Occupational Hazards: The Silent Violence Experienced by Trans Women at Work

The workplace does not present a safe or supportive environment for those that transgress normative ideals of gender presentation and relations. Recent high-profile cases, such as Dr Beth Upton in Fife and the trans nurse ‘Rose’ in Darlington, illustrate how workplace hostility has intensified, with trans staff members subjected to public shaming and media-driven harassment. This worsening climate is further evidenced by Social Attitudes survey data and the legalised protection of ‘protected belief’ status afforded to ‘gender critical’ beliefs in 2025. This chapter presents poignant case studies of individual experiences related to work interpreted through Žižek's (2008) framework of ‘symbolic’ violence. The interpersonal level violence reported manifests variously from ubiquitous microaggression and harassment to violent sexual assault. The data was elicited during in-depth, qualitative research with trans people (McBride, 2019) exploring lived experiences of identity, hate, and harm. The chapter illuminates how the contemporary neoliberal capitalist discourses of individualism and responsibilisation have augmented trans individuals’ relation to income, productivity, and belonging in ways which are generative of harmful and violent systemic and interpersonal interactions. Through a discussion of these key examples of workplace-related violence and harms, this chapter explores trans individuals’ lived experiences at the nexus of precarious subjecthood and the ideals of neoliberal individualism. Trans women's pursuit of workplace belonging exemplifies Berlant's (2011) concept of ‘cruel optimism’, wherein aspirations for inclusion and stability are tied to systems inherently structured to exclude them. As they conform to neoliberal expectations of productivity and workplace ‘professionalism’, the promise of belonging becomes a self-defeating investment, reinforcing entrenched cisnormative standards and perpetuating exclusion.