Remote-still considered career limiting

Question

There are posts on here from a couple years ago to the affect of "being remote will always be career limiting"-for someone newer, anyway.  Do people still feel that is the case, or has that sentiment changed, since it seems like most jobs include at least a hybrid portion these days?

Answer 1

COVID shook things up a ton, there are a lot of directors/AVP level in my company who are remote and don't intend to go back into office.

Answer 2

Where I work there are tons of people ranging from EL to VP who are full time WFH. It is definitely not limiting in any way. Even those who go into an office may work on a team who's employees are scattered throughout the country effectively making the interactions the same.

Answer 3

Maybe the norm has flipped enough that going into the office regularly is career-accelerating rather than remote being career-limiting, but I think there's a pretty undeniable benefit to coming into the office 2-3 days per week where I am.

Coming in 5 days is definitely unnecessary, but building relationships with your coworkers helps in a ton of different ways, and water-cooler shop-talk/listening to people vent about their work and sharing ideas is an underrated way of passive learning, sharing resources, and problem-solving.

Answer 4

I think it may be limiting in moving up the management chain. I don’t think it limits individual contributors.

Answer 5

Being remote will remain career limiting. At the end of the day, being in office allows you to make connections/ get FaceTime with your boss and your boss's boss. Especially for meetings, I tend to go in to get FaceTime with management / people higher up the chain

It especially helps in performance reviews when the managers have to evaluate your performance and they can put a face to the name. I've seen people that are remote / hybrid not even turn on their cameras and I've literally forgotten what they look like

Answer 6

I feel like if there are managers who do not want to go back to the office, there isn't much point in having their reports come in.

Answer 7

I think it's too early to really tell. All the ELs who started joining companies fully remote about 2-2.5 years ago are just starting to look for their first career moves over the next year or so. I think that will be a big indicator as to how it will go.

In general though, I think that in person 2-3 days a week is ideal. It allows you to build relationship with your teammates and others in the office as well grow through osmosis and just hearing what's going on in the office.

Answer 8

It highly depends on the firm. 90-95% of employees at my company (it’s small) are at least half-remote and all of my team has been promoted while fully remote. If this wasn’t the case I’d make the effort to go in every day.

There are companies that are taking a much more aggressive stance towards people coming back in full-time and as far as I know they’ve been getting slaughtered with how the market is right now.

Answer 9

EL here of \~2yrs. From my perspective, the benefits of working in office are probably more important the younger you are in your career. I work 100% remote though. I think there's one thing a lot of people don't realize. For some people, even if they wanted to go in the office, they don't get any benefit from it. Me for example, I would go in if a lot of other people did or if my teammates did, but they don't. Essentially if I go into the office it's the same as being remote.

To answer your question directly though, I don't really think it's limiting, but it depends a lot on what specific company you work for. I started 100% remote, get great reviews, and have networked effectively.

Answer 10

I’ve been fully remote since Covid in an EL role, and I worry that expectations are so much lower for the quantity and quality of work I do than if I were in an office. Yeah it’s nice for the time being, but when the time comes to switch companies I feel I will be way behind compared to my peers and might even struggle landing another job.