A Qualitative Exploration of the Employment Experiences of Transgender and Gender Diverse People in Australia

ABSTRACT This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people in Australian workplaces. Eighteen adults who identified as TGD participated in semi‐structured interviews led by the research questions: How do workplace structures and cultures contribute to minority stress among transgender and gender diverse employees, particularly in relation to psychosocial and physical safety? and How do transgender and gender diverse individuals manage identity disclosure in the workplace, and what forms of anticipated or enacted stigma influence these decisions and their emotional consequences? Transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis informed by critical realism. Four main themes were developed: Hazardous gaps between policy and practice adversely impacted physical and psychosocial safety in the workplace; Managing perceptions of others through compulsory unpaid emotional labour; Gender affirmation as a costly balancing act; and Narrowed and endangering employment possibilities at the intersection of stigmatised and marginalised identities. The experiences shared here provide an illustration of how the relationship between organisational structure, policies and sanctioned discriminatory interpersonal ways of relating work together to create environments with inbuilt minority stressors and barriers to safe acts of identity disclosure. The findings highlight the need to support Australian employers not only to ensure workplace compliance with anti‐discrimination legislation but to provide safer working environments through structural and cultural changes that reduce minority stressors and support safe identity disclosures for trans and gender diverse employees.