All work from home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
WASHINGTON (TND) — Remote workers are receiving fewer advancement opportunities than their in-person colleagues, according to new data.
The stats from Live Data Technologies show remote workers see promotions 31% less frequently than office workers. Just under 4% of remote employees received position upgrades last year while 5.6% of hybrid or in-person workers advanced, according to the data.
“People may not like it, but I can’t build a company by playing to the lowest common denominator,” Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain told the Wall Street Journal. “If you don’t show up and work with the rest of your colleagues, it’s showing a lack of connectivity and a lack of ownership.”
Nick Bloom, a Stanford University economist, argues remote workers miss out on promotions since they lack office relationships developed through casual conversation.
“There’s some proximity bias going on,” Bloom alleged, according to the Wall Street Journal. “I literally call it discrimination.”
Approximately 90% of CEOs are more likely to reward employees who try to come to the office with position upgrades, raises and better assignments, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Remote workers are also found to receive less mentorship. Software engineers at a Fortune 500 company who worked in person with their colleagues received 22% more feedback than those who abstained from the office, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The gap was pronounced for female workers, who collected 40% more evaluation on their code while in the office. In-person male engineers obtained 18% more feedback.
Nearly 20% of U.S. employees with college degrees work remotely, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some companies are seeking to alter that trend. Meta and Google require their employees to work in the office several days a week.
Bloom recommends workers follow the mandates.
“Three days a week is enough,” he suggested, according to the Wall Street Journal. “You’re not out of sight and forgotten about.”
A KPMG survey found approximately two-thirds of CEOs expect employees to be in the office five days a week within three years.
The controversy surrounding remote working also extends to learning environments. Last month, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten blamed low test scores in part on remote education.
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