Can the Pandemic-Prompted Shift to Remote Work Solve Belongingness Challenges for Lower Social Class Background White-Collar Employees? Some Preliminary Thoughts

Abstract

Lower social class background college graduates often navigate social belongingness challenges in white-collar workplaces. The pervasiveness of remote work during the pandemic, and the conversations now underway between employers and employees about the proper place of remote work in a post-pandemic world, invite us to consider how less time performing one’s job on -site might moderate those challenges. The following paper identifies four perennial belongingness challenges that lower social class background college graduates face in white-collar workplaces, and evaluates the extent to which remote work could be expected to mitigate them.