Isn't it quite illegal for an employer to ask this of their employees? You'd think a large corporation like Bank of America might know better?

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...BUGUSAQRP41.DTL

Bank of America survey asks workers about sexual orientation
David Lazarus
Saturday, January 15, 2005

Bank of America is urging its more than 175,000 employees to fill out an online survey about job satisfaction. Question 64 asks respondents to "indicate which one of the following best describes yourself."

Clicking on the pull-down menu provides four choices:

-- Heterosexual

-- Bisexual

-- Homosexual

-- Transgendered

Human resources professionals say it's highly unusual for a company of BofA's size and stature to seek such information.

Privacy advocates say that even though BofA insists all survey results are confidential, the reality is that online forms can be traced back to individual workstations.

Employees within the bank say they're afraid the information they provide could be used to generalize about the work habits of certain types of people.

Tara Burke, a BofA spokeswoman, said employees are free to leave the sexual-orientation question blank if they so choose, and they are told as much in the survey.

But she said the bank hopes people will answer because it is "committed to fostering an inclusive environment."

"We strive to ensure a diverse and inclusive workplace where every associate is respected, empowered and rewarded for good work," Burke said.

She declined to comment on why the survey's pull-down menu doesn't allow respondents the choice of saying that they'd prefer not to answer.

It's against the law in California to ask job seekers their sexual orientation or to use such information in any way to discriminate against a worker. But state officials say it appears BofA hasn't crossed the line in asking current employees the question in its survey.

Janie Siess, assistant deputy director of program and policy development at the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, said it seems that BofA has skirted California's strict privacy laws by permitting workers not to answer the question.

"The issue here is what Bank of America will use this information for," she said.

Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, agreed that it doesn't appear California employers are prohibited by law from requesting such information from workers "unless you misuse the information."

But human resources professionals say that while an employer can benefit from detailed data about workers, standard industry practice is to not confront people with questions about their sexual orientation.

"We never advise that clients ask," said Larry Comp, a principal at Humanomics, a Southern California management consulting firm. "It's personal, very personal, and it makes employees uncomfortable."

The bulk of the survey's questions are benign in nature. They ask workers to rate their pay and benefits and how well they're able to interact with managers.

Question 40 asks respondents to rate how strongly they agree or disagree with the statement: "I feel proud to work for Bank of America."

Ethan Winning, a Walnut Creek management consultant, said it's very strange that BofA would couple a routine employee satisfaction survey with sensitive personal information.

Along with sexual orientation, the survey asks respondents to specify their gender, race and whether they have a disability.

"What's the correlation between sexual orientation and whether or not your supervisor fosters a team atmosphere?" Winning asked. "What the hell does a bank care what your sexual orientation is?"

BofA employees, who asked that their names be withheld for fear of reprisal, said their chief concern is that the company will use the data for profiling purposes based on race or sexual orientation.

"What are you going to do, group African Americans together in terms of their opinions?" one manager asked. "Or group gay people together?"

Another BofA employee cited an internal memo issued earlier this week in which workers were advised to respond to the online survey "during business hours."

This person said many colleagues were nervous that the bank would be able to trace individual responses back to specific computers.

"A lot of people are putting down 'heterosexual' because they think that the bank is able to track it back to them," the employee said.

Burke, the BofA spokeswoman, said that under no circumstances would the company do anything like this.

"All the responses are completely confidential for all questions and will never be used to identify any individual associate," she said. "We take privacy very seriously."

Be that as it may, Chris Hoofnagle, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said it's all too easy for any company to violate such promises.

"One has to be skeptical of claims that online surveys are anonymous," he said. "They can be linked by coding or other technical means back to the individual."

Elliott Brown, a San Francisco management consultant who designs and administers employee satisfaction surveys for corporate clients, said it's probably not a coincidence that BofA saved its most sensitive questions for last in the 65-question survey.

"Ninety percent of survey design is to put the demographic questions at the end," he said. "If you put them up front, people will be more reluctant to answer honestly."

Brown added that while he doubts any employer would abuse such data, "it's a reasonable question to ask" on the part of workers.

