Reframinng Cyclical Health at Work: A Service Design Toolkit for Cycle-Aware Workplace Transformations
Translated title
Reframinng Cyclical Health at Work: A Service Design Toolkit for Cycle-Aware Workplace Transformation
Authors
Kántor, Zsófia Ágnes ; Sopkova, Margareta
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2026
Submitted on
2026-05-25
Pages
114
Abstract
Many workplaces are built around stable availability, steady output, and an assumption of bodily neutrality (treating everyone as if their bodies work the same). At the same time, cyclical health—such as the menstrual cycle—can bring shifts in energy, focus, and wellbeing. This thesis examines how service design (designing how an organization's services, interactions, and processes work) can address this mismatch. Using a literature review, desk research, surveys, interviews, participatory workshops, prototyping, and usability testing, the project explores how cyclical health is shaped by symptoms, stigma, disclosure, flexibility, workplace culture, and organizational responsibility. The thesis develops the Cycle-Aware Workplace Toolkit, a service design proposal with four stages: Setting Up, Reimagining, Creating, and Embedding. The toolkit helps organizations assess readiness, question assumptions about productivity and bodily neutrality, prototype practical forms of support, and consider how cycle-aware practices can be integrated into everyday routines. Instead of relying on individual tracking, forced disclosure, or fixed cycle-syncing models, the toolkit takes a participatory, disclosure-light approach that makes workplace conditions discussable and adaptable. The findings suggest that cycle-aware workplace design cannot be reduced to menstrual leave, awareness campaigns, or informal flexibility. It requires coordinated organizational learning across culture, communication, managerial practice, spatial conditions, team-level negotiation, and privacy-conscious implementation. The thesis contributes to service systems design by reframing cyclical health as an organizational issue and proposing a structured process for translating recognition into practical, context-sensitive workplace change.
Mange arbejdspladser er organiseret efter stabil tilgængelighed, jævn produktivitet og en idé om kropslig neutralitet (at alle kroppe antages at fungere ens). Samtidig kan cyklisk sundhed – fx menstruationscyklus – medføre svingninger i energi, koncentration og trivsel. Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan servicedesign (at designe organisationers services, interaktioner og processer) kan bruges til at mindske dette misforhold. Gennem litteraturgennemgang, desk research, spørgeskemaer, interviews, deltagende workshops, prototyping og brugertests undersøger projektet, hvordan cyklisk sundhed formes af symptomer, stigma, deling af oplysninger, fleksibilitet, arbejdskultur og organisatorisk ansvar. Afhandlingen udvikler Cycle-Aware Workplace Toolkit, et servicedesign-forslag med fire faser: Setting Up, Reimagining, Creating og Embedding. Værktøjet støtter organisationer i at vurdere parathed, udfordre antagelser om produktivitet og kropslig neutralitet, afprøve praktiske former for støtte og overveje, hvordan cyklusbevidste praksisser kan indarbejdes i hverdagsrutiner. I stedet for individuel tracking, tvungen deling eller faste cycle-syncing-modeller bruger værktøjet en deltagende og delings-let tilgang, så arbejdspladsens vilkår kan gøres til noget, der kan drøftes og tilpasses. Resultaterne peger på, at cyklusbevidst arbejdspladsdesign ikke kan reduceres til menstruationsorlov, oplysningskampagner eller uformel fleksibilitet. Det kræver koordineret organisatorisk læring på tværs af kultur, kommunikation, ledelsespraksis, fysiske rammer, forhandlinger på teamniveau og privatlivsbevidst implementering. Afhandlingen bidrager til service systems design ved at omramme cyklisk sundhed som et organisatorisk anliggende og ved at foreslå en struktureret proces, der omsætter anerkendelse til praktiske, kontekstfølsomme ændringer på arbejdspladsen.
[This apstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]
Keywords