. “Allies are a great cornerstone to the gay community—if more people are disseminating the concept of acceptance and love outside this community, that’s a wonderful thing.”

Building a community takes representation

“One of the biggest things I learned growing up was the importance of representation,” Lyndonelle said. “I came here [to Canada] as a teenager, but I was in the Philippines as a kid. There, the only real examples of queer representation I could find were hairdressers, actors, and it was in the context of comedy. There was no respect: homosexuality was the joke and the punchline.”

When Lyndonelle moved to Canada, it was to a predominantly white neighbourhood in Burlington, Ontario. “I wasn’t able to see myself anywhere culturally, either. I had nobody near me to look to as a queer person or an Asian person,” he said. “But when I went to my first Pride, that was when I realized: I can see myself, and I do exist in a community.”

“For you to actually find yourself, you need to know that you belong first, that there’s something for you to identify with—a common point of reference,” said Lyndonelle.

ERGs help our colleagues show their true colours

At FCT, we’re invested in our colleagues, which is why ERGs play such an important role in how we approach sensitive issues. Pride is a chance for the ERGs across the company to collaborate and build connections and community between colleagues.

Syn Mitchell is co-chair of Mosaic, an ERG that supports employees in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

“Pride has such a history behind it,” Syn said. “So much has happened and been done to allow us to be as open and proud as we are about our identities. I’m thankful for the people who really did put their lives on the line to ensure the rest of us can now be relatively free to express ourselves.”

Megan Janisse is co-chair of Exchange, an ERG that provides networking opportunities for our colleagues across FCT.

“To me, Pride means being able to have the confidence you need to express yourself,” Megan said. “When you get the opportunity to meet and interact with people from different areas with different perspectives, you get to hear many different viewpoints. One of the values we have here at FCT is a passion to innovate, so for me, social events where you meet people with opinions you’ve never heard before, that aligns with that value very well.”

Mona Cummins is co-chair of BE, an ERG supporting Black employees with events and resources.

“To me, Pride just means inclusion,” said Mona. “It means real inclusion—letting your freak flag fly, literally. It means just being yourself, not just being okay. I take part in Pride every year with my brother, I go spend my weekend down there. And it’s just literally the safest, most inclusive place I’ve ever been.”

“I’m excited that FCT puts so much importance on how people here feel,” she continued. “It’s quite incredible to work here. It’s one of the things that helps FCT really stands out, and truly makes them a leader in a very different way.”

Why Pride matters at FCT

For Lyndonelle, support for the queer community is essential to building a team of colleagues who are free to be themselves. “When someone comes out, what environment are they coming out into? A lot of people are afraid of the backlash in their immediate community. So it’s important that people at FCT know that’s not going to happen here,” he said.

“When it comes to the culture here, I’ve never felt safer and more welcome as a queer person, said Lyndonelle. “I’ve been with the company for 15 years, and I’m not exactly the most masculine-facing person on earth *laughs.* The fact that I have had no negative experiences in that time says a lot.”

At FCT, everyone is accepted, valued and free to express who they are. For Lyndonelle, that culture of celebrating identity is essential. “If you don’t have the space to know how you identify, you can’t know what that representation even looks like. It comes back to that common frame of reference, which is how you build community,” he said. “I’m very optimistic about the road ahead.”

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