When Ali Fazal began interviewing for a position with Grin, an influencer marketing platform, earlier this year, he was enthusiastic about all the company had to offer: the ability to lead as their vice president of marketing, a small but fast-growing team and a supportive work environment.

The only problem? Grin is headquartered in Sacramento, California, while Fazal, 32, resides in New York City.

But with working from home the norm for office workers during the pandemic, Grin decided to make remote work a permanent fixture for employees. It sealed the deal for Fazal, who says he likely wouldn’t have taken the job it if required relocating to the smaller California capital.

Having grown up in a small town in Texas, Fazal has spent his adult life in bigger cities with more diverse communities, like New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. “I wanted to be in an environment that was more accepting and inclusive than where I grew up,” Fazal says. “Big cities are often a safe haven for LGBT people.”

Ali Fazal is the vice president of marketing at Grin.
Ali Fazal is the vice president of marketing at Grin.Courtesy
Fazal says the future of remote work could be a “game changer” for workplace inclusion for LGBTQ individuals like himself, who won’t have to choose between the place where they’ve built a supportive community and an employer located in a different city.

Now three months into working for Grin, Fazal is glad the company embraced remote work and can see the inclusive benefits it can offer.

Supporting inclusion and belonging through remote work
As experts forecast the future of remote work, many say the accommodation can be a strategy for improved diversity, inclusion and belonging. Indeed, a physical workplace that replicates the power dynamics of society in general can be harmful for marginalized individuals, including LGBTQ people.

One LinkedIn survey of 2,001 LBGTQ professionals found that nearly a quarter, 24%, were not open about their identity in their workplace, while a similar share, 26%, worried being open would cause coworkers to treat them differently. Many cited concerns of being overlooked for raises or promotions. And nearly a third, 31%, say they’ve faced blatant discrimination or microaggressions at work.

For Nikita Solberg, 28, of New York, the ability to work remotely means having greater control of their surroundings and less pressure to present themselves in a certain way. When they started their job as a sales development representative at the HR platform Hibob in January, they felt comfortable making their nonbinary pronouns visible throughout their onboarding process.

For Solberg, sharing their pronouns on their LinkedIn page, in their email signature and on their videoconferencing profile is “like being at a party and wearing a nametag. Being able to work remotely and having your [virtual presence] represent you by sharing your pronouns right off the bat has been a huge benefit. I’m not constantly having to introduce my pronouns.”