Saw a stat that 70% of remote workers feel left out of promotions

I was scrolling through a report from Buffer's State of Remote Work 2024 and it said 70% of remote workers feel they get overlooked for promotions compared to in-office folks. That hit hard because my buddy Sarah at a tech firm in Austin got passed over twice while her coworker who comes in three days a week got a senior role. It makes me wonder if being visible in the office matters way more than actual output these days. Anyone else see this play out at their job?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowan6669d ago

What kind of work is your friend Sarah actually doing that's getting overlooked though? Like is she solving big problems and her boss just doesn't see it cause she's remote, or is she doing good work but the office guy is doing the same stuff and just happens to be there in person? I'm curious if the data breaks down by type of work too, cause I feel like in creative or coding roles you'd think output would speak for itself but maybe not.

alexlewis9d ago

Ah man, @rowan666 that's the thing right, it's both. Sarah's been pulling late nights on the dev side fixing stuff that breaks in the pipeline, literally saving the team from having to redo a bunch of work. But her boss only sees the in office guy who chats him up at the coffee machine and happens to be in frame during the morning huddle. The real kicker is the data on this stuff shows remote workers submit way more detailed status updates but managers still rate them lower on initiative. It's like they just can't help but value the physical presence over actual output, even in coding where the code either works or it doesn't. Hard not to feel for people stuck in that dynamic.