If career growth matters, 100% remote is a trap, amirite?

I think this is true. It depends on the company but in person interactions matter to a lot of people.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

I'm in IT. Remote doesn't hurt career growth in this industry. In this industry you have to leave your employer to move up. It's always been that way. It's very rare that they'll promote you internally.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

A lot of people are in IT but the companies they work for are NOT IT companies. I think that makes a difference.

by Alarming-Painter-442 4 days ago

I guess I'm glad I'm at a place where none of us feel this way. Not a single one of us wishes for in person interactions yet we are all still friends and even hang out in teams calls.

by Binsova 4 days ago

I remember my colleagues talking about how back then "Smoking area knowledge" was a thing, where basically only the smokers would get to know specifics about the company or job because people would go there and overshare lol I feel it's probably the same, if your team has a bunch of people getting together at the office and you are not there you are probably missing out.

by BeautifulMiddle 4 days ago

I'm Gen X and just trying to stay employed until retirement. I'm great with remote work.👨‍💻

by Anonymous 4 days ago

I think there's a lot of people out there who just don't seek their life's fulfillment from their job anymore. They don't want to network, or climb the ladder, or any of that. They just want to do their work, get paid, and go home. It seems like more an d more there are few well paying jobs that offer this. My dad worked as a first aid person in the mines. When he went to work, he was at work. When he was at home, he didn't have to think about work. No call after hours, no checking messages or emails. Not constant worrying about moving up the corporate ladder to the next position to some point where you reach incompetence or are no longer doing a job you enjoy.

by Fresh-Estimate 4 days ago

Never should have gotten your life's fulfillment from your job. Selling that to kids is an awful lie

by Anonymous 4 days ago

I think it's important to set realistic expectations about the job market, but considering we spend a third of most of our days at work, it's understandable that we encourage people to make their careers something they care about

by Aggravating-Ride2166 4 days ago

Nailed it. If I already had a stable 100% remote job that allowed me to live where I desire and skip commuting ... what career am I trying to grow into exactly?

by heaneyimmanuel 4 days ago

It's a strange system. You're really good at job, hears a promotion, a raise, and more job to do. Fast forward a few years. Sorry, you're one of our best at job and you've earned a promotion and raise, but we can't justify paying you more for just doing excellent at your job. So we need to make you a manager. Oh wait, you have no experience or interest in being a manager? You just want to keep doing the thing you're good at? Too bad.

by effertzkarlee 4 days ago

Same! I'm cool with remote work. I definitely think that a lot of people's priorities have shifted and they don't get fulfillment or seek out fulfillment solely in their jobs anymore. They want to a balance and they want to to do their job and go home and spend time with their friends and family and have time for themselves. They see the greater value in that and in being able to be present in their own life. I know, for me, that was the case and I remember crying at one point because I had a young daughter and I was a single mom and I would barely see her in the day. I truly set out to create a life and seek out a job that would allow me to be present for my daughter and in my life. At the end of the day, you are expendable in your job and you can't really put all your eggs in one basket and get all your fulfillment from that. I tell people that it's great to have all that success and climb the ladder, but if I have no people to really share that with or wake up one day and find that I missed out on so much around me because I was too engrossed in excelling at a job, then it's not worth it.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

I came here to basically say this ^^^. I tried chasing career growth. Got two big promotions and got taxed to hell. It's not worth the extra stress.

by Comfortable-Beat-931 4 days ago

Same. 5 to 7 more years and I'm out. The younger employees can climb all the ladders they want.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

I think this is true, especially if you're employer is hybrid. For fully remote jobs, this isnt true if everyone is remote. I've had no issues climbing the corporate ladder in the past 5 years, but everyone is working remotely at my company.

by Shemar21 4 days ago

I've doubled my salary in the last 3 year working for a company that is primarily fully remote.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Yeah, I've had a positive experience and no issues getting promotions. I've had to be very outgoing, though.

by Shemar21 4 days ago

There will always be some people somehow getting promoted, but the things OP mentioned basically just boost your odds/help you

