WFH made it easier for Black employees to advance in their careers. Here’s why

Remote work may be a struggle for some, but for marginalized workers, it may be the key to unlocking the door to career success.

Despite the pandemic stunting many employees’ career prospects — including women and Gen Z — 35% of Black professionals say remote work is actually helping their potential for career advancement, according to survey data from professional social network Fishbowl. Comparatively, 27% of non-Black professionals said this was the case.

“It comes down to things like simple location dynamics: there's more career opportunities now available for Black professionals in locations that perhaps companies haven't traditionally or strategically hired from,” says Matt Sunbulli, CEO at Fishbowl. “[They also now have] the ability to just really focus on the work and not on the politics and the social discomfort that they deal with day-to-day.”

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Pre-pandemic workplaces presented a set of challenges for Black employees and other employees of color that didn’t apply to their non-black colleagues — Black workers faced higher unemployment, lower wages and worse prospects than other workers, according to a study conducted by management consulting firm McKinsey.

And although moving from a physical office to a virtual one has not repaired the larger issues of systemic racism and prejudice, it has eased some of the burden for Black employees. For one, employers are now focusing on results, regardless of who is producing them.

Sunbulli says that based on early evidence, all signs point to greater equality and less discrimination within companies where workers are remote and distributed. Employers are more able to evaluate everyone’s work objectively, removing the opportunity to create biases based on the person’s race, he says.

“[At the office], Black professionals had to deal with the social politics that dealt with their identity,” Sunbulli says. “Office place politics takes up bandwidth and eats up mindshare. For Black professionals, remote work offers up the opportunity to spend their focus and time instead on their work.”

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While this has improved the work experience for Black employees, there is still significant work left to be done. Over half of Black professionals said there is not a viable path to promotion at their current company or feel unsure, according to Fishbowl. In comparison, only 46% of non-Black professionals said the same.

To bridge this gap, employers need to restructure how their promotion pipeline is organized, and create professional pathways for Black talent to shine, especially when it comes to representation within the C-suite.

“If you're looking to invest in your people of color and Black professionals, making sure spaces and milestones are doubly apparent and known is important,” Sunbulli says. “It really comes down to visibility and clarity.”