Celebrating the Differences That Make Us Unique: Andrew Rigefsky, Operations Manager
At Syneos Health, we strive to create a work environment where all employees are open about their differences and embrace those differences to collaborate not only as a team but also as a family. Our commitment to #TotalSelf means bringing your best, most authentic self to work every day.
Meet Andrew Rigefsky, working as an Operational Manager in the Engagement Center by representing clients of Syneos Health when they are unable to represent themselves. As a member of our LGBTQIA+ community and Employee Resource Group (ERG), Andrew is passionate about nurturing the culture that makes Syneos Health unique.
What is your role at Syneos Health?
I’m an Operational Manager in Syneos Health’s Engagement Center, a division that manages contact and sales centers for clients mainly in the United States. I represent the client at times when the client is unable to represent themselves and do it proudly.
How do you identify yourself, and has that challenged you in the workspace?
How I identify myself has changed a lot over time. At first, I identified as a gay man, because that’s what was most visible to me at the time. As my understanding of gender, romantic, and sexual identities has grown, it didn’t make sense to me the concept of having to be in this binary, this-or-that box, and didn’t feel like the idea of a “gay man” identified with me. Today, I consider myself a male-presenting, non-binary individual with romantic/sexual identities towards others that are male-presenting. I know, that’s a mouthful and doesn’t have a nice letter that you can add to an acronym, but I think we’re much more complicated as human beings than simply narrowing down to a letter.
I’ve been very fortunate to work in environments and work for clients where I’ve never had to hide exactly who I was. To me, that fosters growth and innovation both on an individual and on a company level. There have been close-minded people that I’ve had to work with, but there was always a way to find common ground with each other.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
A former manager once taught me that you have to be your own cheerleader in life, and you can’t just rely on other people to make noise about your accomplishments and hard work. I never liked to talk in a positive manner about the work that I do, because I always found that to be bragging — but it’s not. If you don’t stand up for yourself and make it clear to others the role you play with the work you do, you can’t expect them to look for you when an opportunity arises.
It’s World PRIDE Month. What does Pride mean to you?
PRIDE to me is a celebration of just how far we’ve come in our society with regards to LGBTQIA+ rights, a reminder that those rights are not guaranteed, and an assurance to others that we will continue to fight for the rights we do have and more. We lose by staying silent and allowing others to dictate for us what we can and cannot have, and PRIDE is anything but silent. The movement didn’t end with same-sex marriage, nor did it end with protections at the workplace; we’ve still got a lot more to do.
