What is code-switching at work, and what does it cost?

What does code-switching look like?

Code-switching at work shows up in small decisions made many times a day: flattening an accent on a client call, changing a hairstyle before an interview, not mentioning a weekend at church or a cookout, laughing at a joke that was not funny, rehearsing an email so it does not read as “aggressive.” Each choice is small. Together they are work.

A 2019 Harvard Business Review article by McCluney, Robotham, Lee, Smith and Durkee, “The Costs of Code-Switching,” summarized research on Black employees in particular. People tend to code-switch in settings where they are negatively stereotyped. Doing so can make them seem more professional to others, and it can also be exhausting and feel inauthentic.

What it costs

• Energy. Monitoring how you come across uses attention that could go to the work itself. That is part of what I call the load.
• Relationships. Colleagues build trust with people who share personal details. Holding back can read as distance.
• Visibility. Sponsors back people they feel they know. If nobody knows you, nobody vouches for you. More on sponsors here.
• Well-being. Sustained self-monitoring is associated with burnout.

What does California law protect?

Some pressure to switch is not just cultural. It is illegal. California’s CROWN Act (SB 188) added traits historically associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles such as braids, locs and twists, to the definition of race under the Fair Employment and Housing Act. An employer with 5 or more employees cannot require you to change those to get or keep a job. The CROWN Act entry has the details.

How do you decide when to switch?

The goal is not to never adjust. Everyone adjusts for an audience. The goal is to make it a choice.

• Name the setting. A board presentation and a team lunch have different stakes. Switch where the stakes justify it, not everywhere.
• Find one place you do not switch. An employee resource group, a trusted peer, a manager who has earned it. Having one reduces the total cost.
• Share one real thing. A single personal detail, offered on your terms, builds more trust than a year of careful neutrality.
• Separate style from substance. Clarity, preparation and follow-through are skills. Accent, hair and slang are not. Feedback about the second kind is about fit, not performance.

For managers and HR

If your people feel they have to switch to be taken seriously, your culture is costing you performance. Review what “professional” means in your dress code and your review language. Words like “polish,” “presence” and “fit” should come with specific, observable behaviors, or they should come out of the review. A structured interview with a scorecard reduces the room for style to stand in for skill.

Why I write about it

I grew up in East Oakland and built a career in rooms that did not look like my block. The switch got me in some doors. Knowing when to stop switching kept me in them. A good coach can help you sort feedback that makes you better from feedback that asks you to disappear, and so can the anomaly trap lens: the system reads you against an average, and you do not have to become the average to be read correctly.

Start small. This week, pick one meeting where you will not switch and one colleague you will share something real with. Notice what changes in how people respond to you and how much energy you have at the end of the day. That is data you can use to decide where switching is worth its cost.

McKinley holds a J.D. but is not a licensed attorney. Articles here are general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk with an employment attorney.

Data current as of September 2026. Sources are linked where each figure appears.