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Smoking with the boss
This premise on Friends has always stood out to me as hilariously accurate (albeit a little dated). The setup is Rachel’s boss, and a new colleague are smokers. She realizes the decisions are being made without her during smoke breaks outside. So she decides to pretend she smokes to be a part of the conversations; otherwise, her ideas and future promotions may never come to fruition.
You’re forgotten when you’re not present. This is proximity bias.
We are approaching the other end of the pandemic, and many offices have shifted back to in-person or a hybrid model. If you choose a hybrid model, I highly recommend having your entire team work together from the office on the same days each week. Otherwise, they will miss the serendipity and spontaneity that often occurs in the office (or on smoke breaks). It’s these opportunities that can lead to promotions.
Geoff Colvin writes in his Fortune article, Returning to the office: Employees who show up in person often get ahead faster. “Over time, the organization’s employees will sort themselves into two groups: those intent on promotion and those who are content to do their jobs with little advancement in pay or position. That’s nothing new; employees have always sorted themselves that way. What’s new is that the two groups won’t be working together as much as they used to. One group will be in the office as often as possible, the other, at least many of them, as seldom as possible.”
* Establish an in-office ally on your team, someone who will remind the group to dial you in when impromptu decisions start being made.
* Stay in the flow. Catch up with colleagues and keep your boss abreast of your agenda and accomplishments.
* If you’re interviewing for a new job and want to work remotely, ask which senior leaders work from home. That will give you a sense of whether the company really values flexible work and what career paths are possible without coming into the office.
Tips for managers
* Test out hybrid work yourself. You’ll build empathy for remote workers.
* Analyze pay and promotions in your department to ensure you don’t have a gap between remote and in-office workers.
* Let tech help you. Some companies are experimenting with covering meeting room walls with 36-inch screens so everyone dialing in appears life-size.
Research shows that home workers – however productive – suffer from a lack of facetime with colleagues and managers, negatively impacting promotions and ultimately may stall careers.
“It was striking that promotion rates plummeted,” says Nicholas A Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford, and the study’s lead author. “It was roughly half the promotion rate, compared to those in the office.”
From Communication Skills to Comradery…
“It’s difficult to master communication skills and build the relationships with co-workers that help you feel connected to your organization and better understand your job in a remote environment, Bryan Hancock, the global head of talent work at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., told CNBC Make It.
“Having lunch with co-workers or dropping into your boss’s office are valuable interactions that help you have more fun and make a bigger impact because you’re more connected to all the folks that are there,” he says.
A different poll of more than 500 college students and recent graduates in July from Generation Lab, a research firm that tracks youth trends found that 40% of college students and recent graduates prefer completely in-person work.
In the same poll, 74% of respondents said they miss having an office community while working remotely, while others listed mentoring and in-person manager feedback as unique benefits of going into the office.
The verdict is still out on the ultimate outcome of hybrid working models. Using Nice Method workshops to bring your teams together is a great way to build these relationships.
We advise hybrid companies to try to bring their staff in-house on the same days each week to get everyone recognized and collaborating in person. This will help to ensure everyone is seen and may even lead to promotions… and they won’t even have to take up smoking.
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