The LGBTQ+ Employee Mental Load Dilemma: Captive Identity and Adaptive Responses

Conceptualizations of mental load argue that marginalized employees may experience heightened mental load demands in the workplace (Sanders, 1979). Using the theories of facework, frontstage, and backstage performance (Goffman, 1978), we examine how workplace interactions may constrain or enable the performance of an LGBTQ+ identity in the workplace. We interviewed 35 U.S.-based LGBTQ+ employees to understand how mental load pressures shape identity presentation choices. Data were thematically analyzed using an iterative process based on principles of grounded theory. Two themes emerged: the Captive, or negative face threats, that LGBTQ+ employees described (including subthemes of professionalism and feelings of inescapability) and Adaptive strategies promoting negative face (including subthemes of making choices where possible, identity artifacts selections, and use of strategic ambiguity). Both captive and adaptive aspects of facework are considered for potential impact on increasing employee mental load.