Working From Home Looked Great—Until Careers Stalled

Remote work, once embraced by many young employees, is increasingly being recognized as a career handicap for early-career workers. New research from economists at the New York Fed, UVA, and Harvard finds that younger employees who work from home receive less mentoring, fewer learning opportunities, and significantly slower professional development. They’re also more likely to end up unemployed because employers hesitate to hire inexperienced workers into remote roles. Many young workers are figuring this out the hard way—feeling isolated, missing informal training, and realizing they’re invisible to leadership. As a result, they’ve begun returning to the office more than older colleagues, hoping for networking, feedback, and promotions. But simply mandating office attendance isn’t a fix: some report showing up only to spend their day on video calls with coworkers seated in other buildings or time zones. The result is a generational push-and-pull where young workers need in-person guidance but aren’t always getting meaningful support once they’re back at their desks.

Source: Young Workers Learn to Embrace the Office – The New York Times