A growing list of companies are demanding workers come back to the office for a few days a week. But for some workers, being back in the office reminds them of pre-pandemic times, when they say they regularly suffered slights small and large because of their race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Some would rather stay remote, and are seeking out jobs that afford them that opportunity. Jennifer Wameling is a transgender woman and details her journey from working in an office and being misgendered and dead named – called by her old name instead of her new, actual one – to feeling happier in a fully remote job. Then Dr. Tiffany Jana, a diversity, equity and inclusion expert and adviser, tells us what companies can do to address the prevalence of microaggressions in the workplace and why remote work may not actually slow one’s career growth.
Send us your stories about work and careers! Email aswework@wsj.com, or leave us a voicemail at 212-416-2394.
Some Minority Workers, Tired of Workplace Slights, Say They Prefer Staying Remote
Companies Increase Efforts to Recruit Black Remote Workers to Diversify Their Workforce
Black and Hispanic Employees Often Get Stuck at the Lowest Rung of the Workforce
This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Tess Vigeland: Hi, I'm Tess Vigeland. And as we work, remote work is on our minds.
Jennifer Wameling: It's wonderful. I choose to interact with people how I want to. If I don't want to turn my camera on and be seen, I don't have to turn my camera on.
Tess Vigeland: This is As We Work from the Wall Street Journal, a show about the changing workplace and everything you need to know to navigate it. Coming up on the show, summer is over. The kids are off to school and adults are by and large being summoned back to the office, regardless of whether they want to go.
Tess Vigeland: We cover a lot of numbers here at The Journal, but here's one to drop your jaw. Just 3% of black knowledge workers want to return to the office full time. 3% versus 21% of white knowledge workers. That's according to a 2021 survey from the Future Forum. Coming up, we're going to explore why black and other minorities and disadvantaged groups might feel particularly reticent about going back to the office.
Tess Vigeland: If the remote work revolution has taught us nothing else, it certainly has taught us that many, many, many people do not particularly enjoy spending their days at the office. An ADP survey from last spring found 64% of workers would consider quitting rather than return to the office full-time. You can imagine plenty of reasons for this. Some are parents with childcare issues. Some are still worried about contracting COVID. Some dread returning to a long commute. And some just no longer want the pressure of having to prove they're working every hour of the day.
Tess Vigeland: But some workers say they have far more deeply rooted reasons for not wanting to return to the office. They say that because of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or other factors, they're treated like outsiders in the workplace, regularly suffering slights, small and large. In a moment, we'll talk with a consultant who helps companies tackle these kinds of diversity and inclusion issues about how these slights often called microaggressions can affect workers throughout their careers. First, we hear from a transgender woman who has her own story about why returning to the office led to a big career decision.
Jennifer Wameling: I'm Jennifer Wameling. I'm from Rochester, New York. I am a reporting analyst for a company in the staffing industry.
Jennifer Wameling: My previous workplace was an organization in the nonprofit sector. I started working there in 2015 and only just recently left that position in April of this year of 2022. I started to transition while working for this organization. I came out at work in May of 2019. So from November 2015 through May of 2019, all of my coworkers addressed me with my dead name and with masculine pronouns.
Jennifer Wameling: A dead name is the name that a trans person used to go by before they transitioned. It's also sometimes known as an old name or a birth name. They were supposed to address me with my actual name and with feminine pronouns, but it didn't always happen that way.
Jennifer Wameling: There was a meeting that we had about a month after I came out at work. So things were still a little bit fresh for folks. I was misgendered a few times and the room was completely silent. Nobody said anything. There was no correction.
Jennifer Wameling: Mid-March 2020, essentially the entire staff was home, and immediately the change was like as far as being misgendered or being dead named was apparent because people didn't see me. When we did return to the office, we had this kind of large picnic get together with the entire staff at that gathering, I was misgendered twice. And once we returned to work, then the misgendering and dead naming returned. Not as much as when I first transitioned, but it was like I had to repeat that whole like coming out process.
Tess Vigeland: We reached out to Wameling's former employer who did not respond to our request for comment.
