Tech Work Under the Pandemic
A collaborative interview series by Data & Society and Tech Workers Coalition
By Natalie Kerby, Data & Society and Danny Spitzberg and Kaylen Sanders, Tech Workers Coalition
“We need people to listen to us.”
From December 2020 through February 2021, we heard this over and over.
Tech Workers Coalition and Data & Society partnered to interview tech workers about how their work might have changed as a result of the pandemic. Our goal in these interviews was to push the boundaries of who we consider “tech workers.” Through these conversations, we drew out the power dynamics and hierarchies that have been exacerbated during this time and found different models of worker solidarity.
We talked with a Wi-Fi network engineer who traverses all parts of a hospital to ensure their internet connection is sound; a materials engineer at one of the Big Five who would normally be in a laboratory if she didn’t happen to hear it was legally “optional”; a software engineer on an H-1B visa who is navigating anxiety about immigration status and leery colleagues; and a home cleaner who co-owns a web platform with coworkers, and spent the early days of the pandemic in lockdown, adapting their service to a new reality.
This interview series aims to reintroduce the archetypal “tech worker” to spotlight people who build, maintain, and use tech day-to-day. Beyond the stories, we hope this series showcases strategies for organizing in and across workplaces as well as what worker solidarity can look liki ae.
…talking with peers is a vital part of a powerful labor movement…
Workers talking to workers
The stakes for workers are high. Speaking out can result in retaliation, or (for some) losing their immigration status. But talking with peers is a vital part of a powerful labor movement, the value of which is almost impossible to estimate.
We determined who to interview by setting clear parameters for ourselves. We made sure to consider what value this interview might bring to the person speaking with us. We also knew we needed to break out of the clichés defining who counts as a “tech worker.”
Through personal relationships, direct outreach, and one interviewee approaching us with their story, we compiled four, diverse perspectives on work under the pandemic. So much of interviewing, especially about topics like workplace concerns, requires building trust and rapport with the interviewee.
We designed our interviews to learn about each person and how they identify themselves, their work before the pandemic, how their work has changed since, and what modes of organizing and solidarity they’ve employed during this time. Conducting interviews can be a difficult task, especially under a pandemic when it’s nearly impossible to meet in person. Our conversations began with a consent-to-record, an explanation of how we would use that recording, and an agreement that the interviewee had the power to guide the discussion; they didn’t have to answer anything they didn’t want to.
Each interview was more of a conversation with questions tailored to the worker’s specific context. We also made sure to conduct interviews in the language that the interviewee felt comfortable speaking (for instance, the interview with the co-owner of the Up & Go cooperative and platform was conducted in Spanish). When relevant, we shared our own anecdotes to build a mutual exchange of information. By the end of the conversation, and as we reviewed the transcripts, we followed up with workers to ask about labor organizing advice based on their experience.
…workers [should] have the power to control their productivity and determine their fates.
We also need to talk more
These interviews paint a picture of the highly contextual nature of workplace conflicts, as well as the various, sometimes contradictory, strategies workers might need to resolve them.
The Wi-Fi engineer working in a hospital secured ample PPE not by organizing his own colleagues, but by building trusted relationships with nurses, doctors, and maintenance staff. The software engineer with an H-1B visa found information and aid in online forums about immigration, especially as working from home foreclosed the office chat where he might have found others with shared anxieties. The materials engineer accepted her own precarity and let it fuel her organizing; while her fellow colleagues trekked into the lab, she elected to remain home (well within her rights) and dove headfirst into connecting with colleagues who surfaced the company’s attempt to dodge labor laws by changing their employment status from contractor to vendor. The co-owner and worker from Up & Go told a very different story — she described support, care, and interdependence made possible by organizing and structures established long before the pandemic began. She and her coworkers knew they’d take care of one another.
Our first interview in this series comes out next week. We see conversations and relationships as two sides of the same coin, and will write a reflection at the end of the series about organizing strategies and insights. We hope to partner with additional groups to coordinate more peer interviews across race and class, workplaces and national border lines, and all the way up and down supply chains, helping people learn how to talk with each other, until it becomes normal and easy and workers have the power to control their productivity and determine their fates.
Natalie Kerby is the digital content associate at Data & Society.
Danny Spitzberg is a user researcher and volunteer with Tech Workers Coalition.
Kaylen Sanders is a member of the Tech Workers Coalition Newsletter editorial collective who works in data analysis in the education sector.
Tech Workers Coalition is a network of tech industry workers, labor organizers, community organizers, and friends that builds worker power through rank-and-file education and organizing.
