Erving Goffman and AT&T

If we are to believe The Supreme Court, corporations should be treated as individuals. So, this post looks at AT&T as an individual as they refused to extend FMLA benefits to one of their employees to take care of his ailing same sex partner. Because the man could get no traction with AT&T, even after sending an attorney-written letter and being told "that the company isn’t granting leave under FMLA because neither federal nor state law recognizes his domestic partner," he chose to take his story to the media. as a sidebar, AT&T is consistently ranked high by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) for it's favorable treatment of GLBT employees.

After the media got hold of the story, miraculously, AT&T changed their tune issuing the statement: "AT&T regrets that there has been confusion over the administration of family leave with respect to registered domestic partners. AT&T has taken steps to ensure that FMLA is extended to employees with registered domestic partners for the purpose of caring for the partner, regardless of the state in which the employee resides. AT&T has a long history of inclusiveness and we embrace and celebrate diversity of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in our workforce."

So, to get to my initial thought about how Erving Goffman fits into this story, this is pure Goffman-esque impression management. Goffman, a theorist whose work has been applied to sociology, cultural studies, media studies and a host of other disciplines, believes that life is a stage, and developed the dramaturgical approach. Goffman believes that people have to make an acceptable show of whatever they are doing. He also makes a distinction between the backstage (where actions are carried out that are hidden from the audience) and the frontstage (where the performance or action happens).

I think AT&T experienced a disconnect from their backstage and frontstage performances. It appears, at least on the surface, that AT&T didn't really believe in supporting their LGBT employees. Rather, they thought it would make for a good frontstage performance to publicly support their LGBT employees. The disconnect occurred when they were asked to again perform the role of a company that supports its LGBT employees on the frontstage. They initially didn't do it because the backstage preparation was inadequate for the role at hand.

The moral of the story is that corporations need to fully inhabit their role and ensure that they have adequately prepared backstage before it's showtime and you're called on to make us believe your frontstage performance.