Roos, my marketing friend, asks if I can make a phone call. Of course I can, I like to make time for her.
Roos: 'Hi Nina, just a question, it's Pride Month and we thought it would be a nice subject for a blog.

I feel the mood coming on.

Nina: 'Aha, and now you thought: let me ask Nina as the only member of this community within VIE People to write something about that.'
Roos: 'Haha, well actually yes.'

Yes, folks, this is how it starts. This question alone triggers an internal dilemma for me. Am I being used as a commercial showpiece here? A diversity trophy, just to be polished up, showing how diverse and inclusive we are?

OR is this an opportunity to inform people, tell my story and maybe bring a positive change for our scale-ups. And in this way create a more inclusive work field?

How do you ensure that diversity does not become a marketing trick, but a fact? It just 'is' there, without having to radiate it. I am familiar with the phenomenon of rainbowwashing. Was that going on here? Was I just submerged in a pool of rainbow confetti sticking to my body to show the world how inclusive VIE People is? I myself have a slight (read: terrible) apathy towards companies that hang out the rainbow flags on 1 June and then on 1 July think: pride month is over, rainbow flags can go back in the closet (pun intended). We don't have to think about it for another year, until we dust off the flags again on 1 June.

And yet I have come out of the closet many times in my life, and not just in June.

At 22, with myself and my best friend.
At 24 with my family.
At 25 when I joined VIE People.
At 26 with my family doctor.

Just a fortnight ago, with my new colleague.

And many more to come:
Every time I meet people for the first time.
Every time I start with new customers.
Every time I get the question: "Do you have a friend?"
Every time I have a job interview.
And so on and so forth, time to come will fill this list.

I know within VIE People that if something's bothering me, I can always turn to a fellow VIE member to talk about it. I open the conversation with Reindert. He asks me: 'But what's it like for you? And there you have it if you ask me: the holy grail. The question what it's all really about. The conversation, the contact, the curiosity and the desire to understand what it's like for someone else. And that is what VIE People does, what we stand for and how we make the world a bit more beautiful.

And suddenly I remember an Officevibe (my favourite HR tool) message I sent a while back. Namely this one (2 March 2022):

"The last question I was just asked was whether I feel safe to be completely myself in the team. The answer is a resounding yes, in fact I don't think I've ever felt as comfortable and open as I do at VIE People. So realisation: I appreciate this so much because I also know the other side of the coin.

I feel that I am not only given space to be who I am, but also space to develop into 'even more me'. I have never felt so free. Being allowed to be myself and getting the feeling that I'm allowed to be totally myself, VIE People and in larger sizes team 010 have (perhaps unconsciously) helped me enormously.

You not only make me feel safe to be myself, you applaud it. I think it's fantastically beautiful and I'm tapping this with tears in my eyes, I want to thank you."

And again this feeling comes over me, it says it all. I am in the right place here. So dear VIE'ers, once again: thank you! And I can't wait until the next team meeting when the question is asked again: 'Hey Nien, how are the women doing?

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