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Yes and I did agree! But if everyone is working remote, then it's not applicable is my point 😉

by Shemar21 4 days ago

It can hold you back if you think your works speaks for itself. And that's true in an office or remote environment. If you're corporate and there's an office to go to, try to go in 3-4 times a year purely socially. Schedule some meetings. Plan to get lunch. Drop in to say high to people in your network. As a manager I compile data on what multiple teams are doing. I can see people's throughput and their work. You'd be amazed how much other managers discount the work you do vs the reputation you have.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Lot of people forget that management are not machines that evaluate work product and that's it. They are people too and people naturally like the people they know better. The best way to get to know someone is literally just being in the same room as them. And sure, maybe it's not entirely ideal, but it's not some huge failing by managers, it's just how life works. It's also not entirely unrealistic. If you want to promote someone who is going to work closely with you, are you going to pick the person who is 95% effective at their current work objectives, but you have no idea how you'll work with them on the daily? Or will you pick the 80% effective person who you know you'll mesh well with and will be beneficial for their soft skills? Personally, I'd go with the 80%. it's much easier to improve work project than it is to improve personality or cohesion. A lot of people have really rusty soft skills and are only letting them get worse by not interacting with coworkers.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Fully agree. Also, what's the point of having a "hybrid" way of working if you go to the office on Tuesday and your colleague goes on Wednesday? The point of working at the office is to make it easier for coworkers to interact and solve problems faster. Before 2020, everybody would be at the office and meetings were rare, given that you could just poke the person beside you. Nowadays, people are spoiled and they only accept talking to you if you schedule a meeting.

by Low_Association 4 days ago

The endless meetings is the worst part. Especially when they ignore you because they are already double booked. So much easier to get in someone's face literally when their inaction is holding your team back

by Anonymous 4 days ago

To your first point, most "hybrid" companies have a designated day in office so that everyone's there on the same day. My job, for example, everyone has to be in office on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. I'd also disagree to your second point about meetings being rare pre-2020. Maybe that's your experience, but I have just as many meetings now as I did before, they're just all virtual meetings. Even if it's an office day, people will call in from their desk instead of walking into the conference room, which sucks.

by brody88 4 days ago

Lmao meetings were not rare pre-2020. People have been complaining about excessive meetings for decades.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

When a job only requires you sit at a computer, you can do that anywhere, and in most cases, being in the office is a detriment to being able to do that efficiently. When a large part of your work day is just being on calls with customers anyways, again, you can do that from anywhere. It is a little ridiculous to compare jobs that actually, logistically, require onsite staff, to jobs that literally do not need that to function. Retail and office work are not even remotely the same.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

I agree with this. People working from the office always have advantage over those fully remote. In some cases, you are a perfect fit even when on the other side of the world, but one has to be foolish to downplay this.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

100% agree.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Even though I agree with this in theory, I moved up a lot at my company while being fully remote.

by Betsy38 4 days ago

I don't think remote is a trap. Most of us who want to work remotely don't give a crap about career growth. We want stability and security and don't care about standing out or moving up.

by ZealousidealBird 4 days ago

This. Stability and security are the goals for us.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

"hmm, who should we promote this time... i know, that dude i always see between the coffee machine and the toilets!"

by Lower_External 4 days ago

I think your underestimating a little how this could work. It's as easy to say that as it is for someone who works in person to have a photo on their desk or a trinket that sparks a conversation with someone higher and works to build a relationship of familiarity. If your working remote and someone who is in the same running for a promotion as you is in the office everyday unless the discrepancy in qualifications is huge you will be behind. Especially when most higher ups at this point are Gen X / Boomers. I mean if you want to work remote and that part of it is worth the benefits then by all means go do it but it does make sense

by Anonymous 4 days ago

But that's kinda how it works, in most corporate jobs. Sure, you may actually be competent and good at your job but looking at which people get promoted, just being visible and likable as well as having a good network is way more important. And for all of that in nearly all corporate jobs you'll need to be in the office at least occasionally

by Anonymous 4 days ago

As opposed to the person whose only "presence" you know is their name in the email directory. You have no idea what they actually do, you've never had a conversation with them, and they're basically invisible, a theoretical person.

by Alarming-Painter-442 4 days ago

Good managers develop people despite their working location. Good managers recognize good work product, work ethic, and how a person handles the workload.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

A theoretical person whose hours you've been billing to the client, whose work you've been reviewing and calls you've been on with.

by HuntIll5818 4 days ago

No, but "we need this project done" can often lead to assigning people who are around the work. Then the work leads to promotion.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Promotions are given for consistent work over long period of time. Projects are usually assigned based on competence, and growth goals. Unless you work in some garbage company then everything is possible.

