The Dark Side of Your Room: the Drawbacks of Fully-Remote Work

With many companies cutting back on pandemic-era remote work policies, opting for a hybrid model, or even requiring employees to be physically present five days per week, some employers have found it difficult to entice employees to return and many employees have been reluctant to do so.  While this may not be all that surprising, employees expressing such hesitancy should carefully consider their current stance. 

Although in-person work has long been considered to have intangible benefits, including increased mentorship and engagement, those benefits are now quantifiable.  Recent studies have shown that fully remote workers receive less mentorship and are falling behind on promotions.  Over the past year, fully remote workers were promoted 31% less often than their fully in-office or hybrid counterparts.  And nearly 90% of chief executives surveyed stated that they were more likely to reward employees who made an effort to come into the office when it came to favorable assignments, raises, or promotions. 

However, even if all the benefits of in-person work do not convince employees to return to office, the drawbacks should.  New data also suggests that fully remote workers are statistically more likely to be subject to layoff when compared to their in-office peers.  That discrepancy may be due to a reluctance to separate employees face-to-face (as opposed to virtually), the perception that employees who are (even partially) in-office are higher performers than their fully remote counterparts, or even that fully-remote workers can be replaced with less costly overseas workers.  However, despite the reasons behind that disparity, it is apparent that employees who are not showing up at all in person are at risk of missing out on crucial job development and mentorship and have decreased job security. 

Although the benefits of remote-work are well known, the benefits of in-person work are abundant and employees who are currently resistant may want to reconsider their position based on these new studies and data. As one chief executive noted: “[i]f you don’t see anybody, somebody at all, you literally may forget how valuable that person is.”