Burned out by the binary: how misgendering of nonbinary employees contributes to workplace burnout

Abstract

We examine nonbinary employees’ experiences with misgendering in work contexts and draw from minority stress theory (Meyer, 2003) to understand the consequences of misgendering. Our findings from 29 semi-structured interviews with nonbinary individuals revealed that although being misgendered is a common and highly stressful experience (distal stressor), the emotional labor associated with anticipating and reacting to misgendering acts as an additional and more proximal stressor. Together, these stressors jointly contribute to all three components of employee burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced professional efficacy). We also identified support from coworkers and supervisors (in preventing and addressing misgendering) as important ameliorating factors. As such, our findings provide support for the tenets of minority stress theory and extend this work by focusing specifically on nonbinary employees and on burnout, an important outcome for both employees and organizations. These findings provide a more complete understanding of the lived experiences of nonbinary employees and make unique contributions to the diversity/inclusion, gender studies, queer studies, work/life, and occupational health literatures.