I first encountered Deloitte’s “Uncovering Talent” report (released 2013) over four years ago. What stood out to me was the prevalence of covering, and how little I had heard about it - which was nothing at the time.
For me, this topic explained things about myself I didn’t have language for, and also served as a foundational experience that a majority of people in the workplace shared even if the way it manifested was different. From straight white men to Black women, LGBTQ+ folks, people with disabilities, and more – covering was present. Flash forward a decade since that original report was released, and the stats haven’t changed. Neither has the subject of covering become a major focal point in America’s corporate efforts to shift people’s sense of belonging, ability to contribute and innovate, and show up authentically and as their best selves in the workplace.
The initial report built on Erving Goffman's concept of "covering," that "describe[s] how even individuals with known stigmatized identities made a 'great effort keep the stigma from looming large,'" and looked at it through the lens of Kenji Yoshino's four axes: Appearance-based covering, Affiliation-based covering, Advocacy-based covering, and Association-based covering. My definition, inspired by their work and developed through conversations and interviews with people over the past few years, defines covering as “downplaying, hiding, filtering or masking parts of ourselves at work, with social groups, at school and with family.” The new report, Uncovering Culture (2023), by Deloitte and NYU School of Law defines covering as “ways in which individuals downplay known disfavored identities to blend into the mainstream.”
The new report included a more inclusive sample of corporate employees including trans and nonbinary people, along with collecting qualitative data that gives additional context to the experience and impact of covering, similar to my interviews from the past few years.
Some of their key findings highlighted by Fast Company include:
Employees with more marginalized identities are more likely to cover: 71% of employees with five more or more marginalized identity affiliations reported covering compared to employees with 1-2 marginalized identities.
Younger employees tend to cover more than older employees: 66% of millennials and 65% of Gen Z report covering, compared to 56% of Gen X and 49% of baby boomers.
People who aren’t marginalized also cover, especially if they are perceived as having privilege: 51% of people who don’t have a marginalized identity say they cover at work, and 54% of white men reported covering. “As a White man I try to avoid sharing any ‘struggles,’” one respondent wrote.
Covering comes with a cost: 74% of respondents said covering affected them negatively. Fifty-four percent said it impacted their ability to do their job and 60% said they were emotionally drained from covering.
A few examples that embody those statistics and speak to the experience and impact of covering from my interviews over the past few years include:
Even as an extrovert, Senator Cynthia Mendes found herself isolated from others, “which was not healthy at all,” she said. “It left my friends feeling like I was gone. I felt like I was gone. That isolation manifested in this feeling - am I losing touch with who I am? We all covered in our own ways that caused disconnection between us…. Over the past few years, people have expressed isolation, burnout, depression, and anxiety,” she explained. “I heard a phrase this week that really captured what the through line was – we’re asking people to bring themselves into compromised spaces that were not built for us and were not designed for how we present and conduct ourselves in the world.” Isolation is just one way covering has impacted Senator Mendes. “I've realized there is really no institution that exists right now where I would not have to enter with some level of covering,” she said. “Because they all started without us, without me. I'm a cog in the wheel that they didn't plan for. I understand in talking to friends in academia, medicine, and economics; these are feelings that many of us feel.” Explore my full conversation with Senator Mendes.
Lori Fisher of Ready or Not! Media, said that, “For me, covering has been a big piece of who I am, and watching myself unfold from my childhood years, to my teenage years, to my adult years, and now, as a business leader, and the work I'm doing. I've masked my disability and disguised it in ways that, you know, I just had to deal with it. I didn't want to have to explain to people, my differences, even though some may have picked up on it, just from knowing that I'm sitting in front of a room and need to be in front of the teacher. I was always missing out by covering. It wasn't helping, it was hurting, deep down in my soul that I wasn't sharing as much as I probably should have. But I was also putting myself in a position where I over compensated for my disability for a very long period of time. And, you know, I just felt that there wasn't enough awareness or empathy around me, the only empathy and awareness around me was my family, or my teachers, and you know, kids can be cruel - you are always trying to hide it, whether it was hiding my hearing aids and not wanting people to see my hearing aids and not wearing my hair up.” Explore my full conversation with Lori Frisher.
