Is Telecommuting Bad For Your Career?

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Actually going to the office is so 20th century. Telecommute instead and you save money on gas or train fare, save the environment through lower emissions and win the approval of forward-thinking bloggers. For example, today marketing guru Seth Godin concludes on his blog that,

If we were starting this whole office thing today, it’s inconceivable we’d pay the rent/time/commuting cost to get what we get… When you need to have a meeting, have a meeting. When you need to collaborate, collaborate. The rest of the time, do the work, wherever you like.

But just because something is popular in the blogosphere, doesn’t mean it’s filtered down to bosses on the ground quite yet. So before you jump on the remote working bandwagon and ask your boss for the flexibility to work away from the office, be warned that telecommuting may actually put the brakes on your career, according to recent research out of UC Davis. A professor in the Graduate School of Management, Kimberly Elsbach,

Found that being present at the workplace gives an employee an important edge. When bosses and co-workers see an employee at work, they tend to think more highly of that person. And their evaluation is even more favorable if the sighting is after normal business hours.

You may have hoped that managers had evolved and no longer equated face time with productivity, but the research reveals old habits die hard and for many bosses old-fashioned biases can creep in unnoticed. ��Our study showed that inferences are likely to be made spontaneously, without deliberate thinking or awareness,�� Elsbach says.

What does Elsbach recommend if you are working away from the office and want to minimize the negative impact? Telecomuters should document their tangible accomplishments and capitalize on days when they come to the office by interacting with the maximum number of people possible.