Masking language and “keeping it professional”

I’ve been having a hard time settling down to work this morning.

The ongoing pandemic has been stressful enough. But the events of the last few weeks have been so agitating, so overwhelming, that my mental and emotional health have taken a toll.

And I’m not even Black.

So my partner just said, “Why don’t you go for a walk, and then take your laptop and go sit in the yard, in that spot you like under the umbrella. I always find that it’s easier to work when my environment is pleasant.”

And there it is, in a nutshell.

Who gets to have a “pleasant” environment at work? One that makes it “easier to work”?

unarmed BLM advocate in a sundress with several fully-outfitted riot police

Seen, heard, and valued

After years of research, I’ve reached some conclusions about workplace culture.

In an optimized workplace culture, everyone feels seen, heard, and valued. They are able to make real contributions. They trust their teammates, and are able to give critical feedback, admit to mistakes, and make course corrections. They feel like they belong.

Bias and unfairness get in the way of all of these best outcomes.

And silence about this bias and unfairness just keeps all the problems in place, chugging along, same as it ever was.

Pushback

But in my work, I encounter more than silence.

I encounter pushback. Words and phrases that suggest that talking about bias and unfairness is inappropriate. Unprofessional.

That people are oversensitive. That they need to ignore the “fluff” and “get down to work.”

Here’s an example from a few months ago.

A colleague reached out to a group of us who do DEI work. She was adding new events to the company calendar, like celebrations of Diwali, Pride, and Women’s History Month. And some employees wrote to tell her they were “uncomfortable with her candor,” and they wanted “more neutrality in the workplace.”

This is what I call “masking language.”

Defining “masking language”

Masking language is used by a dominant group to mask a social reality. People use this language to support and maintain the status quo when it benefits them.

How does it work?

Masking language sets up the dominant group and the status quo as neutral, normal, and natural. The way it always has been, and the way it should continue to be. Common phrases include:

We should stay neutral.

Politics shouldn't be a part of the workplace.

We need to stay professional.

That’s just PC.

They all signal that discussions of and actions against bias are being framed as “out of bounds” or inappropriate or unnecessary.

(Talking about bias is also commonly framed as inappropriately emotional or feminine or histrionic or angry.)

Ripping off the mask

So what was being masked in this case? Here, the employees were using “neutrality” to hide that a supposedly neutral workplace, where bias is never discussed, is actually inequitable, not inclusive, and unfair.

One reality being concealed is that the standard American business calendar is not neutral, but in fact Christian. AD and BC center the birth of Christ, and if you want to go to your house of worship on Sundays or Christmas, most businesses automatically give those days off. But if you want to observe Diwali or Yom Kippur or Eid al-Fitr on a weekday, you’ve got to use personal days.

“Neutrality” sets up a framework where things are just fine, but it doesn’t actually reflect social reality.

Because in reality, things are just fine for only some of the people.

Business as usual

Let’s bring it back to our current state of affairs.

The unfairness of the world outside your workplace shapes and supports the unfairness inside.

And your colleagues, your reports, your teammates – they live in both worlds, not just the work world. What's more, now, more than ever, the lines between home life and work life have been blurred.

In that outside world, Black people are under attack. By a virus that is killing them disproportionately, because of longstanding and ongoing bias. Environmental racism. Being denied testing or medical care. Required to work service jobs without sufficient PPE. Relentless stress and anxiety.

As if that wasn’t enough, May was filled with videos and news of attacks on Black bodies. A murder by vigilantes. A murder by police breaking into the wrong home. An attempted “murder by cop” by a white woman. A murder by a police officer that went on for eight minutes while his colleagues stood by and watched.

On September 12, 2001, we didn’t go back to business as usual. We didn’t “keep it professional.” We didn’t ask to maintain “neutrality at work” and “keep your private life private.”

We collectively processed our trauma. Talked and vented and cried. Went over it again and again.

The collective traumas of COVID-19, police violence, and present-day lynchings are not felt the same way by all Americans. But they are real. And they are affecting people in real, and terrible, ways.

The “gag rule”

Just yesterday, I learned that the US House of Representatives enforced a “gag rule” from 1836 to 1844. This gag rule prevented anti-slavery petitions from being read or discussed; they were automatically tabled.

Pro-slavery politicians argued that it wasn’t appropriate for the federal government to interfere with the “domestic institutions” of the states.

Our present-day “let’s keep things professional” or “let’s keep it neutral” is just an updated gag rule. Automatically tabling the discussion of terrible systemic problems that permeate our society.

Instead of sitting in silence, or using masking language, let’s reframe things.

For my Black readers, I hope this piece can be useful as a way to educate your colleagues without expending even more of your precious energy and time.

And for my non-Black readers, it’s time to work on ways to unmask the social realities that come into and affect your workplace.

Leaders and managers: You can make public statements. You can offer PTO for mental health days. You can offer coaching and additional mental health coverage. You can be explicit that you don’t expect regular productivity. Here is a helpful list.

And, after you’ve educated yourself on the issues (please don't rely on the unpaid work of your Black ERG leaders and colleagues), you can ask:

What can we do to make ALL our people feel safe, heard, and valued?

What should we do to make this a pleasant environment that makes work easier?

Teammates: You can offer support through private and public messages. You can educate yourself so people dealing with trauma don’t have to educate you. You can take action, and talk about the actions you’re taking.

It’s time to push back against the silence and the masking language. Because the only way to make things better is to genuinely look at, and talk about, reality.

Industry-leading inclusive language expert Suzanne Wertheim facilitates in-person and virtual inclusive language trainings, as well as offering empowering and educational inclusive language keynotes.