by GarbageGood 4 days ago

It sucks but this is literally true.

by Nikolas98 4 days ago

You just, but the fun chatty guy by the coffee machine is more memorable than the quiet guy who consistently gets 8% higher productivity.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

While this is obviously flippant, it's sadly pretty true. Out of sight out of mind.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

You say this in jest but this is often more true than people realize. Many many social cognitive psychology studies show that people have unconscious positive bias towards people/things they are more familiar with, in terms of decision-making, even when they consciously believe they're evaluating things objectively.

by bhauck 4 days ago

Real career-moving moments are unplanned: a quick chat by the coffee machine, overhearing a conversation that sparks an idea, or being in the right place at the right time. Thats what they want you to believe but unless you are already on the radar it just doesn't happen as often as you'd think. You'll be productive but you will also be invisible to the very people who could open doors for you. Thats why relationship building with your manager is so important. Its up to them to advocate and talk you up. Can be achieved remotely.

by GarbageGood 4 days ago

Exactly. More than anything, what you need to ensure is you have a good relationship with your direct manager and that they are aware of what you're doing and accomplishing. This can be done easily even fully remote. That's the only sponsor you really need, as they are generally the ones that will dictate who gets put up for promotion, as well as create opportunities for you to be noticed. Oddly enough, this "secret" seems to be unknown to so many people, and somehow they think that random water cooler chats are the way to go...

by Anonymous 4 days ago

These are people you sit on meetings with and email regularly how are you invisible to them?

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

OP is over generalizing but his point is just about networking with people not in your day to day. Promotions generally are sponsored in companies

by Anonymous 4 days ago

I get that but you can do that remotely. At this point in my job higher ups love to say you can text or email me and give you their info in a meeting

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

An email is not as personal as a conversation? They're also more work. Which you might think is a good think because "Well it shows more effort/intention" but that also means you're imposing more work on the receiver of the email, which they won't appreciate.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Running into a stranger isnt really personal. Being able to communicate casually with your higher ups is helpful. What is the work of responding when you just text and email all day?

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

Well if he's your President in the hallway y'all are strangers. I agree but it's way easier to talk to those people regularly. You dont need to depend on running into them in this magic hallway. Email is super casual. It's literally how we all speak to each other. We also spend all day talking so if you dont wanna talk,email or text you just want silence

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

Not everyone who can help your career is in your chain of interaction. Not everyone works directly with directors and c-suite execs. But we all ride the same elevator, go to the same cafeteria. Conversations can get struck.

by Alarming-Painter-442 4 days ago

Lol ok do y'all not have staff meetings? I guess we have different work experiences because no c suite execs and directors were not eating with us.

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

I could easily end up peeing right next to the CEO of my company and we never have any work cross paths.

by Nikolas98 4 days ago

Well as a woman I couldnt soo lol

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

Hahaha ok true!

by Nikolas98 4 days ago

I also work on a camus so like we dont just casually run into people at different levels

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

People build familiarity and connection much, much faster when they interact regularly in person than via email or on a call.

by Certain-Move2614 4 days ago

I disagree. When I was in person I interacted with the three people in the cubicles next to me. Our leadership was in a totally different state. We would never cross paths. Even if they were in town, they were in meetings with other managers and rarely were around for random run ins. My company is huge and spread out over 9 states so having chat conversations, calls, and virtual interactions is how we communicate.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

It's not the same.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

It's more intentional to be reaching out versus just happening to run into folk

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

Because often the people who can help your career aren't ON those meetings, and you DON'T email them regularly. They have no idea who YOU are.

by Alarming-Painter-442 4 days ago

Where do you work that youre never on meetings with these people but you'd see them in the person?

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

Ha ha, kinda agree. At my office if I do not see them on zoom calls or email them already I will not be seeing them in the halls or anything like that.

by Far_Strength 4 days ago

Like I'm hybrid and I only see these folks on calls so it's very easy to reach out to follow up on something said but I'm never seeing them in person. I also worked completely remote for 4 years and we just had zooms.