Jennifer Wameling: In February of this year, there were a number of factors that contributed to my seeking out a new job. At the top of that list was the misgendering and dead naming that was happening. But an old manager of mine who now works for the company that I work for reached out and said, "Hey, there's this reporting analyst position. Would you be interested in this?" And I'm like, "Oh my God, yes." Because immediately the first thing that she said was that it's fully remote.
Jennifer Wameling: Working at the company that I work for now, it's wonderful. I mean, I choose to interact with people how I want to. If I don't want to turn my camera on and be seen, I don't have to turn my camera on. I could just put mute on also and not have to worry about, "Hey, how does my voice sound?" My gender and my gender presentation has literally never come up.
Tess Vigeland: So being remote has made Jennifer Wameling much happier in her job and she's not alone. In a moment, we'll talk to a diversity consultant about why many underrepresented and minority workers say the return to the office is so difficult for them. And what companies can do to create a better environment. Stay with us.
Tess Vigeland: When given the chance to have flexibility in their work environments, 87% of employees say, "They'll take it." That's according to McKinsey's American opportunity survey from June. And yes, that's almost everyone. But studies also show that certain segments of the workforce are more interested in remote work than others. Women fall into that category and so do underrepresented and minority groups.
Tess Vigeland: We mentioned the Future Forum earlier in the show and another of their surveys showed that 88% of Asian workers, 83% of black workers and 81% of Hispanic or Latino workers want flexibility in where they work, including work from home.
Tess Vigeland: Dr. Tiffany Jana works with companies on their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Jana who uses they/them pronouns is also the author of Subtle Acts of Exclusion: How to Understand, Identify and Stop Microaggressions. They're here to help us understand some of the unique reservations, some minority and other groups have about returning to the office. Welcome.
Tiffany Jana: Thank you for having me.
Tess Vigeland: Let's start by explaining a phrase that we hear a lot these days, microaggressions in the workplace. How would you define microaggression?
Tiffany Jana: I define microaggressions as the words and the behaviors, and sometimes the unspoken expressions that we initiate in the workplace or anywhere that cause people to be pushed further to the margins. So microaggressions are often associated with unconscious biases that we have with protected categories or demographic identities. And it is the things that we say or the subtle things that we do that make people feel like they don't belong or they're not normal or something is wrong with them.
Tess Vigeland: Well, we just heard from a trans woman who talked about being misgendered or dead named that is being called by her birth name rather than her new, actual name. What are some of the stories you've heard or microaggressions you yourself have experienced?
Tiffany Jana: Oh, absolutely. So when I founded one iteration of my company, my co-founder was a cisgender heterosexual, white male. And anytime we walked into a room together, people just assumed that he was the owner of the company or the boss, or the superior and they would address him accordingly. Meanwhile, I was the founder of the company. I had had that company eight years before he was ever brought on board and I was technically his superior. People had difficulty sort of seeing that.
Tiffany Jana: You see it very frequently with gender minorities in the workplace. People associate assigned female at birth or femininity as somehow subordinate. And when it's time to take notes or go get the coffee or clean up after the break room, people just invite or expect a woman or feminine identified person to do that.
Tess Vigeland: Yeah. What would be some other examples that you could give us that people might not even think about?
Tiffany Jana: People of color often get their hair touched by people who just think it's beautiful or just curious about it. But we are not pets. It is not appropriate to touch our hair. If you happen to be one of only a few Asian people in the workplace or any other ethnic minority people, confuse you for your colleague, they call you by someone else's name because they haven't bothered to actually learn the contours of your face.
Tiffany Jana: So there are lots of little ways that just because you are different than the majority are different from the person who is initiating the subtle acts of exclusion which is my preferred moniker for microaggressions.
Tess Vigeland: Subtle acts of exclusion?
Tiffany Jana: Yeah. Subtle acts of exclusion. Exclusion, because microaggression itself sounds-
Tiffany Jana: Right, exactly. And it's not small, it's just often subtle.
Tess Vigeland: So Tiffany walk us through what the impact is of working in that kind of environment. What does it do to you as an employee, as a person?
Tiffany Jana: Each individual in instance is not at egregious, is not the worst thing that happens in the world. But the problem is that people who are the subjects of subtle acts of exclusion are on the receiving of end of these things on a perpetual basis. So what it does is it just causes you to constantly have your guard up to constantly be skeptical of the motives of people around you. It's exhausting. I know many, many people of all different ethnicities and genders and sexual orientations who've left their workplaces because of the onslaught of microaggressions in the workplace. They just couldn't take it anymore. It was so incredibly toxic that it just made them ill.
