"Supporting gay people is clearly beneficial for companies. I don't hide my orientation, my openness helps me in business," says Peter Dobiaš.
What was your career path that led you to the CFO position at Green Hills Capital?
After finishing high school, I went to university in Slovakia to study economics, which I successfully completed. Then I had the opportunity to study in Germany for a two-year Master of Business Administration. That was a year of distance learning in Slovakia and then a year in Germany. I successfully completed the MBA in 2003, at that time, even though we were in the European Union, but it was not possible to live in Germany without a work permit. That's why I went to work in Prague, but then I came back to Germany because I was always attracted to it. I got the opportunity to work at Bosch - Siemens just outside Stuttgart in a strategic purchasing position within Supply Chain Management. I have worked in other places in strategic management and purchasing and for the last eight years I have been working for Green Hills Capital as CFO. I am in charge of all finance, managing communications with the property management companies that own our company and the banks.
What motivated you to work in Germany?
Two factors spoke for Germany. One of them was the fact that I'm gay. I left Slovakia in 2002, at a time when the internet was not developed, there were no dating apps, and the awareness of homosexuality in Slovakia at that time was the scene from the film Police Academy when the police officers walk into the gay club Blue Oyster. I thought at the time that if it's like that, I'm definitely not going to be gay. (laughs)
It was not yet known in our country that a gay person could be a presenter or even a president. And when I first went to Germany and lived in Hamburg or then in Berlin, where the gay scene was already completely different, I liked it there, of course. I really enjoyed it, it was something new for me. Berlin is very diversified and you can take the metro for ten minutes and get off in Istanbul. (laughs) To this day, Berlin is the place where I feel safest because you can walk down the street in a bathrobe and nobody cares.
The other reason to live in Germany is the advancement of technology. If I go back to Slovakia now and go to the company where I worked until 2000, I see that nothing has changed in twenty-four years. Nothing at all. It's still the same people in the same places. And nothing has changed in terms of the technology used.
You also have work experience in the Czech Republic. How do you remember them?
From 2003 to 2007 I worked in a Czech company as a managing director and I made no secret of the fact that I was gay. Because I ran the company, I didn't have to hide and no one judged me. But then I was approached by a German consulting company asking if I could manage their project in Hodonín, South Moravia, for six months. I worked there with twelve buyers and a senior manager and it was a totally homophobic environment.
For example, I once asked one of the employees to solve a work problem. When I got to him, he opened his computer and a photo of me wearing a pink wig from the Pezin vintage fair was displayed across the monitor. And underneath it, the text "Look what he looks like, the faggot". He must have sent it to one of his colleagues. I got through it with professional calm, but the work environment was very difficult for me.
Do German companies provide their LGBTQ employees with the same conditions, opportunities and benefits as heterosexual employees?
In Germany, this is solved through legalized marriage for same-sex couples. It doesn't matter if you are heterosexual or homosexual, married couples - regardless of orientation - have exactly the same rights. Because of this, there is no possibility that gay/les spouses have different rights than heterosexual ones. There are simply no differences at all.
Is it commonfor German companies - whether public or private - to think about supporting LGBTQ employees and the community?
German companies are encouraged by the state to advocate for creating conditions for diversity and support for LGBTQ. Large companies therefore have diversity units and bodies that monitor the situation in the company, analyse it and encourage minorities to come out, so to speak, because this is clearly a benefit for the whole company. But this applies mainly to multinationals. They understand the importance of diversifying their workforce, because this brings benefits to the company.
They therefore offer, for example, motivational support courses or psychological support and so on. For example, one of the top ten German companies open to diversification is Deutsche Bahn. It encourages employees to "out" themselves, organises meetings of gay people, trips and entertainment, and pays for joint weekends, for example.
It's different for small companies, like Green Hills Capital, where I work. We are extremely diverse in terms of age or gender. For us, everything is "open." When we do parties, we have people of 16 nationalities, gay, black, white... We don't define any groups at all, everything is open. That's why we don't even have a diversity program.
Is it still common in Germany to hide one's sexual orientation in the workplace, as research by the European Agency for Human Rights, among others, has also pointed out?
As far as I know, around 30 per cent of people are still afraid to 'come out' in the workplace. In my experience, especially in large companies, people go to work and work like robots. They concentrate on their work and do not develop any friendly relationships with their colleagues at all. They don't talk about their private lives or their orientation. But the industry in which the company operates also plays a role. In large companies, especially fashion or cosmetics companies, people are not afraid to come out as LGBTQ. In manufacturing plants, on the other hand, it is still complicated.
You yourself don't hide the fact that you are gay in your company. But you come into contact with other companies, their representatives, partners... For example, have you never encountered any problems in business negotiations because of your orientation?
Absolutely not, quite the opposite. My orientation helps me, for example, in making friends. I'm sometimes even theatrical (laughs) and bankers or employees of companies that manage our investments know me as a cheerful gay and love it. They work much better with us than if I played a tough manager. My boss is supportive and loves it. He knows that I can bring benefits to the firm because of my personality. So, overall, it's only been beneficial to the firm.
But of course, I didn't behave like that in the big concerns where I worked. I'm sure there would be some who would condemn it. Besides, I've found that some people are not happy with successful gays.
You've suggested that diversity in the workplace is a definite asset. If someone were reading this interview who was still not convinced about why to introduce related principles into the company culture, how would you "convince" them?
I would tell him or her that if people are happy in the workplace, it promotes productivity and morale, fosters solidarity and increases employees' sense of belonging to the company. If companies don't have homosexuals on staff, they are losing a segment of the market. And if LGBTQ people suffer in the workplace, it will only be counterproductive. Instead of working, they will focus on how to hide their orientation. It's the same as with family and friends. If you're not open in your family, you won't function in it as you should. And eventually, the family won't work either.
