Managers are reluctant to promote or give pay rises to staff who work from home part or all of the time, new research shows.
They believe that staff who work entirely from home are under-performing or lacking commitment, even when their work is as good as others, the study showed.
Almost 1,000 UK managers were shown invented profiles of full-time workers, some working from home part or all of the time.
The research, by three academics from the University of Warsaw, found that when given no information about the staff’s performance, managers were:
- 11% less likely to say they would promote staff who worked full-time from home (teleworkers).
- 9% less likely to say they would give a pay rise to teleworkers.
- 8% less likely to say they would promote staff who worked for part of the time from home and part in the office or factory (hybrid work – two days at home, three in the office).
- 7% less likely to say they would give a pay rise to hybrid working staff.
When managers were told that hybrid staff’s performance was as good as others, they were just as likely to give them pay rises and promotions as those working in the office full-time.
However they were still 6.5% less likely to give a pay rise and 10% less likely to give a promotion to staff who worked full time at home even when they knew their performance was as good as others.
The researchers, Professor Anna Matysiak, Dr Agnieszka Kasperska and Dr Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska, analysed the data to see the reason for the prejudice against teleworkers even when their performance was said to be the same as office-based staff, and found that managers thought teleworkers lacked commitment.
In an article in Work, Employment and Society journal, published by the British Sociological today [Wednesday 4 June], they write: “Our findings reveal that hybrid workers face poorer career prospects than office-based workers, because managers perceive them as under-performing.
“Such practices may be driven by managers’ belief that employees should demonstrate high commitment to work by being present at the workplace and continuously available to employers’ needs.
“They are supposed to provide long working hours and face-time, and be always available on employers’ requests. Workers who seek flexible work arrangements, including working from home, deviate from these expectations and thus are perceived as not committed to work.
“As a result workers might be denied promotions, salary raises or training opportunities, regardless of their actual performance at work.
“When managers are aware of workers’ performance, the negative impact of hybrid work on promotions and salary increases disappears.
“However, full-time teleworkers are still less likely to receive promotions and salary increases, even when they perform as well as office-based workers, likely reflecting discriminatory practices based on perceived lower commitment.”
The researchers found that mothers who were hybrid working were an exception to her findings, as they did not face lower promotion and salary prospects when their standard of work was unknown to managers.
The survey was conducted online in the UK by YouGov between July and December 2022. By this time, lockdowns had been lifted, but working from home remained common, with around 40% of employees doing so for at least part of the week.
- The sample was 937 managers who work in the UK, supervising at least five employees. The size of the company was set at 10 or more workers. Quota sampling was employed in order to achieve a sample that was representative in terms of the size and geographical location of the company, as well as the managers’ gender. The researchers compared managers’ attitudes to hybrid and teleworking staff before they were informed of their performance and after being informed of the performance of both at the same time.
Notes:
- The article is entitled ‘Mechanisms underlying the effects of work from home on careers in the post-Covid context’, and appears in Work, Employment and Society journal, published by the British Sociological Association and Sage.
- The British Sociological Association’s charitable aim is to promote sociology. The BSA is a Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 3890729. Registered Charity Number 1080235 britsoc.co.uk
For more information, please contact:
Tony Trueman
British Sociological Association
Tel: 0044 (0)7964 023392
tony.trueman@britsoc.org.uk