The Covid-19 pandemic helped to increase access to home and flexible working for all ethnicities and genders, however, research from King’s College London has found that certain groups are still less entitled to work from home than others.
With the ongoing calls for mandated returns to the office, this has implications for equal access to flexible working and the benefits it offers employers and workers.
The study found that in 2022/23, black men were significantly less likely to work from home (WFH) than white men, even after adjusting for factors that might affect their access to flexible policies, such as employment sector and occupational level.
Black women were just as likely as white women to be WFH. However, Chinese and “other Asian” men and women were significantly less likely to WFH than white men and women.
Intersection impacts
The intersection of ethnicity, gender, migration and parental status also had an impact on access to flexible working. For example, black fathers were less likely to work at home than white fathers. Men from Chinese and other Asian ethnic groups, including Pakistani and Bangladeshi childless men, had lower rates of WFH than their white peers. Migrants from ethnic minorities, particularly from Chinese and black backgrounds, were less likely to WFH than white migrants.
Researchers found that although workers of all ethnicities now have a greater opportunity to WFH than before the pandemic, “certain groups are still being left behind by this shift”. This means they are missing out on the potential benefits of WFH, which previous research has shown is valued highly by employees.
There are several possible reasons for this. Managers may be biased, consciously or unconsciously, against black and minority ethnic (BME) workers, black or migrant workers, which creates a lack of trust that these groups can work productivity at home. Another potential reason is that certain groups have weaker bargaining power, which can create a reluctance to WFH because people fear it will negatively impact their career.
The researchers said that while some BME workers – particularly BME men – might be making a personal decision not to take up flexible working arrangements, their lower use is more likely a sign of the stigma around doing so and a perception that it could harm their careers.
Gender differences uncovered by the study could be a result of ethnic minority women choosing to WFH despite the potential negative career outcomes.
The researchers said people might make this choice because it allows them to work longer hours, stay in more lucrative jobs, and meet family demands. The home office can also provide a safe haven from micro-aggressions that can take place in the office.
Heejung Chung, professor of work and employment at King’s Business School and director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, said: “On the one hand, it is great to see that much of the gaps in homeworking we found in pre-pandemic periods across workers of different ethnicities have reduced significantly with more workers being able to work from home.
But she added: “Having said that, it is still concerning that some worker groups with the least bargaining power in the UK labour market are unable to access the great resource that is working from home.
“Especially in light of the return-to-office mandates we are seeing more recently, our results indicate that we might end up with a greater disparity between workers with different levels of bargaining power. This may result in greater inequalities in the labour market between workers of different ethnicities and migration backgrounds.”
Shiyu Yuan, PhD candidate in social policy at the University of Kent and research fellow at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at KCL, said the racial disparities they found are more than a policy matter and reflect deeper structural biases in the workplace.
“Even in this post-pandemic era, when homeworking has become more widespread, BME workers — especially men and migrant workers —still lag behind.
“They often worry that taking up home-working could reinforce negative stereotypes or hinder their career progressions, particularly if they already face added pressures as ethnic minorities with migration backgrounds.
“It’s clear that simply offering WFH options isn’t enough: employers and policymakers have to tackle these biases and do more to ensure equitable access to homeworking for everyone.”
Pre-pandemic flexible working
Before the pandemic, only one in eight UK workers WFH on a semi-regular basis. ONS data shows that by the first lockdown in April 2020, this had increased to almost half of the total workforce.
Previous research found that before the pandemic, it was typically better-educated workers in higher-paid occupations, and in many cases, men, who were more likely to have access to WFH and other flexible working practices (Chung and Van der Lippe 2020). Separate research showed that this was because managers were reluctant to offer WFH opportunities to workers they did not trust (Brescoll, Glass, and Sedlovskaya 2013; Lambert and Haley-Lock 2004; Munsch 2016).
The pandemic led to a change in managers’ perceptions (CIPD 2021; CMI 2020) and more employees were allowed to work remotely, which led to more diverse groups being able to WFH (Abendroth et al. 2022).