Rod Hanna, vice president of Merit Resource Group, a Dublin consulting firm, observed that after answering about 60 questions about one's job, many survey takers won't hesitate to provide personal info, even if the survey says they can leave a space blank.

"It's not a very enlightened way to gather information," he said of BofA asking about sexual orientation at the end of a job-satisfaction survey. "There are other ways to get such feedback, such as focus groups or meetings."

BofA's Burke said the company is comfortable with its approach.

"Our goal is to provide our associates with a rewarding and fulfilling environment," she said. "We have found that the best way to do this is to ask our associates for their input."

which brainiac came up with the idea of asking THAT question?

This is a crock. But it doesn't surprise me. Human Resources could justify the intrusive questions by saying it needs to know in the case that the company has domestic partnership benefits. But even then, if people do not wish to claim their partner for benefits, they should not have to answer this. Frankly, I think too many big companies are too damn interested in us. And it is the computer tracing that is the damaging part. Plus, you never know what kind of nut is going to use info. against you. Big Bro. etc.

If it's illegal to ask - the BofA should be charged with breaking the law. No one should answer the question who feels it's invasive, gay or straight, or bi, or trans, or whatever.

We, the people, have to draw the line. The Patriot Act is totally invasive, and now this.

OHMIGOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I work for B of A!!!!!!!!

I'll let all of you know more about this!

Rox - how did you find out about this???

It's against the law in California to ask job seekers their sexual orientation or to use such information in any way to discriminate against a worker. But state officials say it appears BofA hasn't crossed the line in asking current employees the question in its survey

Guess they found a loophole. They are employees, not job seekers.

Is BoA RED? Most banks are. I'd be very leary of this type of LIST.

I found a link to the article at BuzzFlash. But the article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.

It's like when they ask your race on a mortgage application. You're not obligated to answer..they want it supposedly for "statistical" information, so they're able to get around it. If the application is made via telephone, and the applicant refuses, then the service rep fills in what they think is the applicants race. Perfectly legal..but it smells to me. I'm white and I always refuse.

I can't stop thinking about this post...
Advice please!

I go into work next week and they tell me to take this survey -
how should I handle it????

Apparently, it is illegal to ask such questions of prospective employees, but it is not illegal after they are employed.

Jill, I would skip the question entirely. After the bad publicity this survey has garnered in the Bay Area at least, I doubt anyone will question you about why you did not answer it.

BOA is our bank. We are thinking about transferring our money and business elsewhere.

Bank of America has recently come into New England, since their buyout of Fleet. If I were a customer of theirs, I'd move my money elsewhere. But I'm already doing all of my banking with a local credit union anyway.

Go to HR and tell them you find the line of questioning inappropriate and let them know it makes you uncomfortable that they would find it acceptable to ask such a thing

Then answer saying that you're transgendered then see what they do

maybe I will and see what happens

and when you have the knowledge, you must share with the class :D

Playing devil's advocate, here.

Why, exactly, is this a problem? Yes, if it can be proven that there is some type of repercussion from answering in a certain way, obviously there's a problem.

But doesn't the company have a right to collect certain demographics on its employees? Especially in these changing times when gay employees might be accessing partners' benefits; doesn't the company have a right to plan for this?

Okay, let 'er rip!!!!

-Pegatha

I pulled my money out of BofA and had all family members do so as well. Not because of this but because of how they made all their money.

B of A got rich by foreclosing on all of the mortgages of Japanese Internees after Pearl Harbor

well I'm really looking forward to going back to work Tues

Actually, B of A is not a bad place to work.

Well they don't ask specifically about homosexuality in a way that would lead one to believe they are trying to assess for domestic partnership benefits. If they were interested in this, they could ask questions related to interest/need for those benefits. I'm not sure what they could gain about the need for domestic partner benefit needs by asking if one is bi or transgendered.

It's a job satisfaction questionairre. If they suspect or are trying to find out if there may be some sort of hostile/inappropriate work environment for the specifc classes identified, I'm sure there are better ways to ask that question as well.

or maybe they really are an equal opportunity employer? They want to be able to report how many homosexuals work there?!

