Will Remote Work Depress Your Career Growth?
What’s a New American Job-Seeker To Do?
I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that the examination of whether working from home is good for your career development or not is taking a life of its own these days. (In this post, I’ll use the expressions work from home and work remotely synonymously.)
Millions of employees had no choice when the ravages of the global pandemic forced their companies to set them up for remote work. Two years later, while some employers such as American Express, Meta, or Wells Fargo look forward to bringing back their workforce, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), others like Dropbox have no plans for it. The latter stands proudly by its successful pivot to a distributed, virtual environment. Still, other organizations “don’t hide their disdain for remote work,” reports WSJ’s Callum Borchers.
It follows that we get divergent views about the career implications of working either from home or the office. Among the advantages of the latter, more face-time with the boss, writes Borchers, rubbing elbows with colleagues, and being more in the know about company’s news and politics, can translate into professional advancement.
“There’s a term for this,” he adds. “Proximity bias; a tendency to favor people in close proximity to you.”
There’s truth to that. But if you’re an immigrant who’s new to the US labor market, or not confident yet about your place in it, how do you make heads and tails out of the remote work conundrum? Say you like the idea of a virtual job; would your performance be fairly assessed and compensated, or would you be out of sight, out of mind when a chance for promotion comes around?
At The JobUp participants learn how to cut through the chatter. One approach is to think through your whys (e.g., work-family balance, compensation, etc…), your whats (desired trajectory, growth, and so on), your hows (e.g., plan on being visible, networked, and connected), then put together the bigger picture. Once you have the elements you need, formulate your search criteria and put yourself out there tactfully.
Apply your formula, assess incoming job leads and opportunities. Adjust and recalibrate, as needed. Keep in mind that it’s not magic, it’s a skill!
Once you learn the navigation, arriving at destination is a matter of time.
I’d love to support your professional growth in the States.
At The JobUp we work on your success together. Among the things we excel at is filling the information gap: You will learn “What you don’t know that you don’t know,” I like to say, and get the skills you need to overcome occupational barriers. Do you need support? Join The JobUp program here. You can reach me at Tiziana.Rinaldi@Journalism.cuny.edu
