Will Remote Work Affect Our Chances at a Promotion?
The remote vs. IRL work debate is like tie dyeoverhyped and everywhere. We all talk about how wonderful it is to throw in your laundry at 2:20pm on a Tuesday or hop on your Peloton between meetings, but we leave career mobility out of the conversation. In her most recent WSJ column, writer Rachel Feintzeig tackles how remote work impacts your promotion chances. Some of us are lucky in that we have a choicefive days, two to three days, or zero days in the office. But even if we are most productive at home, Brian Kropp, who leads HR research at Gartner, told Feintzeig that managers consistently label in-office workers higher performers and give them bigger raises and promotions...even though data shows theres really no difference between the two groups.  With all this in mind, the big question Im pondering is the one Feintzeig asks in her article: If youre the one leaning into flexibility, how do you make sure youre not unintentionally leaning out of your career? A question thats especially relevant for working parents, most notably working moms. Some jobs do require you to be in the office. But for me, as a writer early in my career, Im kind of a lone wolfmost of my work is done solo. And although I cherish the moments when I can write in my pajamas and sit like a pretzel on my bedroom floor (I really like writing on the floor), theres some part of me that craves an office environmentthe chitchat about terribly amazing, cringeworthy Netflix shows, and of course, the opportunities to build lasting relationships both professionally and personally. Theres something to be said about the relationship-building that goes on in person. Its really hard to advocate for your career when you dont know someone in a three-dimensional sense. Remote work provides new opportunities, but now more than ever, the onus is on the employee to be more direct about their goals and accomplishments, since bosses arent just going to pick up on those things by osmosis from the next desk over. But for many employees, especially young professionals entering the workforce, that doesnt come naturally. Its not taught in school, and its not taught behind the screen. So I cant help but think career mobility becomes pretty difficult when youre mostly on mute.