Tess Vigeland: So let's talk about the context of this in this era of mass remote work. There was a survey last year from the Society of Human Resource Management that found that around half of black workers said they prefer to do their job outside the workplace compared with 39% of white workers. Why do you think that is?
Tiffany Jana: Oh, absolutely. I mean, this is it. The microaggressions are greatly minimized when you can work outside of the workplace. It's so difficult to assign blame for these things because people are just not culturally fluent, not realizing that they're doing it, that doesn't make it any less impactful or any less real for the people experiencing it.
Tiffany Jana: So people of color would rather work at home because I can control the environment. I'm not going to have to pass by you and your subtle looks and the weird comments that you make about my protective hairstyle, for instance, because I don't have to go to the water cooler. I don't have to pass you in the break room. We are literally only engaging in the context of meetings or zooms or phone calls, which tend to be much more controlled around time, content agenda. And so it is a safer environment. And just that ability to decompress between structured meetings or assignments is incredibly powerful. If I can go and play with my little Yorkie, hug my cat.
Tess Vigeland: Of the workers you've talked to, the people you've worked with, have they seen remote work having an actual positive impact on their careers versus just avoiding a negative workplace?
Tiffany Jana: Oh, absolutely. Because when you take a remote working opportunity, it decreases the stress load so much that people are able to produce more. They're able to just be more mentally free without the distractions of microaggressions, insults, small talks. The introverts are loving it, right? The introverts didn't want to talk to you anyway. And so they're having the opportunity to just do their work and they are advancing. And so yes, people are thriving.
Tess Vigeland: But what about potential downsides if you're not in the office with your coworkers and your superiors? There is something called proximity bias where people who are remote may not get as much support or shots at promotion because they're not in person. What are some possible negatives for your career?
Tiffany Jana: Proximity bias is real. And for the folks who prefer to go into the office, there will be a tendency to want to promote and create more opportunities for the people that you can see. For managers that have traditionally come up through the ranks, the idea that folks are showing up in the office might communicate to them a sense of loyalty and a sense of being a harder worker. We've got to reprogram those management expectations. We have to make the decision to do their performance reviews based on the work that they're doing as opposed to these other things that are nice to haves, but not actually essential to the task at hand or the job that is required.
Tess Vigeland: So what are the options then? Particularly if a lot of those experiencing this are from minority groups? I mean, remote work is there, but then you have these possible downsides, at least until leaders fix that proximity bias issue. What do you do?
Tiffany Jana: What we have cultivated in the United States in particular is that the greatest diversity has tended to be concentrated at the lowest levels of the organization. And in many organization, those ended up being more like either entry level positions or frontline jobs that are hard to make remote. Remote working, affords organizations, the opportunity to diversify in ways that were much harder for them before. So we can intentionally use the remote workforce opportunity to hire diverse workers who tend particularly as knowledge workers to prefer the remote opportunity. And we can leverage that as an opportunity to gain the demographic diversity that we have been trying to ratchet up over the years.
Tiffany Jana: And the more we're able to demonstrate that the highest levels of leadership can also function remote, we can show pathways to opportunity to growth within the organization for people who enter at other levels.
Tess Vigeland: But I wonder if we are looking at unintended consequences, whether it's conceivable that allowing all these people to work from home, particularly if they are minorities that, that ends up letting companies just not deal with diversity issues?
Tiffany Jana: Well, until companies actually show up and do much better by listening to what then people actually need, I don't think that that's the worst thing in the world. I would rather see people who are equity seeking, thriving in an environment of their own creation than continuing to be abused in the context of the workplace. And that's exactly what's happening. Allowing people's colleagues to micro aggress them, to initiate subtle acts of exclusion and failing to have any consequences for that is tantamount to corporate abuse. It is unacceptable.
Tess Vigeland: And what about some of the work from home disparities that we've been talking about? I know you work with companies to address some of those. What's your advice been? Do you have any examples that you could share?
