Work from home and stay in the running for promotions!

There are many reasons that employee's hesitate to work from home. This is often a surprise to companies that initiate a remote workforce project and realize they don't have people lining up down the street to join it.

Now, some of these reasons are completely unfounded, some can be resolved and some can not. Working from home isn't for everyone. I want to concetrate on one perception in particular;

"I won't get promoted if I work from home"

This is a very real concern for many people who are looking at making the jump to working from home in any capacity...even a person who works from home once or twice a week has to consider this.

Now...I don't think there is any reason that anyone should be hindered as far as promotions go just because they work remotely. However...more often than not this can be a legitimate concern.


I've never been a smoker but I vividly recall a situation when I was working a large Call Centre and a decision was made out in the smokers court to send my counterpart to the Philipines for two months rather than myself.

When I saw my boss and my co-worker come back into the office and make the announcement I felt that I had been slighted. I felt that this additional contact between them due to "smoking" enabled him to get this benefit. For a very brief moment I considered starting smoking to help with my career.


I understand that there could have been a variety of reasons to select my co-worker over myself for this but there was a perception, either

warranted or not, that my not being a smoker put me at a disadvantage.

Working from home puts people into a similar mindset and management has to understand this.

Managers need to:

Not take it personally

I've had managers confide in me that they were shocked when a subordinate wanted to work from home. Their first reaction was "what did I do wrong?" or "why

don't they want to be a member of my team?"

People want to work from home for a variety of reasons, very few (none that I am aware of) have cited conflict with management/peer's as one of the reasons.

Not exclude their remote workers

If anything you need to include your remote workers in everyday activities more than your other one's. Especially in the first few months of working from

home people tend to feel really isolated. Make sure your workers know that you are still there for them and they are still part of the office!

Much like how you may stop by the watercooler and chat about someone's weekend make an effort to call them when there isn't an issue and say hello. If you

can't call send e-mails or use instant chat programs.

Discuss career pathing with them often

Make sure they know you are aware of their goals and that you are working together to achieve those goals. Show that other are being promoted. Don't

automatically assume a person wouldn't be willing to come back into the office if it was required for the position.

There is no reason that working from home should hinder someone's change for advancement but there needs to be effort put in by both parties to ensure it!