It doesn’t pay to be passive

You stayed up till midnight working on a report for a client. You spent half your weekend preparing a spreadsheet for the financial year-end. That should look good at your next review with your manager; but only if they know about it. Recent research by London Business School’s Professor Daniel Cable and Professor Kimberly Elsbach from the University of California indicates that flexible and remote workers are not as well rewarded as people whose faces are seen around the office.

They conclude that Passive Face-time can influence managers’ perception of employees, both in terms of value, and potential for promotion. Their report gives guidance for both managers and employees in how to overcome this subconscious bias, and enable people to be evaluated on their output rather than just on their presence at a desk.

When it comes to rewards, work, like justice, not only has to be done, it has to be seen to be done.