Due to the COVID-19 pandemic many companies, including mine, have gone completely remote. This transition has prompted some people to wonder if they should look into working from home; permanently.
While this type of work can certainly seem appealing; no traffic, unlimited puppy kisses, and more flexibility; there is one huge downside to this type of work.
The Salary Probably Won’t Be What You Were Hoping For
Flex Jobs, a popular remote-work website released a study showing the most popular work-from-home jobs.
Do you know what I noticed right away?
None of the jobs listed had the potential to earn $100,000+/year.
In fact, most of them pay $50,000 or less.
While this might sound appealing to a young professional, I urge you to think long-term and how this might affect your career growth.
What do I mean by this?
It can be far more challenging to grow your career or salary in a work-from-home position.
Why Work-From-Home Jobs Can Stunt Your Career Growth
If you’re working from home right now, you already know the positives that come from remote work, and I agree there are some great benefits to it!
However, there is always a negative to balance out the good, and it’s important to be aware of the disadvantages of working from home.
Today, I want to highlight the 3 ways this type of work can actually slow down your career potential.
1. A Lack Of Face-Face Interaction With Your Employer
The only way for you to get a raise or promotion is by having your manager validate your worth as an employee. This sounds harsh but as the saying goes; ‘Out of sight, out of mind’.
If you’re not in the office it’s hard for management to see and appreciate the work you’re putting in every day.
The opportunity to have face-time with your boss is an amazing chance to share ideas or discuss accomplishments with them.
If you’ve been a follower of mine for a while, you know my #1 saying is that every professional is a business-of-one. This means we all need to sell our skills and knowledge to employers to prove our value as employees. If you’re working from home, it’s going to be a lot harder to prove your worth.
2. Your Skill-Sets Can Become Outdated
The world of business is constantly changing which means that the skills needed today will be completely different than the ones needed in a year. When you’re in-house you can see for yourself what changes might be occurring within your organization and how they might affect your position.
When you work from home you don’t get to see all of this, which means you can start to lag in terms of your value to the organization.
Consider this: If your employer ever decides they don’t need your skill-sets anymore, how will you ask to be redeployed in the organization when you don’t even know what other options you could market yourself for?
3. Your Network Doesn’t Grow As Quickly
When you work from home, your opportunities to network and connect with people who can vouch for your expertise becomes more limited. This can become a challenge when it comes time for you to ask your employer for a raise.
This can also prove to be a roadblock when you want to change careers. Nowadays, no job is permanent which means it’s very likely at some point you’ll want to find a new job. If you’re serious about changing careers, don’t go through it alone. Check out my team’s FREE Career Change Guide.
The problem you’ll face as a remote worker is that 80% of all jobs are gotten via referral. Working from home reduces your ability to create and grow strong bonds with other professionals who could otherwise help your career grow.
If you lose your job due to layoffs or some other reason, you might not have a large enough network to support you in finding a new job.
I’m not telling you this to scare you, but make you prepared. Being prepared can mean all the difference in if you keep your job or you’re let-go when a recession hits. One way you can prepare your career is to learn the signs your career ISN’T recession-proof!
Working From Home Still Might Be The Right Option For You!
I want to stress the point that if you have a remote job that you love, there is nothing wrong with that!
It’s important to make sure that everyone (especially, those of us suddenly working from home for the first time ever) knows both the positive and negative aspects of this type of work.
P.S. – Be sure to use the hashtags #JTTalkJobs & #WorkFromHome so we can all join in the conversation.
P.S.S. If you don’t think a membership to my company’s career coaching service is for you (yet).
At Work It Daily, we put together the following free career growth tools for you:
- A complete job search checklist.
CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD the pdf file.
- A list of the 18 most common interview questions.
CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD the pdf file.
- Free cover letter samples.
CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD the pdf file.
- Guide to changing careers.
CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD the pdf file.
- Masterclass on how to avoid common job search mistakes.