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

A company with 800 employees that has conference rooms and cafeterias and pantries.

by Alarming-Painter-442 4 days ago

I work at a company with thousands lol so I guess it has to be a range

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

And you regularly talk to all of them?

by Anonymous 4 days ago

No that's my point lol. The higher ups I wish to talk to I'm not running into in person but the permission to email and text them helps foster relationships

by Turnerjerry 4 days ago

My company has 500,000 employees.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

You get to know people better, and sometimes even like them by seeing them more often. OP is right. I'd still take remote or telework because I'm not looking to climb at this point.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Right. But that also counters the arguments of what we "want" in the workplace. If promotions are based on merit that wouldn't happen. If promotions are based on friends and favors you get those through the social interaction.

by smithamamani 4 days ago

I think alot more of life is based off friends and favours then merit haha

by Anonymous 4 days ago

If you need to kiss ass and schmooze to move up, you lack talent and skill.

by zboncakalicia 4 days ago

This is wishful thinking. It's how things SHOULD work, but not what actually happens. If you want to be successful you have to live in reality.

by bhauck 4 days ago

who wants career growth? I just want to get paid and log out at the end of the day

by Gileskris 3 days ago

I work full time remote and have heard this a lot; I don't fully disagree with the logic. But it's never really seemed to make sense for my career. When I worked for large companies in the office, the "sponsors, mentors, decision-makers", leadership etc. didn't work in the same office as me and it was rare they would visit. They were always at corporate headquarters, not the smaller plants. At most of my in-office jobs my own supervisor didn't work in the same building as me. All of my interactions with these people were virtual and somewhat planned, there was no way to spontaneously run into them if they didn't work in the same building or even the same state as me.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I mean I think it depends on your company. I'm remote and we regularly have team meetings and one on ones set up with higher up leadership.

by rosalind56 3 days ago

100% im in a remote spot and I won't be promoted but im ok with it

by Norberto17 3 days ago

That's ok too. It's only if growth matters.

by Alarming-Painter-442 3 days ago

My early success can be attributed to the CEO and I being the only smokers. I LOVE WFH now, but never would've got where I am without so much face time with the bosses.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

But the trap is'nt remote work. The trap is thinking your work alone will get you noticed. Whether you are remote or in office you need to manage your visibility and relationships. Remote just does not give you a safety.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Exactly this. Visibility matters. You can work in obscurity and do many great things. People will know the product but they won't know you are responsible for that product.

by Alarming-Painter-442 3 days ago

Only holds you back if you have weak social skills to begin with

by Anonymous 3 days ago

If you only work with 6 people for your day to day, and you're not interacting with the 20 other randos that you would run into in person.... do you see the problem? You can't use your superior social skills on the other people you aren't interacting with. It's missed opportunities.

by Alarming-Painter-442 3 days ago

Absolutely not true. I've seen my friends go from service desk workers to one being the manager in charge of training and a security lead. Completely depends on your attitude and networking as it always does.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

this reads like a crappy manager email I've been able to get promoted and get a 24% pay increase while remote. if you need to be in office to achieve the same, it sounds like you're riding on charisma more than ability

by Specialist_Way9122 3 days ago

My brother in law has worked fully remote for the last 5 years and has gotten a nice raise every 2 years and a promotion. He also works for a big ass company

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I'd say this is mostly true. For what it's worth, I've been fully remote at a large company for a little under 3 years and have been promoted twice. It's not impossible.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I could see that being the case maybe for very early in your career, but imo, those limitations are overblown. -Companies like Atlassian, Shopify and others are sizeable and people still have thriving careers there, networking just has to be more intentional. -Most field sellers and tech SMEs where I work are remote with client visits and their careers also thrive if they do well. Heck, I had my career take off during 2021 based on performance and good communication with leadership alone. Now, do I see the value of in-office, sure, it has pros, however, it can also create issues for many (single parents, those who can barely afford childcare, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people). Furthermore, plenty of the remote teams can still meet in person, do All-Hands meetings in person, quarterly town halls, live workshops, etc.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I had more interactions with people who mattered after going remote. On site I dealt with my 1st layer management. Remote I dealt predominantly with 2nd and 3rd at least 3 times a week, and I was dealing with senior VPs on at least a quarterly basis, something I never would have done working on site.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

If career growth matters, you need to be switching companies. Career stagnation stems from loyalty. Remote work makes it easier to make the moves you need to for your career, and you'll still be noticed in your present company if you're doing noticeably good work. It's an absolute win unless you wish to rise through the ranks by brown nosing rather than merit.

