How Marginalized Workers Can Make the Most of Remote Work

The workplace environment is a big part of what marginalized people go through at work. If you are being marginalized because of your race, gender, or disability, there is nothing you can do about it.

In the early months of 2020, a lot of that was different. Many of us suddenly went from working in offices all the time and having to navigate the politics of being seen, being a superstar, and making a show of ourselves and our work around others, to working at home, quietly, behind a screen, and only being seen by others for zoom meetings Some companies have given up their office space because of the H1N1 swine flu. Some people have used this moment to rethink their work possibilities. There is a chance that there is some sympathy for the worker. At least a bit more flexibility.

I loved my job at The New York Times but it was hard to do. Some of that was my own shyness and difficulty advocating for myself, but also some of it was the cliquish nature of a few of the teams I worked with. I preferred the flexibility of being able to do my work from home, listen to music, and use a computer that was more powerful and flexible than the laptop I had been issued at work. I had a more comfortable desk and chair and all the other personal touches I had already put into my workspace at home, something many of my colleagues had to scramble to do when the Pandemic hit and they were suddenly forced to set up home office spaces where none existed before.

If you are a marginalized person, you feel like you need to be there to be seen, even if you are available. You don't like being there and being seen. Those feelings come with a level of paranoia about what's going on behind your back when you're not there, the meetings that could be happening right now but that you weren't invited to, and the anxiety of wondering how you're perceived when you're not there.

This can be alleviated by working remotely. There are ways to use remote work to your advantage, even though it has drawbacks. You have a chance to shine when the currency of being present and being the loudest person in the room is not as important as it used to be. If you are on a hybrid-style team, some people are in the office and others aren't, that's the same thing. Even though hybrid-style teams can give rise to some misunderstandings and communication breakdowns, there are steps you can take to protect yourself.

Pinola is a senior writer at Consumer Reports. She was at Wirecutter before her current job. I was fortunate enough to work with Pinola again eight years later when she started at Wirecutter and I was its liaison to the New York Times newsroom. She has been telecommuting for various employers for over a dozen years, including as a telecommuter for a small marketing agency for over a decade, as a writer for a fully remote tech company for three years, and finally at Wire. She1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556