#YourCareer : They’re Talking Behind My Back- Remote Workers Feel Unsupported. Thoughts/Comments??
Working from home may not be the Shangri-La it’s cracked up to be. In fact, remote workers are more likely than on-site workers to believe their associates don’t treat them equally, a new study shows.
Employees who work from home or another remote location struggle harder than on-site workers to handle issues such as getting co-workers to fight for their priorities, according to a survey of 1,153 workers by VitalSmarts, a corporate-training firm. Roughly half of those who responded primarily worked remotely.
The findings of the survey, conducted in September and October, highlight “the importance of organizations figuring out how to manage remote employees,’’ said David Maxfield, vice president of research at VitalSmarts and the study’s co-author.
Most U.S. employers let staffers telecommute sometimes, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. Companies say remote work improves employee satisfaction and retention while helping recruitment.
But the practice also creates challenges. According to the VitalSmarts survey, remote workers are significantly more likely than their on-site colleagues to report seeing colleagues change projects without warning and to believe co-workers say bad things behind their backs and lobby against them with others.
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Article continued …
Remote employees perceive greater workplace harm from these problems than on-site employees,including wasted time, more stress, lower productivity and lower morale, the survey found.
Mr. Maxfield believes individuals working remotely have trouble solving work difficulties because they rarely meet face-to-face with their supervisors. “Out of sight, out of mind,’’ he said.
Nearly half of everyone canvassed by VitalSmarts said the most successful managers check in frequently and regularly with remote staffers.
Companies use different approaches to help remote workers. Belay Inc., a startup with an all-remote workforce, takes a strict stance on the gossip issue cited in the VitalSmarts study. The firm’s 71 corporate employees and 540 contract workers provide such services as virtual assistants.
Belay has fired two permanent staffers for violating its ban on workplace gossip. Chief Executive Bryan Miles said he wants staffers to air their gripes with management because gossip “is incredibly toxic in a virtual company.’’
At Dell Technologies Inc., about 15% of employees have formally signed up to work wherever they prefer, but 58% work remotely at least one day a week.
The tech giant says it encourages leaders to check in regularly with subordinates regardless of whether their staffers work in the same building, from home or a distant office. Feeling isolated “is not something unique to remote work,’’ noted Mohammed Chahdi, Dell’s director of global human resources services.
Many employers, however, “have let remote work happen rather than make it happen. They haven’t done the (management) training,’’ said Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics, a consultancy.
That is why National Equity Fund Inc. trained managers before the nonprofit real-estate syndicator and builder of low-income homes offered remote work in 2013 throughout the company.
During the training, bosses learned to trust employees working from home, said Gaylene Domer, vice president of facilities management. “A lot of our managers who were so dead set against it are now working from home’’ she said.
More than half of National Equity’s 176 employees now primarily work from home, though they still must come to the office at least two days a week.
WSJ.com | November 1, 2017 | Joann S. Lublin
