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By Aashi Arora, MHA, PCC, Executive Coach
A few years ago, I was working with a physician at a large medical center. Brilliant, respected, and the kind of person others counted on. But something had shifted. She had become withdrawn in meetings. Quicker to push back and harder to reach.
Her manager called it a performance issue. I called it a signal.
When we finally sat down together, she said something I have not forgotten.
“I spend so much energy making sure no one sees me struggle. I can’t afford to.”
She was not struggling with her clinical work. She was struggling with the invisible weight of navigating identity, perception, and the quiet pressure of being one of the few in many of the rooms she entered.
July is Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, also commonly referred to as BIPOC Mental Health Month. It is named in honor of the author and advocate who spent her life fighting stigma and demanding better support for underrepresented communities. She believed silence was the enemy. I do too.
How the Silence Shows Up at Work
Right now, in workplaces across the country, that silence is showing up in ways we often misread.
We call it conflict. We call it disengagement. We call it attitude. But beneath the behavior, there is often something worth getting curious about.
For employees from underrepresented groups, the workplace can carry additional layers of pressure. There may be the pressure to prove competence again and again. The pressure to represent more than oneself. The pressure to avoid being seen as difficult, emotional, ungrateful, or not resilient enough. The pressure to manage how much of oneself is safe to bring into the room.
That pressure is not always visible, but it can shape how people show up at work.
The numbers tell part of the story. Among adults with any mental illness, BIPOC adults are significantly less likely than white adults to receive mental health services. The barrier is rarely motivation. It is often stigma, lack of culturally responsive care, and the very real fear that being vulnerable at work will cost them something they cannot afford to lose.
That fear does not stay at the door. It comes to work every day. It sits in meetings. It answers emails. And when it reaches a breaking point, it can look like conflict.
What Each of Us Can Do
So what can each of us do?
- Get curious before you get concerned. When a colleague seems disengaged, reactive, or harder to reach, ask a question before drawing a conclusion. “How are you really doing?” is not a small thing. For someone carrying an invisible weight, it can be the beginning of real support.
- Do not assume your underrepresented colleagues are okay. High performers are often skilled at masking struggle. The colleague who seems the most composed may also be working the hardest to appear that way.
- Create a culture where support is safe to use. EAPs and mental health benefits only work when people believe they can access them without judgment, stigma, or consequence. Leaders and colleagues help create that culture through how they talk about wellbeing, how they respond to stress, and how they normalize asking for help.
- Speak up when something feels off. Not to diagnose or fix. Just to show up. Community is one of the most powerful forces in mental health recovery, and it often starts with one honest conversation.
Campbell believed that when people who have been unseen finally share their truth, healing becomes possible. That process does not only begin in a therapist’s office. It begins in the everyday moments where someone decides to look closer instead of looking away.
The conflict you are seeing may not be the problem.
It may be the message.
Are you listening?
