Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Work From Home on Careers in the Post-Covid Context

Anna Matysiak, Agnieszka Kasperska and Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska

No 2023-28, Working Papers from Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw

Abstract: This article explores how Work From Home (WFH) affects workers’ career progression in the post-pandemic context of the United Kingdom, elucidating the mechanisms that drive these outcomes. Using data from the discrete choice experiment fielded between July and December 2022 among 1,000 managers, we show that teleworkers, whether in hybrid or full-time WFH arrangements, face a disadvantageous evaluation by managers compared to their office-based counterparts. The adverse effect of hybrid teleworking is due to the fact that employers consider hybrid workers are less productive than onsite workers. Full-time teleworkers are penalized even if they display the same performance at work as onsite workers. We demonstrate this penalty to be driven by the fact that managers consider full-time teleworkers to be less committed to work than onsite workers. Consistently with past research, we also find that WFH affects workers’ careers differently depending on their gender and parental obligations and that managers’ assumptions about workers’ performance and commitment allow to explain at least some of these differences.

Keywords: career; experiment; family; gender; promotion; work from home (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J13 J16 J21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-lab
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https://www.wne.uw.edu.pl/download_file/3530/0 First version, 2023 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:war:wpaper:2023-28

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