Remote Work Has Its Perks, Until You Want a Promotion
In tech industry mythology, the San Francisco Bay Area is the unmatched crucible of ideas and execution. Companies like Facebook offer generous salaries and stock awards to lure staff in Silicon Valley’s overheated job market. They pay for some of the nation’s most expensive office space and perks that ensure workers spend a lot of time inside it, such as free commuter shuttles, food, haircuts, and laundry.
Two months of pandemic-mandated working from home now has some tech titans questioning that orthodoxy. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a company videostream last week that remote work will be an option for most new and existing positions; he told the Verge he expects half the company to toil outside a company office in as soon as five years. His announcement came after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that company’s workers don’t have to ever return to the office if they prefer to work elsewhere.
Switching from bums-on-seats to work-from-where-you-like is a challenge for any organization but may be extra tricky for companies incubated in Silicon Valley culture. People who have studied or practiced remote work say leaders like Zuckerberg and their executives will have to tear themselves from their Bay Area roots—in some cases physically—if they are to avoid making their new legions of remote workers second-class employees.