They did donate equal funds to the dems and repukes before the election...

I will report in when I get the survey... and will let everyone know.

I have now become a b of a spy... hmmm

If you read the article, the questionnaire asks about job satisfaction as well as orientation. There is concern that they may connect orientation with attitudes about the job, and -- yes -- take adverse action against employees.

It is an odd questionnaire -- why is it necessary to ask about orientation at all? What possible relevance does it have?

I also note -- something I did not know until tonight -- that BOA has no written nondiscrimination policy in regards to orientation in its employee handbook/manual.

http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Se...id=1&orgid=1141

I tend to view things in a positive light until I have more information - so I'll throw out a few ideas for why BoA may be asking this question with positive intentions behind it - though I admit freely that I mistrust any "official" questions about my sexual orientation in general.

Possible positive reasons for gathering this information may include -
1. BoA may be attempting to compile a great deal of demographic information unrelated to job satisfaction but IN ADDITION to information about job satisfaction. Easiest way to do that is via one survey innocuously presented as a job satisfaction survey.
2. BoA may want the demographic information about sexual orientation because it intends to pursue advertising or marketing steps in the GLBT community and wants to be able to promote the fact that they have "X" % of GLBT employees.
3. BoA may be intending to target GLBT customers and wants to identify if they have enough GLBT employees to manage the influx of customers - in the GLBT communities, we have directories of GLBT-friendly businesses. Trust me, it's a lot more comfortable for a GLBT couple to seek a home loan, for example, from someone who is GLBT-friendly. BoA may be intending to see how many employees are GLBT, then will ask later if those who are GLBT are willing to identify themselves so they can be "community liaisons."
4. BoA may be attempting to identify the potential number of employees who are likely to seek out same-sex benefits within each State so they can start working on a plan to offer those benefits - and also figure out what State laws they may need to work around.

And of course, there are an equal number of negative reasons BoA may be seeking this information - if not more reasons in both catagories. Like I said, I tend to try and see the potential positive until I have a reason not to.

If any company wants to do a survey about any potentially discriminatory attitutudes or opinions, why don't they just do one?

What's the problem with just asking someone if they are comfortable with Hispanics, Chinese, Caucasians, Blacks, gays, lesbians, etc??? I don't have a problem talking to anyone about anything (except I don't speak a foreign language) and certainly wouldn't mind answering this. A good manager should already have a 'feel' for the employees working under his supervision anyway.

'Sneaking' questions like this into a rather innocuous survey screams of ulterior motives.

Everyone COULD play "musical chairs" and take the survey at someone else's computer.

I took the survey today - Yep it was there. The last question. I picked transgender, not to offend anyone, just to see what will come out of it...
they know what office the employee is in that is taking the survey.

I know my manager will be scratching her head trying to figure out which one of us is. She deserves it, even tho she voted for Kerry, she suffers from "boss disease" - if ya know what I mean!

I think I owe you $5 for this. ..I wonder how many other people scratched their heads at the question and decided to just pick something different to see what happens. I'll wet myself if we hear BOA is implementing some TG sensitivity training in the news.

Good for you! I hope plenty of other people do what you did.

If, for any reason, you find yourself in some kind of trouble over this, please come back here and post about it. You might be surprised to find out what kind of friends you made by doing this simple, great deed. Thank you for not being cowed into automatically choosing heterosexual.

It's my personal opinion that humor is the way to point out the obvious. The idea of having to identify your sexual orientation (even anonymously) to your bosses is offensive to every individual's personal privacy - how to counter it when forced to comply? Your way!

If they make some big announcement, cop to it. Then tell them you thought it was a joke! Make sure they know you're incredulous when they demand an honest answer. Then, of course, you'll have to choose whether to tell them the truth, or to remain silent. Or to tell a joke.

If they confront me, I'm just going to simply say that it was my way of telling them that it was none of their dam business what I do on my own time if it is not affecting my performance at work!