Remote Work and Satisfaction for Black Engineers and Computer Scientists

This Innovate Practice Full Paper discusses how many STEM professionals across all intersections have voiced the advantages of remote work. The preference of virtual work amongst professionals can vary for a lot of reasons such as being able to work and perform the role as a caretaker. COVID-19 has also proven that many professionals have been able to be perform just as well if not better while working from home. Professionals have been able to have more autonomy over their daily lives to organize their work and space. As most are aware, during this health crisis there has been a heightened exposure of racism and other intolerances across the country and globally. Social media has also been a tool to expand people’s understanding of these injustices. For the Black community it has been a time to retreat, reclaim space, and take care of their selves, family, and communities through a variety of resistance tactics. Many have taken up to do the work to become (or becoming) allies. It is imperative to understand how remote work has been beneficial for Black professionals in engineering and computing fields as it relates to mitigating racism and any other forms of oppression. This could range from how virtual interviews worked to their advantage in landing positions to having their own space to work from without having to navigate micro and macro aggressions in-person. This paper will explore this phenomenon by gaining insight on the experiences of Black engineering and computing professionals in virtual settings through informal interviews and/or small focus groups. This study could potentially inform how remote work can be viewed as a tool for organizations to further support marginalized communities’ needs for obtaining safe spaces in engineering and computing hegemonic cultures; as well as further inform research on how organizations can implement safe spaces for marginalized people in their policies through entities like remote work.