Tiffany Jana: We have to create the intentional opportunities to connect as humans. So at my company and the companies that we advise, we encourage people to put on the calendar, regular opportunities for engagement that have nothing to do with the work. So not just five minutes before the meeting or just going around and saying our pronouns and what we ate for breakfast, but intentionally setting aside a couple of hours a week for conversations that have nothing to do with work where we just freeform as if we were in a room on a lunch break and just spending time together.
Tiffany Jana: The whole idea of team building. That's something that's been around for a really long time becomes much more important when you've got these remote environments. So we have to treat remote workers like normal workers and just create the platform and the avenue and the opportunities for them to show up as people as who they are and recognize that those opportunities still need to be optional because I came here to do the job and the job is the job. I don't necessarily have to engage. We have these opportunities for people to connect as humans, but we don't force anyone to come to them.
Tess Vigeland: Do you have any examples of a company that you worked with where they were able to make some changes and got some results and how did that go for them?
Tiffany Jana: I don't like to name names because I do have everyone's clean and dirty laundry at my disposal. But we started working with one client that has hundreds of workers across many states. The first thing that had to happen was we had to look at what was the legacy of the in-house environment that was happening before the pandemic. And there was some toxicity that people were kind of aware of it, but it did translate over into the remote work a little bit.
Tiffany Jana: So creating an opportunity to air those grievances and talk about what we didn't like about the in-person environment and how that might have translated into the remote environment gave us an avenue to clear out those cob webs and create a new way. They did actually create a culture of really checking in deeply before meetings, so there's nothing wrong with doing the five or 10 minute check in before. So they were doing that ahead of time, but they now have basically demonstrated to the entire organization that it's not just lip service.
Tiffany Jana: We actually do care how you're doing. We care how you're feeling and we're going to listen to that and respond. And so they're actually stopping themselves in real time and addressing the issue, not allowing things to fester so that they can move forward in a good way. And it's remarkable that they're tighter than ever.
Tess Vigeland: Tiffany Jana, thank you so much for joining us.
Tiffany Jana: Thank you so much for having me.
Tess Vigeland: Working from home, sometimes even from 3,000 miles away means you may never see your coworkers in person, and that makes having a great headshot more important than ever, since it's what a lot of folks will remember about you, especially if you're on a Zoom call, but you haven't showered, so you mute your video and anyone sees that little round circle with your face on it. So in a moment, we'll get some tips for today's headshot and how it could make a difference when recruiters scroll through your profile on LinkedIn.
Tess Vigeland: And finally today, our pro tip, are you ready for your closeup? If so, you might want to put down your phone and hire a professional photographer for a headshot that isn't in full sun with shadows under your eyes. The headshot has been a mainstay of business branding for almost as long as cameras have been around, but the expectations of our social media world are upending what that photo should look like. Callum Borchers from our life and work team is here with a new lens on the workplace headshot. And I've got my camera at the ready. Cal, when was your last photo session?
Callum Borchers: Well, my most recent headshot was to become a columnist here at The Journal, but it's not a classic photo. It's one of those pointillism style-
Tess Vigeland: Yeah, the sketch.
Callum Borchers: ... stock drawings that we call a stipple. And it's still done by hand by an illustrator, but I was initially drawn with a suit and tie. And one of our editors said, "It's a little too buttoned up. I want him open collar."
Tess Vigeland: Well, we're going to go ahead and give you a new actual headshot here. So if you could just turn toward me, look straight into the camera. I'm going to take a few test shots here.
Callum Borchers: Okay. You got my good side?
Tess Vigeland: Yeah. Looking good. Okay. So why do we even need professional headshots anymore when everyone can do a selfie for free?
Callum Borchers: Right. The selfie is free. And look, there are folks who are pretty good at it and they will say you don't need a professional headshot, but others say a standout headshot can really make a difference. Even a small difference. One photographer said, "Really I'm going for what we call, scroll stopping images." And we're just talking about five extra seconds here. We're not talking about a long time. The theory is you've got... Picture a hiring manager who's just going through LinkedIn profile after profile and a striking headshot that makes them linger.
Callum Borchers: It's not that you're hiring somebody on their looks per se, but that's five more seconds that you're reading somebody's resume. And maybe that's the difference between putting them in contention and tossing them in the discard pile.
