The Workplace is Killing Black Women

We are finally seeing the system for what it is.

My heart has been heavy for a while on this topic. But it’s become a nearly crushing weight over the last few weeks as I’ve witnessed what happened to Dr. Claudine Gay, seen Taraji’s pain on display, and most recently, read about Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey suicide. Black women are operating at exponential levels of stress. We are facing unparalleled corporate brutality with no psychological or emotional safety. It’s systemic, it’s covert, and we are being publicly abused, damaged, and destroyed. 

Black women, this world needs you alive. We need you to stay intact. We need you whole. Your life is far too precious, valuable and important. Last week, I shared my resignation letter with the workplace as we know it. I was surprised and overwhelmed with the response. The flood of private messages of “this is how I feel…thank you for saying what I’ve been thinking…I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this…” were immensely validating, yet also profoundly heartbreaking.

For the last four years, I’ve been studying the mechanics and the underlying system that makes up the workplace to understand why we’ve reached this breaking point. It felt sudden at first, but as I’ve become more conscious, I’ve realized this is the natural endpoint of centuries of exploitative practices. Work is not working at all for people across many dimensions — it’s emotionally and intellectually unfulfilling, it’s often morally compromising, it’s sucking the life out of our waking hours. This is true for everyone I’ve spoken to, but especially for Black women, I want you to know: the suffocation and despair you’re feeling isn’t random.   

Before I share my learnings and perspective, I want to make something really clear: There are many good, decent, caring people in the workplace. But we are dealing with a systemic issue, and that means that no amount of decency or well-meaning people can fix it simply  by being their good, nice, gentle selves. When I say workplace, I’m not talking about a specific person, although there are absolutely guilty individuals like Lincoln University President John Mosely. But my interest lies in the system and the underlying principles that allow and even empower unconscionable behavior. Some of the messages I received in response to last week’s letter also expressed well-meaning concern that my message would be impossible to implement for even the most progressive businesses because it’s too “anti-employer.” I’m not anti-employer, I’m pro-employee, and especially pro-employees who have been disadvantaged by the system.

There are four key questions I’ve explored to come to my own conclusion that I can no longer participate in the system and culture of work as it currently stands, and instead need to devote my time to rebuilding it on new and more humane foundations. I’m not suggesting you do what I did, but I want you to have the facts organized in one place so you can come to your own. Here are those questions, and the answers I’ve come up with so far.

#1 - What evidence do I have to support that the modern workplace can work for me?

I think about the phrase, “you shall know a tree by its fruit.” By almost every measure, Black women face disproportionately high barriers in the workplace.

Am I compensated fairly? 

No.  Black women earn only 64 cents on the dollar relative to white men.  In 2019, Black women lost $39.3 billion in wages compared to white men, due largely to occupational segregation. Over the course of 40 years of full-time work, a Black woman stands to lose almost $1 million compared to a white man.

Am I being developed?

No. Black women are more ambitious and more likely to say that they want to advance in their companies than their white female counterparts, but are less likely to find mentors who will aid their climb up the corporate ladder. As sociologist Tsedale Melaku points out, sometimes this is a function of white executives’ unfamiliarity and discomfort with Black women.

Am I being promoted? 

No. This Harvard study found that Black women who got hired onto whiter teams were more likely to get flagged as “low performers” a year later, and they also saw lower promotion and retention rates. 

Am I well? 

No. Since Black women face both racism and sexism, we experience a wider range of corporate brutality, bullying and micro-aggressions than any other group. Black women report higher levels of psychological stress than any other group and carry a disproportionate burden of chronic conditions associated with psychological stress. 

#2 – What is the context and history of what the modern workplace was founded on?

The modern system of work was not established to care about any human being, and certainly not a Black one.  The system we operate in was conceived at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 1700’s.  Theorists like Fredrick Winslow Taylor, promoted scientific management practices that were designed to homogenize individuals to maximize efficiency of each person for the purpose of delivering maximum output. The thinking boils down to: You can’t build a reliable, predictable engine if the ingredients in gasoline are changing every time you fill up the tank. If human beings are the fuel that makes a system run, that system cannot be designed for scale and maximum profit unless humans can be made into a standardized unit like any other kind of fuel.

The system does not care if I’m Black, a woman, depressed, anxious or overwhelmed.  At its core, it’s built to weed out those who can’t match its demand and its pace. If that sounds familiar, it is. The idea of humans as expendable, disposable, and interchangeable resources was honed and mastered on plantations with slaves. Classic studies from people like Alfred Chandler, Bill Cooke and Caitlin Rosenthal have done incredible research illuminating the remarkable throughline of slaveholders' management practices throughout the history of modern business and its most famous advancements. 

