Remote Workers Are Losing Out on Promotions
New data shows that people who log on from home five days a week get fewer promotions and less mentoring than people in the office
For a while, remote workers seemed to have it all: elastic waistbands, no commute, better concentration and the ability to pop in laundry loads between calls.
New data, though, shows fully remote workers are falling behind in one of the most-prized and important aspects of a career: getting promoted.
Over the past year, remote workers were promoted 31% less frequently than people who worked in an office, either full-time or on a hybrid basis, according to an analysis of two million white-collar workers by employment-data provider Live Data Technologies. Remote workers also get less mentorship, a gap that’s especially pronounced for women, research shows.
Of employees working full time in an office or on a hybrid basis, 5.6% received promotions at their organization in 2023, according to Live Data Technologies, versus 3.9% of those who worked remotely.
“There’s some proximity bias going on,” says Nick Bloom, an economist at Stanford University who studies remote work and management practices, of the challenges facing remote workers. “I literally call it discrimination.”
I literally don't care about promotions at this point. I'd rather continue working from home, that benefit is way better than a promotion.
A… fucking… men!
The other solution is to work for a remote-first company if your job allows it and you can swing it. Best decision I've ever made.
I am remote and happy. If I wanted a new job title or new/additional responsibilities I would just switch jobs as that is easier than pushing for a promotion whether or not I was in person or remote.
Not all of us want promotions or ‘mentoring’. Some of us just want to do our job and log off with a minimum of crap.
But everyone wants more money and promotions/switching companies are the quickest way to that end. No one makes a ton by just doing their job.
I bet it’s a lot easier to switch companies remotely though.
Fair point. To me my mental health is more important. I make enough for my needs and I am content, and I am very thankful for that and recognize how rare it is. I just love how these articles want to paint everyone with the same brush.
You aren’t wrong there.
Boss: wish granted. Your required amount of work you must complete per day is a lot higher then it used to be, but you get to work from home.
lol nah. I work for a sane company/boss. Fully remote.
The best part about being able to work from home is you aren't limited to jobs in your local area.
Remote work bad! Justify my extravagant real estate purchases! /s eat the rich
Exactly, just more propaganda. Remote work is the future.
Huh I've heard my whole old ass life that in the capitalistic hellscape if you aren't jumping ship for better conditions you aren't a real worker. Nice Propaganda though SCAB.
My company is 100% remote and promotions happen so.....
It helps to not have to compete with the in-person and hybrid folks, lol
Bullshit propaganda
Why should we care when changing jobs is the better way to promote ourselves anyway?
Good thing we all job hop like crazy
Corpo BS title only promotions, perhaps, but otherwise this is total fantasy.
Yeah no, “promotions” these days is just someone applying internally for a higher paying job.
Yep, just as I suspected. It's the Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ editors hate work from home. They hate it with a passion. Given the choice, I'm sure they would bump a story about the start of a new world war if they could publish something that says that working from home gives you ass cancer.
This smells pretty strongly of BS (and besides the fact it's a WSJ article talking about worker wellbeing). Companies which are fully remote very likely show no such pattern.
Companies which are not fully remote may be a different story. However, RTO mandates tend to be indicative of other things, like real estate obligations the company has for office space. Perhaps tax credits for having a downtown office. Middle management which knows it is less useful in a remote setting. Those are the topics I would expect to hear about, but instead what we get is: RTO is here, so deal with it, and here's some fluff that should make you feel better.
But the overarching message: in companies where there are remote workers and non-remote workers, the remotes get shafted by the non-remotes. And that isn't surprising.