Advice

"Working from home is much better for black women in finance"

11 January 2022

2 minute read

"Working from home is much better for black women in finance"

I'm a woman of color working for a long only fund in the U.S. I was ready to vote with my feet and leave this industry, until working from home became possible.

Home working has its challenges, particularly when you're educating your children too, but for me, it's been much better than working in the office.

Offices in the finance industry are places that are dominated by whites and by men. If you're a black woman, this is something you have to adapt to, and it's not easy. It's not just the portfolio managers that are predominantly white men - it's everyone.

Working from home has taken me out of this environment. It's placed the focus firmly upon productivity and reduced the importance of the outdated structures in the American investment management industry. I'm able to be myself.

When I'm at home, I also avoid the micro (and macro) aggressions and harassment I was previously subjected to in the office. White men in finance and their clients have no idea what the working environment can really be like, and marketing departments are never going to draw attention to it. People in the industry are conditioned not to be honest - the senior white men in my company, for example, will never admit to sleeping more than six hours a night, although they do seem to watch an awful lot of TV.

Personally, I'm now hopeful about my future in this industry. But I don't want to go back into the office, and I'm not the only woman of color who feels this way.

Cenisa Hart is a pseudonym

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

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AUTHORCenisa Hart

Insider Comment

8 comments

An
Anonymous
13 January 2022
It isn't only better for black women.
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do
donna
12 January 2022
Working in Finance has given me PTSD. I thought my career was over until I began to work from home. Imagine that you are ALWAYS the only one who looks like you in the company. Imagine dealing with all the ridiculous stereotypes and assumptions made by people who don't know anyone who looks like you and who imagines that everyone in this country is having the same experiences. I have worked with decent, well meaning White women who I considered friends, but who did not hesitate to turn into a Karen, to turn on the tears, to throw me under the bus, whenever it was convenient.
SOME of you White women really do not consider Black women as your equal. You talk the talk, but you don't walk the walk. I know this because you volunteered me, the team member with more credentials and work experience than you, you made sure to give me all the clerical parts of the project, didn't you? You tore me down in meetings, ridiculed me in front of my staff, publically accused me of stealing, embezzlement, incompetence only to apologize behind closed doors. You know who you are and what you did.
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Da
David Gregory
12 January 2022
A blatantly racist article - but it is acceptable racism in the current climate.
Change what she said about white people to any other race - would it be published like this?
I'm glad these racists are coming out of the wood work - and publicising it. Shame these ones are left to use an alias.
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Su
SusanP
11 January 2022
I am not a black woman but am a woman who worked in the financial services industry for 30 years. I worked in global operations for most of my long career. This is a terrible article and don't really believe that it is accurate at all. It does seem like she has a problem with white men although I really don't understand why. If she believes she is being harassed, she is probably in the wrong profession or working for the wrong corporation.
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bw
bw
11 January 2022
Way to perpetuate the "Angry Black Woman" stereotype. Nice job.
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