Equity and returning to the office
Image text: Is going back to the office the right step for your team
Image description: Brown hand holding a cup
“There have been two pandemics.”
I’m sure a lot of us have heard that statement over the last two years, especially in reference to the stark inequities that have been experienced by Black people; Indigenous people; people of Asian descent; people living in poverty; homeless people; people who didn’t have the privilege of working from home; folks with disabilities; and so many other marginalized groups whose suffering has been compounded during this global health crisis.
It is also true.
It’s important to acknowledge that what we have experienced in the last year was not an anticipated move to remote work or working from home. What we have experienced is a work from home strategy that was implemented in response to a crisis. These are two very different things. I have worked virtually for the majority of my career -- both as a self employed person and business owner, and I can confidently report that this period has not felt the same. Employees have been forced to amp up productivity while navigating the chaos, uncertainty, and grief this pandemic has caused. For workplaces that embraced virtual work in the wake of the pandemic, there may be serious needs for restructuring how a virtual, in- person, or hybrid workplace should function.
During the pandemic, women of colour have been fired or have had to leave their jobs in incredible numbers. Given the way gender roles impact women, especially within heterosexual partnerships, it is not surprising that women have reportedly taken on the lion's share of childcare responsibilities, including at-home education, in their households and the wage gap has made shifting care responsibilities to women a sensible option for families simply trying to manage their way through the pandemic. Disabled folks have had unprecedented access to the workplace in comparison to a pre-COVID world. Already, we have seen that 1 in 3 workers said the return-to-office shift negatively impacted their mental health. In one study, only 3% of Black respondents wanted to go back to the office full time, compared to 21% of their white colleagues.
The conversation around returning to work is developing and in a constant state of flux. While you’re having these conversations, It’s important to consider a number of tough and conflicting truths:
Some marginalized people were further marginalized with COVID-19 work changes;
Some marginalized people reported more access and flexibility, and a decrease in harm as a result of virtual work;
There is no one-size fits all solution for all members of your team. For example, there have been calls to fully transition to virtual work because neurodiverse employees finally feel accommodated since they are in a place where they can focus and feel safe, and it reduces social anxieties. However this is not a shared desire for all neurodiverse folks, including those who do not have access to dedicated office spaces in their home, those who have multigenerational homes that can get loud, etc.
We want to help you folks make this process as data driven, human focused, and equitable as possible. With that in mind, we’ve created a free toolkit that includes a survey to share with your team, a guide to analyze the results of the survey, and a guide to creating a safe virtual and physical workplace for BIPOC employees. This toolkit is designed to support informed and open conversations with your workforce to identify wants and needs of employees, as well as concerns and opportunities. Asking these questions can help understand the existing gaps in order to move forward with an equitable framework.
The survey will give you a number of questions that you can customize to your specific context. It includes demographic data, data about your team’s COVID work experiences, and details about what they need.
The analysis guide will help you make sense of the information you receive in the survey, and how that information can be used in service of making a decision about what your next step looks like.
The guide to a safe work environment for BIPOC team members should be used as a starting point. The work to build equity and safety is not one that can be completed with one guide, but this can be a starting point.