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Fully remote workers are missing out on promotions
Fully remote workers were promoted 31% less frequently than their in-person peers last year
Workaholics/Comedy Central via Giphy
By
Matty Merritt
31 January 2024
less than 3 min read
Companies have tried donating to charity, hiring Lizzo, and even just flat-out making demands to get employees back into the office. But it seems management has an even better tool to make WFH less appealing: withholding promotions. Fully remote workers were promoted 31% less frequently than their in-person peers last year, according to Live Data Technologies.
In the data company’s analysis of 2 million white-collar workers, 5.6% of employees who were going into the office on at least a hybrid basis received a promotion last year, compared to 3.9% of fully remote individuals, the Wall Street Journal reports. And it’s not just a coincidence:
About 90% of 400 CEOs surveyed last year by KPMG said they’d be more likely to give in-person employees raises, promotions, or better assignments.
Amazon, for one, is enforcing its strict three-days-in-the-office policy for corporate workers by blocking promotions for anyone who doesn’t comply, according to internal materials reviewed by Insider.
Yes, but...studies have gone both ways about whether employees are more or less productive at home, but surveys have found fully remote workers are a lot happier and more likely to stick with their jobs. Half of fully in-person employees said they’d be job hunting in the next year, compared to a third of employees who work from home, according to a 2023 Resume Builder survey.