Telecommuting is seriously harming the jobs of young workers

The “power of proximity” at work was highlighted by a large recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Universities of Iowa and Harvard. Photo by Aaron and Jack / The New York Times

the Work electronically It suddenly entered our lives, when with the outbreak of the Corona virus pandemic, an immediate solution had to be found to alleviate the crowded spaces a job. At least 50 million Americans, who work in office jobs, entered work-from-home mode during those months.

In the years that followed, the model was sometimes maintained and sometimes abandoned, but its short lifespan did not allow research to draw important conclusions about its impact on working life and Professional life to employees.

Working from home greatly reduces constructive criticism from older, more experienced bosses and colleagues.

According to a recent major study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the University of Iowa, and Harvard University, remote work appears to have a serious drawback: the absence of oversight and face-to-face communication. Erica Baker, who works for a large technology company as a sales manager, says the following: “At least ten times a day I would go to my boss and ask ‘Did I do this right, what could I have done better?’” “If there’s something I can make right, I always want to be told, ‘I want to advance in my career.'”

the communication In the workplace, it is easier to achieve, while in the case of remote work, the frequency drops to a third, according to the survey.

For young men and women working from home, this translates to an absence of constructive criticism from older, more experienced bosses and colleagues. The study focused on engineers working for a large technology company. The results showed that, on the one hand, remote work increased the productivity of older employees, but on the other hand, it reduced the feedback younger employees received about their work to such an extent that it made even those employees more likely to leave the company. This was even more true for women.

conclusions

Although the research results cannot provide the complete picture, since the space of a large tech firm is only one of many different work environments, the authors make a more general comment: the office, at least for a wide range of professionals, plays a major role in promoting youth jobs. They also add that the oversight that young people can have in their workplace is impossible to achieve with software like Zoom.

Many companies today are trying to implement a hybrid model, allowing some to work from home and requiring others to come to the office. But the “power of proximity,” as the study calls it, calls even this approach into question.

Researchers argue that the benefits of communication are only achieved when the entire team is present. “Even when one team member is working from home, it can disrupt the collaboration of the entire team,” comments Natalia Emmanuel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.