Tess Vigeland: All right. And now just turn a little to your left. Look off into the distance here.
Callum Borchers: Okay. Yeah. How are the glasses framed? These are my blue light blocker glasses.
Tess Vigeland: I like it. Okay. So I feel like I see a lot of more kind of casual head shots these days. Even on LinkedIn, not that stiff smile against a gray background. How have they changed and why?
Callum Borchers: Yeah. Authenticity is the buzzword of the moment in headshot land. And what that can mean is an unconventional background perhaps. I spoke with a man who took a photographer with him to his favorite rock climbing place in New Mexico because he said, "The joy I feel in this place, I think will come through in my smile, in my photo." I'm seeing more people showing tattoos, right? There was a conventional wisdom for a long time. If you had tattoos, you covered them up for business. That was what was professional.
Callum Borchers: Not so much anymore. Maybe you're showing a little bit more of that personality. I also have spoken with people of color who say much more inclined to wear natural hair in photos now. And I think more broadly as we come out of this pandemic phase, a lot of people seem to feel as though the buttoned up and made up look that was in fashion in the before times is just too stuffy for the way they're feeling right now. It doesn't mean it's time for a headshot in your PJs with your hair on foam or unwashed, but it just means we're in a little more business casual moment. So we're seeing that in headshots too.
Tess Vigeland: All right. Let's have you rest your head on your hand a little bit. Look a little to the right.
Callum Borchers: Little bit of the thinker?
Tess Vigeland: Yeah, there you go. Perfect looking great. I'll get you a couple of proofs in a day or two. How much will I be charging you?
Callum Borchers: Listen, the structure varies, but some of these photographers are charging, even starting just for the session, $1,500. That was sort of on the high end that I saw. There's a photographer named Peter Hurley, who is regarded as one of the tippy-top headshot photographers. And after that, that just gets you in the door. There are more modestly priced photographers, but by and large, the people I've spoken to who spent a lot of time and money say it's been worth it.
Tess Vigeland: Callum Borchers, thank you.
Callum Borchers: Always a pleasure, Tess. Thanks for having me.
Tess Vigeland: Next time Callum will be back with some of his reporting about an unexpected side effect of the return to office. Remember all those folks who didn't have a choice during the pandemic and had to go in while a lot of us worked from home? Well, now that their prodigal colleagues are returning, some of those people who'd been heading in the whole time are feeling left out. What does it mean for the future of those workers and the future of those companies?
Tess Vigeland: Like the show? Tell your friends to subscribe and give us a five star review on your favorite platform.
Tess Vigeland: As We Work is a production of the Wall Street Journal. Charlotte Gartenberg is our producer. Jonathan Sanders is our booking producer. Scott Saloway is our supervising producer. Jessica Fenton is a sunny day by the ocean, and our sound engineer. Our music was composed by Hansdale Hsu. Kateri Jochum is the Wall Street Journal's executive producer of audio. I'm Tess Vigeland. Thanks for joining us.
Tess Vigeland is the host and senior producer of WSJ’s new podcast As We Work – a show about the intersection of your career and your life. Tess spent three decades in public radio as a host and reporter for national news programs, including 11 years at the business and economics show Marketplace. She was the recipient of a 2019 National Edward R. Murrow Award for Continuing Coverage, and a Gracie Award for Best Anchor, for her creation and hosting of “After Paradise,” a daily program on the aftermath of the catastrophic Camp Fire in California. In addition to her audio work, Tess has written for numerous national and international publications, and is the author of “Leap: Leaving a Job with No Plan B to Find the Career and Life You Really Want,” published by Penguin Random House. She’s an avid photographer and recently spent three years living in Southeast Asia and traveling solo through 20 countries. To get in touch with the As We Work team, email AsWeWork@wsj.com or leave us a voicemail at 212-416-2394.
Charlotte Gartenberg is the producer of WSJ’s “As We Work.” Prior to coming to WSJ, she was the senior producer and frequent voice on the daily show “Get the News with Gretchen Carlson.” She is also a writer and translator and holds a PhD in Latin American literature. She lives in New York and loves a good high-minded rant. To get in touch with the As We Work team, email AsWeWork@wsj.com or leave us a voicemail at 212-416-2394.