Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Those who work in a fully remote role enjoy the best of all worlds. They save precious time by not commuting. They can pick times to work when they are most productive. And they’re also able to focus on family and household issues when needed. 

The advantages of working remotely have created a recent tsunami of interest. For those whose jobs allow them this luxury, there has been increased demand to work from home, at least some of the time.

Given the changes that occurred since the pandemic, it is not all that surprising to learn that currently more than 50 percent of all white-collar team members either work fully remotely or operate on a hybrid model, working from where they want to for some of the week. 

Unfortunately, this new wave of workplace flexibility comes with a significant career downside. The most recent data overwhelmingly shows fully remote and hybrid workers don’t get assigned the most important projects, fail to receive the same amount of performance feedback, and get overlooked for promotion more often than their in-office counterparts. 

In one study, nearly 90 percent of senior leaders and managers suggested that when it comes to favorable assignments, raises, and promotions, they are more likely to reward team members who work every day in the office as opposed to those who do not. 

Given that the data also suggests that remote team members are equally or more productive than those who work on-site, this bias is hard to understand. Why do so many leaders insist that working remotely is inferior and undermines the long-term viability of an organization? 

The most likely answer is the value experienced leaders place on relationships and the importance of human connection for learning that others may underestimate. And the research strongly supports this view. 

As it turns out, proximity between people is central to two critical aspects of organizational life: skill development, and the building and nurturing of relationships. 

The casual in-person conversations remote workers miss out on are actually the building blocks of relationships. Relationships that don’t have them develop differently. People do not sacrifice or go out of their way for colleagues they don’t know, trust, and feel deeply connected to. 

Equally important, leaders offer less feedback, check in less frequently, and avoid many of the most important conversations with those they don’t engage face-to-face. The bottom line is that less face-to-face contact inhibits relationship development and stunts the feedback necessary to learn or improve skills. 

Remote work clearly benefits people who are more established in their careers, have pre-existing deep relationships, and already possess the skills they need to perform at the highest level. Yet, these are the people who already prefer to show up on-site more often, while less experienced team members have the strongest preference to work remotely. That’s quite a riddle.  

None of us fully knows where the workplace options of remote, partially remote, or back-to-the-office will shake out over the next few years. Expert predictions slightly favor a return to on-site work with fewer colleagues working remotely, but the nature of the workplace and the work itself influences much of how things will materialize in any given organization. 

What we do know is this: Relationships sit at the foundation of organizational success. Any trend must account for relationship development before resetting the long-term order of where people get the work done.