Their bosses promote people they see

He debate about whether a person is more productive at home or in the office has been a constant since companies insisted on putting people in the offices after years of teleworking. Even there are experts who say see the debate more polarized than ever before.

A new study suggests that work remote harms workers, compared to going to the offices. And the reason is simple and has been defended by many, both bosses and workers: “employees who are not physically close to their bosses (or who don’t live in the same city as the headquarters) are seeing fewer opportunities. “Not because they have underperformed, but because they have become less visible.”

Regarding this, the magazine Work, Employment and Society, experimentally demonstrated With data from 1,000 UK managers, when managers do not have performance data on a remote worker, they are significantly less likely to be promoted or receive pay increases. Of course, according to the study, when they are provided with objective performance data identical to that of in-person workers, the penalty disappears.

A study by the Deel companya global HR platform. HH. concluded a few weeks ago that a third (36%) of Workers in Europe say they are worried that physical distancing is harming their careers professional. It also says that more than half, 52%, would feel anxiety if they lived more than an hour from work. We have already seen various surveys of young professionals and many They bet on going to the offices for this same matter.

Workers want to live far away, but they see harm

According to this study, many workers have responded that they would be willing to move further from city centers, or even to another country, if that meant more affordable housing or being able to be closer to family (and they say that they would not even mind working outside of conventional hours to be able to be in another country if there is a time difference).

But, at the same time, various professionals affirm that They are seeing that performance alone does not help them grow professionally. and who have witnessed that their managers, consciously or not, tend to reward the people they see most frequently and that “office conversations become opportunities.”

Even as a clear example, we have the case of Dell, a company that openly warned employees that those who did not want to return to the office would resign. also to promotion possibilities within the company. Even too imposed obligations such as going in person yes or yes for all those who live less than an hour from the office.

According to Forbesall this has been creating two types of employees: those who are considered eligible for promotion due to their proximity and those who are excluded of key decisions simply because they decided to live somewhere else.

The experts: we must rethink this traditional model

To all this, the warning given by the experts who produced this report is that “companies that assume that everyone can be present at all times are not only misinterpreting their workforce, but also limiting their reach.”

From Deel they believe that, with remote and hybrid work becoming the norm, “traditional ideas about proximity to the office need a profound revision. Expanding the hiring approach and work culture is a necessary measure has been around for some time and can open new avenues of talent for organizations facing skills shortages.

And this new Deel survey reveals that employees across Europe they increasingly want to move further away from their workplaces to live closer to nature (31%), reduce their living expenses (28%) and spend more time with family (26%).

However, “that desire clashes with what many bosses want (but in many cases do not need): control“, as these human resources experts explain.

Almost two thirds (60%) of bosses They said they would prioritize hiring in their own time zone or from those who lived within a reasonable distance. from work (58%), although almost as many (51%) also admitted that this mentality made it difficult to find the skills they needed.

Image | Photo of LinkedIn Sales Solutions in Unsplash

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This topic was originally published on Genbeta in September 2025