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The Covid-19 Job Pivot: Black Women Prep For New Gigs
We’re not going back to “normal.”
Kimani Jones had been happily working in the wedding industry in New York City as a content creator when news about Covid-19 broke. She, like many workers across the country, was sent home with her laptop and work file, assured her job was safe and told to return when the pandemic blew over. Shortly after, she received an email that the company was laying off the team, but would bring them back. But that never happened.
The unemployment program payouts were dwindling, and even with the stimulus payments, Jones and her chronically-ill husband needed more income to take care of their family. She had always been a self-published writer and had done some editing work in the past, but had transitioned to a full-time job for stability. After urging from a family member, she turned to her existing skills for a Plan B.
“I couldn’t depend on that (inconsistent income). I thought, ‘When are you going to wake up and realize you can’t depend on anybody but yourself to take care of yourself?’” she says. “That’s how I went back into editing, and I opened up my business.”
She adds: “I did the research on everything that I needed to do that will sustain me now. I have nothing but time to learn now, and that’s a luxury.”
Black women are working themselves back up for success and freedom.
Jones isn’t the only Black woman who changed her career due the uncertainty in the workplace during the pandemic. Overall, women have lost a net of 5.4 million jobs in December 2020, according to the National Women’s Law Center. McKinsey/LeanIn’s Women in the Workplace 2020 reported that women either contemplated leaving or downsizing their jobs due to increased responsibilities at home or stress during the pandemic, and 61 percent of women surveyed planned a career change altogether. Across the board, Black women were impacted the most, but they are also a key group working themselves back up to success and freedom.
Kanika Tolver, tech leader, coach and author of Career Rehab: Rebuild Your Personal Brand and Rethink the Way You Work, says in the past year, Black women have been taking the necessary foundational steps to get what they…
