Students from marginalized backgrounds face heightened burnout from code-switching to fit into underrepresented academic, professional, and social spaces. This survival strategy, requiring adjustments in speech, appearance, and behavior, undermines their sense of belonging, lowers campus engagement and academic performance, and increases mental health challenges and substance abuse, leading some to consider transferring or dropping out due to belonging concerns.

In Belonging on Campus: Code-Switching and College Life, George Paasewe expands on his 2015 IRB research on code-switching, which contributed to the scientific literature by discovering how code-switching is learned while illuminating the complex challenges that students face in their pursuit of belonging and succeeding.

Employees experience heightened burnout as they navigate professional spaces where they are underrepresented, often feeling pressured to code-switch to advance their careers. This pressure to adjust their communication, behavior, and even aspects of their core identity to meet corporate expectations can lead to significant emotional and psychological strain. The consequences are strikingly evident: a surge in burnout rates, job dissatisfaction, a profound sense of not belonging, and resignations.

In The Cost of Code-Switching: Belonging in Corporate America, George Paasewe delves deep into the uncharted territory of code-switching in the corporate world. This eye-opening book uncovers the intricate challenges confronting employees in their pursuit of belonging, highlighting an overlooked crisis.