by This_Department 3 days ago

Certainly a factually incorrect opinion, depending on the job. If the company only has one office and was never remote-centric, ok, OP may have a point. But when your team and other teams span across multiple geographic areas to where it's highly unlikely you'll ever physically cross paths with the people that could help elevate your career because they don't work from the same office building or even in the same city, the opinion isn't based on reality.

by Positive-Equal 3 days ago

Right on. I'm in Philly. My boss is in Detroit. My employees are in Maryland, Denver, San Fran, and Dallas. None of them share an office. We work with contractors in DC and India. I go into an office and work at a cube while on calls all day, and interact with nobody of any value in person.

by Mysterious_Jello 3 days ago

Weird, I've promoted three people in the last 2 years that were 100% remote.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

How dare you!

by Odd-Maintenance-7591 3 days ago

Sorry. I'm filling the paperwork to demote them right now.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Please and thank you.

by Odd-Maintenance-7591 3 days ago

Would this not lead to more people being promoted by merit when their work is noticed rather than how likable they are when socialising at work?

by Anonymous 3 days ago

But if the jobs hybrid and some people are in the office it isn't based off merit anymore

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Thats true but also some teams have no one who live within 400 miles of each other

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I think career growth overall is just kind of a scam. Jobs are kind of dead, end with limited opportunities, etc. I work traditional jobs and then I've pretty much been it remote and I could live with the remote. I'd rather have the freedom in that than the illusion of advancement

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Sure. You have that career. I'll take my life. We'll compare after death.

by Bbotsford 3 days ago

My job will be replaced with AI before I retire so not too worried about it. Just cashing in as much as I can before the inevitable.

by Equivalent-Joke 3 days ago

What's the unpopular part?

by Anonymous 3 days ago

It depends a lot on how your company advances people. I'm fully remote, but I'm not invisible to those who make decisions. My work speaks for itself. I don't need to bump into an executive in the hallway and have a quick chat to get noticed.

by Huge_Garden 3 days ago

It depends. Some people are better at networking, so those people would do better in person. Some people aren't so good at networking, but are very high performers. Those people can still find success and career growth in a remote environment. Many of the most skilled employees are not good at networking, so it's up to the company to recognize their worth and reward them for carrying the company on their back.

by jeffereybeatty 3 days ago

Pure cope for people who want to talk their way through their career instead of developing skills and doing things that create value.

by ProperExtreme 3 days ago

Im 30. Remote work full time. $150K salary. Have a house. A great social life. I do not care about "moving up." I don't want more responsibilities. I don't need to satisfy a power hunger.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

a quick chat by the coffee machine, overhearing a conversation that sparks an idea, or being in the right place at the right time Are you one of those guys who own offices for rent? I've never had any coffee machine talk but I constantly bump into people virtually. I got to know more colleagues virtually in one year than in the office in the last ten years. You just can't use Teams efficiently. In the office you're limited to your small area. Online there are no limits.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I was hired at a fully remote job in August 2023 and have already received 2 promotions, and my boss just started talking about the next. My company has approx. 850 employees at my location. I don't know where you work that merit for a promotion comes from who you talk to at the water cooler rather than the quality of the work you do, and I don't want to.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I experienced my most significant career growth and spent more time with mentors after Covid and going to remote full time.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I know people who are 100% in person that have had no career growth over a decade. It doesn't matter either way

by amanda06 3 days ago

My team is relatively small, there's one guy that goes in office every day, I check my 2 day requirement. If it's just me and him in office, not a word is spoken. If he's there before I am, I'll say good morning, how I was raised, you enter a room you speak first…no response. He gets there after me, I wouldn't know he's there until I turn around to go to the bathroom. Same with when he leaves, wouldn't know he's left until I got up for the day.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

This is probably true for for people with less than 5 years in the workforce, generally speaking. I am sure some companies are more liberal though. Most people would be satisfied to sit on a good middle wage and take the remote work over pushing further into leadership roles. However I also suspect it depends heavily on if the company is in a Growth period or not too, if you were at the right company at the right time and they needed to hire more people you could in turn get promoted

by Anonymous 3 days ago

My goal isn't to be a dragon on a hoard of wealth that I can look back on and be proud of. I need just what me and mine need to live safely and not lavishly. Also, I started as tech support tier 1. I'm now a client solutions consultant in professional services. You can move up, just be personable. It's still the same talking online as in person.

