This Surprising Work Style is 40% More Likely to Result in Promotions

Half of all remote workers say one advantage of working out-of-office is feeling less tension, according to new data in a survey of 1,000 adults on the state of remote work from Ultimate Software. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that 23% of the U.S. workforce works remotely at least part of the time. It’s a good time to be a remote worker.

Far from being ignored by the home office, going remote has the same – if not more – opportunity than staying in the office. In fact, remote workers are 40% more likely to have been promoted in the last year than their in-office peers.

Happy to be there

Remote workers report higher overall job satisfaction than in-office workers – 88% of remote workers agree or strongly agree that they are satisfied with their jobs, compared to 78% of in-office employees.

If I had a choice: Out of the workers who have worked both remotely and in-office over the course of their careers, 54% prefer working remotely, vs. 32% who prefer working in-office.

Dressed for success? Remote women are most likely to dress down (37% say they dress casually of the time) while in-office women are least likely to dress down (with only 24% saying they will dress casually most or all of the time, and 35% reporting they never do.)

Moving on up

Remotes get promoted:  In comparison to both male and female in-office counterparts, remote women are the most likely to report having received a raise in the last year.

Women working in office environments are the least likely to report promotion in the last year (35%.) Male in-office employees were the second-lowest in terms of moving up (43%.) Meanwhile, remote workers ranked the highest when it came to getting promoted, with females at the top (57%), followed by male remote workers (51%.)

In-office, stuck in neutral: Across all respondents, in-office women are the most likely to feel there is no room for growth in their current roles and to report promotion in the last year.

Hope for the future

Room to grow: They are 27% more likely to feel there is an opportunity for growth in their current job.

Invested in my future: Remote workers are 74% more likely to feel that their companies are committed to their career growth, as opposed to 65% of in-office workers.

Managing up

Equal amounts of feedback: Remote workers no longer have to worry about being left behind just because they’re out of the office: 75% of managers offer feedback at least once a week to in-office employees and 73% of managers offer feedback at least once per week to remote employees.

Productivity. While 42% of managers say their biggest challenge is monitoring remote workers’ productivity, 90% of remote workers say they feel very productive.

Communication problems

Still some glitches: While it’s easier to be a remote worker – especially with the advent of new technology and tools – remote workers are nearly twice as likely as in-office employees to feel “frequently” misunderstood or misinterpreted by their colleagues, and one-third (33%) of remote workers says this happens often.

Also, 40% of remote workers say they never or almost never go to HR for help when they need something or run into problems.

— Sheila McClear

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This story originally appeared on Ladders.