As Erik Eaker, an LGBTQ+ corporate leader shared during our conversation in 2019, "When I first got into the corporate sector, over 20 years ago, I wasn't out at work. I had the behaviors that I learned over time around trying to be as conservative as possible. Trying to fit in - not talking about things that were really personal to me, not talking about relationships that I had. And even doing things behaviorally like lowering my voice and being really careful about the way I walk and talk. It's really debilitating. As I entered the corporate sector, thinking that I had to cover or hide something about myself that was my true self. Those behaviors over time become who you are... When I joined Humana 19 years ago, I was luckily out to the person who brought me into the company. And he put me on the stage immediately as being a gay male. I was introduced to the Diversity Committee and then started serving in an Inclusion & Diversity capacity for the company representing LGBTQ+. And that really helped me start to shed some of those behaviors and coverings that I developed over time. But they still show up from time to time. And I think one of the latest coverings that I'm conscious of and still have not shed is that one around being legitimate through marriage. And so as I've learned, over the past few weeks, I've been thinking deeply about this wearing a wedding band. Sometimes I put it on in certain instances, because I feel like that will make me more accepted that I am a legitimate member of this society because I can get married and I can wear a band." Explore more from these conversations here.
Part of my goal in doing this work has been to support a culture of uncovering, something that Uncovering Culture also highlights. I encourage people to practice introspection, to understand the parts of themselves they are covering, the impact it has on them, and to create a strategy for bringing forward – and uncovering – those parts of their identities. By providing language and spaces for sharing those stories and experiences to model what’s possible, we can shift the cultural norms in the places where we work.
Two of my recent interviewees modeled this and spoke to the process of uncovering.
Actress and nonprofit leader Marija Abney said, "I actively work in my personal life - outside of being an artist, outside of being a producer - to uncover, to be myself in my fullness as a Black woman as I navigate the world. To know what that is and to better understand what that is. I think it's something that will always be active. For me, it's something that will always be a process of uncovering. And I look forward to the me that is tomorrow, the me that will be five years from now, me that will be 10 years from now and my understanding - that person's understanding - of womanhood and Blackness, which I know is going to be different than this person's understanding of womanhood and Blackness. It's always a process, and I am excited by the process." Explore my full conversation with Marija Abney.
Uncovering isn’t usually a one-and-done scenario. It’s something that can take a lifetime to undo, to unlearn, to process through and overcome. And, sometimes we uncover in stages.
“It’s like a brick wall, it’s so difficult to climb over and push through. And when finally, you’re able to remove those bricks and walk openly, there is nothing like it,” said event professional Dev Cleary. “…For a portion of my professional career I lost who I was. I felt like when I walked into work I would be one person, and the minute I would leave I’d have a sigh of relief. I said, ‘I want to work in a place where I can be my authentic self and have a picture on my desk of the person that I love the most in my life.’” Explore my full conversation with Dev Cleary.
Beyond just recognizing covering as an issue a majority of people grapple with, I continue to invite leaders to consider what an uncovering movement would look like in their workplace. Leaders of companies and teams all have the responsibility to dismantle a culture of covering if it exists, recognizing how much it can impact not only individual employees but the organization at large.
As Deloitte and NYU said in their report, “Despite the increased attention on diversity, equity, and inclusion over the past 10 years, covering is ubiquitous and continues to negatively impact workers and therefore organizations’ capacity to thrive.”
I encourage each of you to delve into the new report, and if you’d like to read my interviews with leaders from across sectors about their experience with covering, checkout my Uncovering Our Value newsletter on LinkedIn. You can also watch my talk from earlier this year, The Courage to Uncover from DisruptHR Denver to learn more about the topic in just 5-minutes.