I'm going to tell them that I’m gay, thought Jeff Nally, SHRM-SCP, as he neared the final step in the hiring process for a job he really wanted. It was 2002, and Nally had been working in human resources for about a decade when he applied to be the director of HR for one of the largest air filter manufacturing companies in the world. The company was based in the Midwest, with locations across rural America, and exhibited what Nally considered to be a conservative culture.
​
As Nally had proceeded through several rounds of interviews and assessments, he hadn’t received any signals that he would be welcomed as a gay man, but he hadn’t gotten any indications that he would be discriminated against, either. Now the job was his, conditional upon an informal meeting with the president of the company, to be had over breakfast at a local diner.

On Saturday night, an attacker at Colorado Spring's Club Q killed five people and injured 17. While we all hope and pray that no violent person shows up at our businesses or businesses we patronize, if it can happen there, it can happen wherever you are.
​
This wasn't a traditional workplace attack, as the alleged perpetrator wasn't an employee or a former employee, but the mass shooter killed people at work and people at play. 
Just what should you do in response to this tragedy?

Katrina Kibben (they/them), CEO and founder of Three Ears Media, says leaders need to speak up.