The whispers started a few years ago and have since swelled to the point that we now hear the question nearly every day: Could working remotely full-time hurt my career?
Behind the latest wave of worry is a new study by job-tracking firm Live Data Technologies that found remote workers are nearly a third (31%) less likely to be promoted than in-office peers. Another Live Data study found remote workers are 35 percent more likely to be laid off. Nick Bloom, a Stanford University economist who studies remote work, describes this office-based proximity bias as “discrimination”, and he’s not alone.
The Career Trade-Off
Many argue that a worker’s location should not impact their career arc, that advancement and retention should be about performance and impact, not face-time with the boss. In a perfect world, this would be the reality. But humans are not robots.
We are social creatures and thus inclined to trust and favor those we spend more time with. It’s no surprise that a UK survey found that in the first year of the pandemic, when nearly everybody shifted to remote, promotions fell by nearly half (48%).
“Out of sight, out of mind,” may seem out-of-date in this era of constant contact, but it still applies. As we explain in our book, the Allen curve is as relevant today as it was more than forty years ago when MIT professor Thomas J. Allen discovered that office communications improve and interactions increase exponentially for those with closer desks.
It’s not rocket science: communicating from a distance using only sight and sound tends to result in a weaker connection than in-person interactions with all the non-verbal bells and whistles. The simple reality is that co-located employees and managers interacting daily create a stronger bond that boosts the likelihood of promotion.
You might get hired into a key role because you’re a star, but if you’re never around to build that in-person connection you’ll be easy to overlook when it’s time for promotions — and to let go when it’s time for cuts. It says a lot that nearly 9 of 10 CEOs admit that when handing out favorable assignments, raises and promotions, they are more likely to reward workers who do their best to come into the office.
Blending Distance and In-Person
For remote workers, fewer in-person interactions mean fewer visual confirmations of sincerity and reliability, which gives more breathing room to negative perceptions and assumptions. Over the years, we’ve seen lower-performing in-office employees promoted over their co-workers solely due to proximity to the right leaders. We’ve also seen high-performing telecommuters passed over for the perfect position time and again.
Career advancement limitations have always been baked into remote. However, there is a way for remote workers to increase their chances of promotion, though you may not like it: spend as much in-person time with the boss as possible. Decades of remote work experience and consulting have taught us that face-to-face interactions are irreplaceable.
There really is no substitute. If you’re fully remote and looking to advance, we recommend shifting to hybrid and working in the office one or two days a week. If that’s not feasible, do your best to get into the office at least once or twice a month, even if you have to pay for that flight yourself. That in-person face time with managers will make a difference.
There are several other ways to boost your quality time: learn the charity your company supports and volunteer there when managers are likely to be around; attend or pitch in at company functions such as holiday parties, happy hours, product launches, and retreats; ask to help out at in-person meetings run by key managers and executives.
Increase Your Value Virtually
Ambitious remote workers who are unable to spend in-person time with the boss might be wondering if there are ways to increase their chances of advancement. It’s hard to say for sure, but any way you can play a bigger role in your boss’s and your company’s success is likely to give you a leg up.
You could acquire a skill or certification that’s in high demand at your company or in your department. Maybe it’s a programming language or CSM abilities. Nowadays, most teams and departments maintain group channels on apps like Slack and Webex. You could join several collaborative channels and become a positive presence in each, helping organize discussions and responding to manager queries. It’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for anything your manager, and his managers, might need — and be quick to provide it.
All this additional work may just ensure your retention, rather than a promotion. Generally speaking, if you’re looking to climb the corporate ladder, or you’re an early-career worker in need of mentoring, fully remote is not the best fit. Unless everyone is on the same playing field, as in a fully virtual firm like ours, upward movement will largely be determined by proximity, not performance and results.
A Balanced Life or the Corner Office?
In the end, today’s professionals face a choice: a balanced life or the corner office? As workers and companies accept this, we will likely see a cleavage in the years to come, with more ambitious professionals returning to the office while those more inclined to the good life go fully remote.
For us, the choice is easy. The benefits of virtual work are undeniable: the comfort of one’s home, refrigerator, and bathroom; a five-second commute; more time with loved ones; the freedom to take a few hours off to meet a friend for lunch; and the ability to work from wherever you want, whenever you want.
This explains why the vast majority of workers seek jobs that are at least partially remote, and why remote workers tend to be healthier and happier. As for the conflicting research on remote productivity, for us that underscores the crucial importance of remote management and virtual capabilities.
Some managers and workers are simply not meant for remote — and that’s OK. Fully remote work should be a privilege, not a right. And that privilege should be reserved for those who have shown the ability to reliably produce from a distance.
Cynthia likes to say that if she had wanted a corner office she would have attended more in-person meetings and events. She never did, but instead decided to embrace a life of travel and adventure while building and running a highly successful productivity consultancy. It’s all worked out quite well.
For those who seek advancement and prefer remote, there may be a silver lining: the remote-office promotions gap is sure to shrink as technologies improve and we get better at using them, bringing distant colleagues into closer contact. In fact, this may have already begun.
In another decade, who knows, the gap might be nearly negligible. Either way, those of us who are fully remote will still have a greater appreciation for work-life balance.
Cynthia Watson (https://virtira.com) is the co-author of “The Power of Remote: Building High-Performing Organizations That Thrive in the Virtual Workplace.” She is Executive Chair of Virtira, a completely virtual company that focuses on remote team performance. Watson has been focused on telecommuting before the term existed. She wrote her master’s thesis on it in 1993 and left office work for good. Before taking leadership of Virtira in 2011, Watson worked with large consulting and tech companies while completing her MBA and research into telecommuting. Watson’s previous book was, “How to Work From Home And Actually Get SH*T Done: 50 Tips for Leaders and Professionals to Work Remotely and Outperform the Office.”
Shane Spraggs (www.virtira.com) is the Forbes Books co-author, with Cynthia Watson, of “The Power of Remote: Building High-Performing Organizations That Thrive in the Virtual Workplace.” He is the CEO of Virtira, a completely virtual company that focuses on remote team performance and whose client list includes Fortune 100 companies.