by emilianogoodwin 3 days ago

Well, its either remote work or die for me. Not like I could move up anyway. Can't come in for training

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Not only this, but if your team or company is a mix of on site and remote, they generally don't want someone fully remote to be in charge of people that are on site.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

This might be true but I prefer to work remotely regardless.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Imo this has not been the case for my husband's career - he's in a senior management position, on the verge of a director promotion, and has been fully remote for 9 years (for reference, he's 35 years old, salary $200k). But he has a unicorn job. I could certainly see your theory being a trend.

by Realistic_Affect 3 days ago

This hold true until you realize all your supiors work remote lol

by Strange-Office7681 3 days ago

This actually depends. My buddy's HQ is in a different country and he is 1 of 2 employees in our city. Remote makes sense. I work at a huge company (Fortune 150) and did in person for a long time. However, there are not enough conference rooms and no one on my teams is in my city (even though we have 3,000 people here). Remote works for me, but I go in for events, when people travel in, etc. ever since we were acquired, it is obvious that the people in the HQ office are promoted somewhat quicker, otherwise, remote and non-HQ offices seem to be the same.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I wouldn't call this unpopular. A lot of the people that have/want 100% remote don't care about career growth because they've prioritized something else. It's pretty well known that the in-person interactions at most companies are a vital way to get ahead.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I'm struggling to think of what "career growth" even means in 2025. I've worked 12 jobs over 20 years and never once have I seen an internal promotion. Every manager I've ever known has been an outside hire. Raises essentially don't exist. The standard at every job I've had was a 1% raise per year, while cost of living goes up by 6% yearly. The only growth I've ever felt in my career was gained through switching jobs, which isn't something being in the office helps with. In fact, being in the office makes it harder to switch jobs, because you have to hide the fact that you're going to interviews. Maybe it's different in your career field OP (it must be, because apparently you have sponsors and mentors?), but for me, working from home is infinitely better than slogging into the office every day on the off chance that I might, maybe, have a career changing conversation, instead of the inane, empty small talk and gossip that I normally experienced in hallways and at water coolers.

by Morarbreana 3 days ago

I agree with OP's opinion. I've been fully remote for 3 years, and my company has moved to in person twice a week. Any internal moves require hybrid, and there's only 3-4 opportunities that allow fully remote work. I'm on the promotion ready list, but someone has to die or retire before I can fill a spot. This makes me look for other opportunities, and the job market is so bad right now, too.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

It's definitely company dependent, but I largely agree. The people I've seen get promoted are the people who are known to upper management. If an opportunity is coming up upper management is thinking about the high performers they hear good things about pretty often and not the dozens of people just here for the paycheck. 100% remote can make it more difficult to make sure upper management knows you exist. It's not impossible, but definitely more difficult.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

You'll be productive but you will also be invisible to the very people who could open doors for you. And that's exactly why those people often shouldn't be in the position they're in. If they don't know who is the most productive by looking at the actual output and judge you solely on your appearance or your ability to suck up in person while working a non-customer-facing job, their value system is the problem, and nothing else. Also, the mere fact that those people can open doors that probably shouldn't have been closed off to you to begin with, is bad enough as it is.

by General-Inspection 3 days ago

I commute, but I work with others who are remote/somewhere else. I've still managed to double my salary in a year (now 1 year graduated.) Tons of interaction on slack, and I've been doing a ton of documentation, some of which has gotten integrated into official documentation.

by deonte70 3 days ago

Depends on the job, my department is fully remote. I have a boss in Minnesota, coworkers in FL, TX, NE, OH and a few others idk where they're at and my boss' boss is in who knows where, but is fully remote as well.

by Competitive-Key6523 3 days ago

Unless you are a remote specialist who is really good at their job and your company promotes you just to keep you from going to another company.

by Working_Level_8847 3 days ago

A 100 percent agree. I see some people thinking for IT it may not matter so much, but there is always risk of ageism catching up Fully remote person plus several yrs experience gets easily replaced with a young person who is willing to come to the office I've seen this play out in real life many times

by kamillegreenfel 3 days ago

It depends if you are remote and most people aren't. Most of my team is remote. The ones that aren't only work in the office 2 days a week. My boss doesn't even live in the same state and is on travel half the year anyway.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I good with just being paid.

