Working from Home and the Consequences for Labour Turnover and Career Progression

Irma Mooi-Reci () and Mark Wooden
Additional contact information
Irma Mooi-Reci: School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne, https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/609225-irma-reci

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: In the wake of the rapid growth in working from home (WFH) there has been renewed interest in the impacts of this form of employment. One area of contention is job mobility and career progression. WFH is often argued to improve job satisfaction and thus enhance employee retention. In contrast, the lesser visibility of remote workers and the possible stigma associated with WFH might make them less likely to be promoted and more likely to be dismissed. This study tests these conflicting hypotheses using longitudinal data involving up to almost 150,000 observations on employees collected over a 21-year period from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. Fixed-effects regression models of five different outcomes are estimated. Strong results are mostly confined to those that work exclusively from home, more marked for subjective outcomes than objective outcomes and, in the case of objective outcomes, restricted to men. Among male employees, WFH all the time is associated with fewer quits but more dismissals. No such associations are found for females. Hybrid arrangements are also associated with a lower likelihood of promotion for men. These findings suggest that WFH may come at a career price, but only for men.

Keywords: emotions; working from home; telecommuting; labour turnover; job quits; promotions; dismissals; Australia; HILDA Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 63pp
Date: 2025-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-lma
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/a ... 258072/wp2025n01.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2025n01

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sheri Carnegie ().