Future Well-Being of Transgender People in the Workplace

A global movement over the last decade to promote gender diversity in the workplace has mitigated, yet not eliminated, marginalization of transgender employees and their exclusion from some workplaces. This report examines the current extent and modes of inclusion, marginalization and exclusion, and explores the well-being of research participants from the transgender and gender non-conforming community within their workplaces. The author, a transgender individual currently enrolled in a graduate program, makes sense for readers of the complexities and uncertainties affecting these working people’s quality of life. He identifies causes for hope within their present circumstances and, with that information and several modes of analysis, proposes opportunities to design a future of optimal workplace well-being for transgender people. This report’s primary research question is: How might we design a future that supports optimal well-being of transgender people in the workplace? The article explores three transgender adults’ perspectives on and experiences of well-being in their workplaces. At the time of their interviews, the participants all worked in what, since the onset of COVID-19, are known as frontline occupations: education, healthcare, and retail customer service. The author collected survey responses from fifteen anonymous, transgender and gender non-conforming individuals working to provide more diverse perspectives on workplace well-being in frontline and non-frontline occupations. Summaries and multiple modes of analyses paint a clear picture of the range and commonalities of the participants’ present workplace circumstances and their visions of a future in that workplace more supportive of their well-being. The research process is modeled on Human-Centered Design, with the research question also serving as the design challenge. The construct of well-being is explored, to strengthen interview and survey data and the Three Horizons map highlighting aspirational futures of well-being. The author additionally analyzes the data through a systems thinking lens, applying system archetypes to uncover improvement opportunities and constraints hiding within these data sets. Each analysis of primary data is contextualized by a review of relevant literature, including a section devoted to the effect on transgender workers of COVID-19 exigencies. Grounded by sustainable development principles, the author designed a prototype of a process to shift workplace paradigms toward achieving optimal well-being for transgender employees. This report’s primary and secondary research findings, and the early process-prototype, are intended to contribute to knowledge mobilization – the creation and sharing of knowledge – among readers interested in manifesting a future where all workers recognize and value gender diversity and transgender workers’ well-being as beneficial for their workplace and everyone within it. Keywords: Gender Diversity, Inclusion, Design, Knowledge Mobilization, Strategic Foresight, Transgender, Well-being, Workplac