Abstract
We contribute to one of the few analyses of anxiety masking in organisations, the motivations to do so, its implications, and how masking is a phenomenon that is systemically sustained within workplaces. We collected primary data using semi-structured qualitative interviews from 52 academics who rated themselves as having high levels of anxiety. Preliminary findings indicate that anxious academics routinely masked their anxiety and believed that masking anxiety by others was prevalent in their workplaces. A prominent motivation behind masking anxiety was the fear of being seen as weak and incapable of handling performance expectations. There were two perceived consequences of masking anxiety: 1) masking anxiety led to ego depletion and feeling isolated, and 2) masking anxiety shaped the workplace climate in that there was an erroneous assumption that people were more resilient than they felt, which promoted normative expectations that anxiety was not a workplace issue. Consequently, managers wrongly concluded that anxiety was not a problem in their work units.