Is My Career Progression Limited by Working at Home?

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Recent figures by the ONS show that 44% of Britons are now working from home at some point during the week, a stark increase of more than 30% when compared to 5 years ago.

In the professional world, the idea of working remotely was often seen as foreign and unique, with many preferring the legitimacy of working in an office and more career progression when in a more structured environment. The idea is simple, you go work in the city, you work and you slowly progress.

But as I discuss in this article, the option of working from home is now extremely common and more and more graduates are choosing a stay-at-home job as their first choice. But the question begs, is career progression being limited by working from home? And are people giving in to a cushier way of life instead of pursuing more ambitious careers?

The Pros of Working from Home

I have been running an online finance company called Pheabs from home for more than 10 years and the biggest advantage is the time and cost saving.

Working in a technical job, my entire business requires me to be on my screen, writing proposals, writing content and doing coding, and the ability to get up and start work is a big time saver for me, rather than having to sit on a train for an hour plus every morning and afternoon, making me exhausted in the process. I can therefore do around an extra 2 hours a day, equal to 10 hours per week, on the same time schedule.

The financial savings are huge. To catch a train to town and to pay for parking each day at around £6 really adds up. Not to mention the extra clothes you buy to look professional around the office and for meetings and the extra lunches and coffees that you find yourself buying. I worked out that I can save around £4,000 per year by not commuting every day into town and this is before tax, so I would have to earn around £6,000 to cover that.

Now that I have two small kids, the ability to be at home more is hugely valuable and if you want to be all green about it, there is something satisfying about contributing to less traffic and carbon emissions on the street for little old me.

The Cons of Working from Home and Limited Progression

When I spoke to a colleague Simon Rinder, who runs an office agency Pilcher London, he explained that the main issue I find with working from home is the lack of exercise and social isolation. When commuting to a job you are actually walking thousands of steps, making friends and engaging with people daily, but working on your own can be very solitary.

In terms of career progression, this can be hugely compromised. For starters, you are not seeing what is out there in terms of jobs, opportunities and promotions when you are confined to your home. You can easily get sucked into living a very quiet and sedentary life, whilst the whole world around you is still moving. The biggest opportunities come from working with other people and internationally, and this can be limited if working from home.

In addition, he explained to me, there is no question that a lot of the biggest roles out there for managers and CEOs involve managing teams that are in front of you and not remotely - so your career could be limited to certain roles and salaries if you only work from home. There are organisations that run remotely, especially in tech, with developers all over the world, but they are not abundant.

If you are ever looking for financial investment, certainly VCs and backers have more respect for the businesses that have clear offices and can manage their teams in person, rather than remotely.

Do You Have Any Tips for Progression Whilst Working from Home?

Whilst career progression from home can be limited, there are some things you can do.

Certainly explaining your worth to your employer can be useful, especially given the cost savings that you make to the company. Making sure that you are not being pigeon-holed in certain roles is important, so making regular trips to the office and meeting other stakeholders is recommended so that you are still firmly in the mix for promotions and more responsibilities and not just the guy ‘who works from home.’

Beyond your own job, I often say that you often only know what is in between your 4 walls. Make sure that you scan Linkedin to always see what other jobs are out there for people working remotely and that could be in the UK, the US or anywhere in the world. Set up job alerts on Linkedin and scan through these every once in a while.

Also make time to go to conferences in your industry. Go meet people, see what technology and opportunities are out there. Your work is from home, but you don’t have to be.

What about a Side Hustle?

More than 50% of Brits aged 18 to 44 have some kind of side hustle where they are running a small side business in their free time, often with the use of social media and online selling.

Working from home can give you a lot more opportunities to pursue a fun side project. If you are not commuting and have more energy, you can easily put a few hours into your side project whether it is selling things on ebay, facebook marketplace or coffee alternatives through Shopify.

In addition, by working from home, you don’t have to be afraid about your manager or boss listening in on a call or taking 5 minutes to package something up and sell it. You could find yourself making some nice extra change through your side hustle and who knows, it could end up becoming your full time business!

Author Bio

Daniel Tannenbaum is a digital marketing consultant and co-founder of Pheabs, based in London, England. He is a strong advocate of remote working and has built numerous online businesses in the last 10 years. You can follow him on Linkedin here.