Alexandre Maymat Advocates for Collaboration and Sharing Best Practices in LGBT+ Inclusion at Work

For Alexandre Maymat, companies must collaborate and share their best practices on the issue of including LGBT+ people at work. Credit: DR

The light and joyful atmosphere was contagious this Tuesday, October 11 in the evening in the corridors of the Grand Rex. The Parisian performance hall hosted the ceremony for the 2023 edition of the LGBT+ and Allied Model Roles, organized by the association l’Autre Cercle, which promotes the inclusion of LGBT+ people at work.

On all floors of the building, the public spread out to enjoy a drink after the event. The guests are already debriefing the highlights of the evening. Unsurprisingly, it is the testimony of Alexandre Maymat that remains in our memories.

On stage, the director of audit and inspection of Société Générale shared what the title of “LGBT+ role model manager”, obtained in 2022, had changed in his life. It was with a smile on his face and with a certain emotion that he agreed to speak to Carenews, to return to the issues of representing differences in business.

• In the fall of 2021, you do your coming out within Société Générale. In May 2022, you express yourself on social networks. Why did you decide to talk openly about your sexual orientation at that time?

I come from a very Catholic and bourgeois family. In 1994, my brother, a homosexual, confided to me, the day before his death from AIDS, how reassured he was that I could perpetuate our family name. That day, the desire to live what I was stopped (…) These words had a great impact on me and considerably hindered my personal path to liberation. I was married for 20 years, I had four children, it’s a wonderful gift. But when I turned 50, I asked myself questions. It was meeting Franck, who is now my husband, who helped me take the plunge and live what I was.

• It was an event within your company that was the trigger…

In fact, everything came down to June 2021, during a meeting with other employees of Société Générale. I experience a reverse mentoring (the Reverse mentoring is a practice that allows young people in a company to share good practices with senior employees, Editor’s note) carried out by the Pride & Allies network of Société Générale.

There were four of us during this exchange. Another member of the bank’s management committee and two young homosexuals from the network. They told me their stories and their suffering. I then realized that in order to complete my personal journey and for the 35 years of suffering I had experienced to be useful, I had to commit.

I have been asked a lot if it was difficult to do my coming out . My heartfelt cry was to say no, that’s not the most difficult thing, it’s the path to get there that is.

• Did your hierarchical position within Société Générale facilitate your coming out ?

Of course, I am protected by the fact that at my level, whatever people think of me, they do not tell me, or not directly. Additionally, I live in Paris, France. I have received lots of testimonies from people who live in the suburbs, in small provincial towns, where the situation is much more complicated and where the issues of inclusion are played out in much smaller teams. I was also the boss of our African teams. I know how difficult it can be to be gay on this continent.

I am aware of my privilege. This is why I decided to use my experience, my story and my sincerity to help those for whom it is more difficult.

• How do you act to protect them?

We are making a firm commitment by adopting very offensive policies to combat discrimination. When you are homosexual, you have the impression that the annoyances you have suffered on a daily basis, since you were born, are part of the package. So you end up accepting unacceptable behavior. Forcefully denouncing the unacceptable and punishing it frees people to speak.

Read also : 4 essential actions to combat discrimination against LGBT+ people at work

• Is the world of finance and banking more closed-minded than other sectors of activity?

It is true that it is a fairly masculine, virile and phallocratic world. But the problem of inclusion does not only concern LGBT+, it is more global. We can observe internally, the multiplication of networks fighting against discrimination such as sexism, racism or ableism which fight against the historical culture of our bank. We can therefore despair that we are still there, or be moved by the fact that we have progressed a lot. I choose the second option.

• You have also decided to discuss good practices in terms of inclusion with other large companies such as Accor or IBM. What message are you trying to convey?

Many sectors of activity are experiencing full employment in France. If we deprive ourselves of recruiting people because they are women, homosexuals or because they come from less advantaged social backgrounds, we will have great difficulty filling these positions.

In addition, a corporate culture that values ​​inclusion and diversity is an essential criterion for younger generations who need to find meaning and authenticity in their work.

We must move from a French model of corporate culture where difference does not exist to a model where difference is promoted and sought after. It must be considered as a source of wealth and as an asset for creating performance.

• We have just experienced the fifth edition of the LGBT+ and Allied Role Models ceremony in front of more than 2,000 people at the Grand Rex, in the presence of leaders of the largest French groups, but also leading political decision-makers. An unprecedented recognition. What does this inspire you?

The stronger we are, the more our messages get across, the stronger our detractors become. We live in a world where economic, social, geopolitical difficulties and the weight of religions can lead to a step backwards. There is an increasingly strong polarization between those who are on the path of progress and those who are on the path of regression. We must therefore remain extremely vigilant. It is not because there are 2,700 of us this evening that we should believe that the fight is won. We must continue to educate to reduce ignorance.

Leticia Farine