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Stop Judging People for Their Zoom Backgrounds
It’s time to acknowledge how our biases about people’s private spaces affect us all
At a dinner conversation recently, one woman told me that analyzing an interviewee’s home background gave her clues on whether the person was a good fit for their company. She looked for things like messiness and the kinds of books on the shelves. To a certain extent, this makes some sense. If these potential new hires would be expected to interface with clients from their homes, then it’s reasonable to assess the level of professionalism that they present. The problem is that analyzing the background of someone’s video screen could quite easily lead to bias (we never know, after all, why someone’s background isn’t pristine on that given day) or wasn’t “inviting” or “alluring” enough. Choosing employees based on who has the most “beautiful” video background could exacerbate homogeneity and a lack of diversity at work.
Amidst the ongoing debates about when and how to reopen offices, it seems certain that more of us will be working from home in the post-pandemic era than ever before. Noting the newfound importance of these backgrounds, the Twitter account @ratemyskyperoom issues praise to Elizabeth Warren (“The rug really ties the room together”) while cautioning Thomas Friedman (“Work on lighting”)…
