Remote work changes your pay, promotions, and career
Seven facts about #wfh and seven impacts on your life
Just prior to the pandemic breaking the country, I put my company through a lockdown work-from-home drill, which the Washington Post covered in this story:
Prior to that experience, I opposed work-from-home as “shirk from home.” It seemed an easy way to fall into bad habits, and I feared that the people most interested in it were the least focused on our customers and business.
The huge success we’ve had with remote work over the past two years has changed a lot of minds, including mine, and our remote work future brings big changes to how you’re paid, promoted, and expected to work in 2022 and beyond.
First, seven facts for you:
At Ladders, we’ve found that as many as 33% of all new professional jobs are being hired remote, and the trend is increasing, not decreasing. Once a job is hired remote, there is really no practical way to convert it back to full-time in the office.
Office occupancy is just 41% in Manhattan, with similar numbers across the country. These empty skyscrapers have caused New York City’s Mayor to say that New York may not have central business districts anymore.
During our national #wfh experiment, corporate profits were higher than they’d ever been in our nation’s history. There are a lot of influences on that number, but corporate bosses have discovered that remote work does not destroy profitability.
And that’s because work-from-home increases productivity. In proper experiments prior to the pandemic, #wfh was 13% more productive. And in millions of experiences and conversations across corporate America over the past 27 months, we’ve come to realize that, yes, we do seem to be more productive working from home. And while Boomer leaders continue to resist work-from-home for their teams, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z are far more comfortable with leading and managing remotely.
Working from home increases employee happiness by 20% or more. People like the flexibility, the lack of commute, and the focus on work rather than office politics. They feel they can get their work done more readily and move on to their home lives more easily.
Interestingly, political viewpoints do play a large role in people’s work-from-home preferences, with Republicans saying they’d like 2 days at home and Democrats saying they’d like 3 days at home per week. Go figure that one out in the comments!
A concern remains that training is lacking with remote work. Summer interns are left to fend for themselves with no bosses around. And those first 5 to 10 years of absorbing office expectations and work habits do not feel as effective for either the trainers or the trainees when done remotely.
What does this data mean for you and for your future career?
Remote work will change your pay, promotions, travel schedule, and career development.
Here are seven ways how:
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