Logging Off: Gender, Race, and Remote Work in the Technology Industry

• In Event: 20417 - Gender and Work at the Margins: Criminalization, Legislation, and Local Context

Abstract

For over a decade, tech company diversity reports have highlighted an underrepresentation of women, Black, and Latinx workers. Recent research on inequality in tech focuses largely on workers’ in-person work experiences, documenting how on-the-job policies and practices make it harder for women and workers of color to advance. This article adds to our understanding of inequality in the industry by considering how tech work has changed since the transition to remote work and how workers would ideally like to work in the future. To do so, I draw on 108 longitudinal interviews conducted in two waves before and after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. I find that workers’ prior experiences of in-person work structured how they viewed the specific advantages and disadvantages of remote work and shaped their preferences for the future. White and Asian men especially missed collaborating with coworkers while working remotely, and were more likely to prefer an option to work in-person. Many women, Latinx, and especially Black workers, on the other hand, preferred working remotely. These workers experienced a newfound freedom from being “on” at work and noted that remote work helped them avoid microaggressions and harassment. As companies push to return to the office, however, some warn that they will tie performance reviews to in-person attendance. Given workers’ different preferences for remote work, these plans may disadvantage those who stay home.

Author

• Sigrid Willa Luhr, University of Illinois-Chicago