Who All Gon' Be There?: A Case For Not Working In Person If You Don't Have To

I've been doing HR "professionally" for ten years. In that time, I've seen dozens of harmful and hateful people in leadership roles in almost every industry harass, sexually harass, verbally, and physically threaten their team members. I've witnessed blatant and aggressive racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and ableism by "leaders" who always asked for "diverse" candidates to fill their high turnover departments. I've watched as these "leaders" have created unsafe work environments for people from all walks of life who didn't fit their "like me" bias box. When I have called out these "leaders" for their actions, I have sat and watched as these "leaders" have gone out of their way to make my life a living hell to force me out of what they've deemed their workplaces.

And I know I'm not the only one this has happened to in those workplaces.

I've seen those who have been harmed be forced to leave the workplaces where these dangerous "leaders" call themselves leading because the organizations refuse to hold their attackers accountable. They've all said some version of the same sentences to me on their way out of these organizations:

"I couldn't keep doing this every day, Pharoah. I'm tired. I was starting to dread Mondays. I know you tried to help me, but they're doing the same thing to you."

Most of those "leaders" still have their jobs.

If you ever wonder why so many people, if they have the privilege to, want to avoid being physically in the workplace at this point, read all of the words above and then layer them over everything that was going on in your workplace before COVID-19.

Most of those "leaders" still have their jobs.

There's a reason Black folx ask people, "Who all gon' be there?" That's to feel out if we're being asked to go to a place where we can and will be harmed. We want to know if it's going to be some nonsense poppin' off with some messy people so we can avoid the situation. At this point, if these "leaders" are still gon' be there in the physical office space?

We good.

We ALL good.