by Rhianna30 3 days ago

Those people you just "bump" into, aren't in the office either. Or at least not in a meaningful way. You are more likely to be noticed in a work environment if your name is constantly popping up in meetings, or in chat channels, with positive results. Not bumping into someone at a coffee machine just trying to get to their next meeting.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Much of what you mention is not fault of remote work per se, but rather the result of the system not updating/adapting to the rise of remote work. Instead, the system either begrudgingly accepts remote work or doesn't and tries to coerce employees back into the office. The system is set in its ways and as technology evolves around it, it tries to hold on to "the old days" where it had more control and more power. If they were more accepting of remote work and actively moved to making it commonplace, virtually everything you stated would be a non-issue.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I absolutely agree 1000%

by andersonbennett 3 days ago

My leadership are not even in the same city I am and are not even in the same city with each other. If we go in we sit on the same teams calls we do at home. Very few companies have one central office now as workforces are scattered throughout the country.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

This is true. Also if you're remote work, take some time to start your own business, no matter how small. Your employer is not your friend, you are their asset. And assets are becoming increasingly replaceable with technology advances.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I work at the office 2-3 days a week for a company that is hybrid and has no RTO requirements at all. Leadership all stay home every day of the year save 2 or 3 where they have important meetings at the office (with investors or clients). Our interactions with them are minimal. Almost all of my interactions at the office are with us young peons who mainly go in for the social connection. And I don't think that's getting me advanced in my career.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Totally agree. My company is going back to the office 2 days and I'm getting worried as a remote employee. Being the only one on the phone with 8 people in a room is not conducive of equal collaboration. It's all about the state of the company though, I have moved up fully remote while we were all remote.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Looks to me like a pro-RTO executive wrote this.

by Historical-Tap 3 days ago

Meh, depends on your role. My role is inherently remote/hybrid so everyone has the same level of face time.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Jokes on you, my entire company is remote

by destineecartwri 3 days ago

I've been promoted three times in four years while fully remote. If you're good at what you do, working remote is not a hindrance.

by Severe_One3072 3 days ago

Performance is performance but it can be harder if remote for some roles.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

It's true, but I still want to work from home.

by Whitney05 3 days ago

This has been demonstrably untrue for me. In my current career, I climbed from making $47k to six figures in under five years. Most of that time was spent remote working. Since RTO, my career has more or less flatlined. My only hope for a raise at the moment is to apply for another job (which I will do once I finish my graduate degree). I did my best work remotely, free from distractions and petty office drama. I built a good reputation and trust. Now it's just constant noise and distractions and small talk. Ironically there is less communication on work stuff because it's drowned out by people holding casual chat all day. I've become isolated and invisible where once I was respected for my work.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

I have never in my life had any work experience that couldn't have been done remotely . Work in VFX. Literally half my job deals with outsourced studios .

by Interesting-Gold1872 3 days ago

In large companies you don't see high management everyday as well. But team leader you have meetings, projects. So it's still possible, only no lunch or coffee break but I rarely saw VP etc in coffee breaks.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

Honestly it completely depends on the person, and it depends on the company. Plenty of people have moved up career wise within a company working remotely if that's something in which they were seeking. Working remote does not limit anyone from moving up. You only limit yourself. In office or not. This is simply just the OP opinion on it, and it's certainly not correct, as I have seen first hand people who have moved up the corporate ladder several times working remotely, as I have been doing it for 6 years touching 7 shortly and I have been one of those people.

by Anonymous 3 days ago

It's true but also like I'm not leadership material to begin with

by Anonymous 3 days ago

This is unpopular but as someone who loves remote work, it's definitely true. It's really so simple...people form better connections in person. I worked in a 95% remote role where 5% I sleep/eat/live onsite with my team essentially haha. I love it this way and strongly prefer it over the office 4 days a week. That being said I have definitely noticed I can form bonds with people and teams 3x faster and easier when I'm in person. This is just the way people work and unfortunately until promotions are actually fully based off merit, this will continue to be the case

by FrontMushroom6055 3 days ago

I'm OP and I love remote too. I absolutely HATE commuting. But I am not blind to how harmful it can be to career building.

by Alarming-Painter-442 3 days ago

Worse is when work is slow, and you're remote and you have to report to your manager what you did today. (Don't have to report it when in person.)

by Alarming-Painter-442 3 days ago