Charles Krupa/Associated Press
- For young workers, not being in an office can mean they don't get as much feedback from colleagues.
- A working paper called "The Power of Proximity" says it's hard to replicate feedback from afar.
- The report comes as more companies are calling workers back to the office.
Of all the things remote workers miss out on — punishing commutes, office coffee, and even fancy catering — one of the things that's not as visible might be the most important: feedback.
Getting assessments and advice from bosses and colleagues happens more often in the office than for remote workers, according to a New York Times report highlighting a working paper from economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the University of Iowa, and Harvard University.
This gap between how often at-home workers get feedback versus those who are only a few cubicles apart from each other could matter most to workers earlier in their careers and to women and people of color, the Times noted. This is in part because those groups often don't have the professional networks that offices can support.
"It's what grandparents have been saying for a long time," Natalia Emanuel, a New York Fed economist, told the Times. "Face-to-face meetings are very different from FaceTime."
The pushback against remote work comes as more CEOs have been calling workers back to the office. Much of the reasoning has been that teams work better together IRL. But workers — especially those taking care of kids or others — grew accustomed to the flexibility that remote work can afford.
Work-from-home proponents also pointed to the increase in productivity that many employers saw when huge portions of the labor force got through their days with Zooms and Slacks during the depths of the pandemic.
The economists' paper, called "The Power of Proximity," did show a boost in productivity for remote workers, though it also found that junior engineers at an undisclosed tech firm where the study took place had fewer colleagues commenting on the code they were generating. The drop-off in feedback was especially pronounced for female engineers. The researchers also found that some of the younger engineers who saw a decrease in feedback were more apt to quit the company.
The economists' findings, the Times noted, represent some of the first significant research on the potential professional pitfalls of working remotely.
"When you're remote, you're out of sight, out of mind," Jackiez Gonzalez, 36, who works remotely for Best Buy, told the Times. She said that while she had mostly been happy with her flexible work, "there are growing pains."
Despite the risks, many of those potentially in danger of missing out on professional growth are most in favor of remote work, according to surveys, the Times noted. This includes women, people new in their careers, and people of color.
Many workers still want remote jobs even though job listings for such roles have become more scarce.
And some companies that have embraced remote work report success. TaskRabbit, the gig-work company, made the decision in April last year to close its offices. A spokesperson said in email to Insider on Monday that turnover dropped 10% year-over-year and that employees have reported a 7% increase in work-life balance.
The company offers a travel budget for teams that want to get together in the US or abroad and TaskRabbit also gives a productivity stipend to cover things like the cost of a day pass to a coworking space.
For many workers, it's not just about the perks of having more flexibility. Women and people of color have reported that they're subject to fewer hurdles like sexism and less of what they see as discriminatory behavior when they're not in an office.
Yet for all the potential perils of the office, there are things to gain, the economists found. The Times noted that engineers under 30 generally received more feedback from more experienced coworkers if they were all in the same building. That can help younger workers develop quicker.
And even something like hybrid work, which would seem to be an obvious compromise between the RTO crowd and those wanting to never see an office again, isn't necessarily an easy fix. The economists report that even if one person on a team is remote while the rest of the team is together, overall collaboration can still decrease.