Let's face it. Working from home is a pretty new
field with most gainfully employed individuals spending the vast majority of
their jobs/careers commuting to a work place outside the home. As with anything
that is fairly new, challenges to custom and convention are being presented and
the traditional workforce is no different.
According to this
article, the mere perception of telecommuting shows home-based
employees tend to get smaller raises, fewer promotions and lower performance
reviews. (That doesn't seem right, does it?) The argument is that office
workers and bosses are heavily influenced by what is called "passive face
time", a phrase that denotes how the consistent presence of an employee's
face in the office lends credit to his or her "reliability". No
evidence of what you are doing or how well it is being done is required.
When asked about an employee's
reliability, supervisors often gravitated (unconsciously) to two categories: expected face time, wherein employees
are seen during normal operating hours and extracurricular
face time, where an employee is present after hours, early in the a.m. or during
lunch. When recalling favorable qualities of employees, supervisors labeled
workers who put in expected face time as "loyal" or "trustworthy"
9% more time than their home-based employees. Extracurricular face time had bosses
25% more likely to call employees "devoted" and "faithful".
So what is the best way for work
from home employees to close the gap?
First, experts recommend that
employers that use work from home employees base performance reviews on objective
results. For home-based employees, it is important to demonstrate that you're just as accessible from home as you
would be if you were right there in the office.
Therefore:
·
Create virtual face time.
Update your employer on your progress by instant message, email, Skype, phone or
any combination thereof on a regular basis.
·
Respond to all inquiries immediately-- or as close to immediately as you can!
·
Update phone and email messages after hours at least 2-3
times per week. Help your boss understand that extracurricular
face time doesn't necessarily require a face.
·
Be extra visible on the days you do come into the office. Make sure you know your coworkers and they know you!
Working from home has been shown to have many benefits for both employees and their employer but it is still a new frontier. Even if you no longer have long commutes and get to work in less-than-casual office attire, home-based employees will still find themselves playing catch-up with their onsite coworker in at least a few places.It's just a matter of breaking down the barriers and luckily, that's easy to do-- and, as many telecommuters will tell you, much less painful than being stuck working in a cubicle!