There’s a lot here. If you want to go deeper into this topic, I suggest reading Accounting for Slavery, The Visible Hand and The Denial of Slavery in Management Practices.   

#3 – What signals do I have to suggest things are improving at a pace that works for me?

We should be paying attention to actions, not words.  The most recent developments around work aren’t working in our favor. 

Return to office mandates 

They ignore the fact that 97% of Black workers would rather work from home. Working from home increases our sense of belonging and creates a 64% boost in our ability to manage stress.  We experience fewer microaggressions, have a sense of improved work-life balance, and can redirect the considerable energy usually spent on code switching towards our actual work.

Dismantling DEI

While well-meaning, DEI isn’t set up for success. With more than 76% of Chief Diversity Officers being white, DEI jobs and departments being cut at a higher propensity than other roles and high profile tech CEOs calling DEI discrimination and legal action to dismantle it, it’s clear that those efforts were more performative than genuine. Several years out from the initial movement, it’s clear that DEI departments were set up to check their own box — the corporate equivalent saying “how can I be racist if I have Black friends?” 

The trends at large. 

When you start to consider how mass layoffs disproportionately impact people of color or how AI could accelerate the racial wealth gap, things start to seem darker than ever for us. It’s no surprise then that we are in the middle of the most unprecedented shift the workplace has ever seen, as Bruce Feiler brilliantly reveals in his new book The Search. For the first time in our modern history, more people are taking control of their work lives than ever before. What economists call the quit rate, the number of people who quit their jobs every month, has risen every year except one for two decades. “It’s a once-in-a-generation rethinking of the rules of success.  A rebalancing of power away from employers towards employees.”

Even though Black women are suffering at unprecedented rates, almost everyone feels lost, adrift, frustrated and confused when it comes to work today.

#4 – What is my individual experience + what do I want for myself?

Only you can answer this question and it’s deeply personal. 

For me, my life and wellbeing finally became more important than trying to climb up someone else's ladder with people up above trying to actively kick and push you down. I’m not interested in being a savior or a barrier breaker. I knew I would take no pride in being among the first to succeed in a system that hates me.

For me, it started to feel like I was engaging in a kind of psychological self harm by consciously and repeatedly choosing environments and institutions that wanted to leverage my gifts, talents and unique abilities but were also actively harming me simply because of gender and skin color. Worse, I felt a creeping sense of disgust at the way I was clearly expected to leverage my Blackness on behalf of the company to close deals, stand at the front of the team photo, to bring on Black talent by convincing them this was a safe place for us. 

My climb had brought me financial success and recognition, but what good was all that if it left with bruises, burnout and bitterness? There was no time to celebrate a day’s success when I had to suit myself up with armor every morning. Because it did feel like war most days. I realized I would never win playing by their rules because the game wasn't designed with me in mind.

I’ve had the privilege to know what it feels like to work for a company where a Black woman is the founder and CEO (Oprah Winfrey). It’s a completely different experience where I was safe, seen, supported, developed, promoted, celebrated and wanted. So, I’m attempting to follow in her footsteps and build a place. I know I’m not alone. Black women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs. I believe that’s because our unique ambition has combined with the desperation of our experience to create a new generation of women determined to re-build a world on their own terms.

So, what can you do about it? 

We can’t keep putting our lives in the hands of people or systems that weren’t designed to hold it. I understand that not everyone can leave and build something, and in fact, the change we need won’t happen without efforts from the inside. But there are things you can do in your current situation to actively participate in alleviating the suffering you may be experiencing:

Recalibrate your expectations.

The gap between expectations is where frustration lies. We keep expecting the workplace to become this place that will be good to us, it’s unlikely that will happen any time soon. Change what you expect to receive from it as a measure of protection of your mind and your spirit. 

Focus on your own self-preservation

You can’t change whether or not you are a target, but you can change how you replenish yourself. The reality of your life requires you to fill your well in an extraordinary way. 

Learn the conditions of your own success.

Acknowledging that something isn’t working is an important first step. The next and equally crucial step is to undergo some deep, potentially painful searching and introspection to figure out what would work. Come up with a vision for your success that is detailed, specific, and concrete. 

Develop an exit strategy

Take action to start putting things in place to figure out a new reality for yourself. It took me four years from deciding it didn’t work to living in a new context for me. It takes time. 

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This letter holds much of my despair, but it is written from a place of hope and power. I am sharing this data so that everyone can hopefully feel the urgency I’ve felt in my own life, and do all we can to keep us — Black women and all people who can only stand to benefit from the changes we need — thriving, alive and well. Because the world needs us. 

In loving memory of Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey.

Image: Lincoln University