While working remotely is gaining more acceptance in the everyday work world (Telework Research Network estimates that 20 to 30 million people work from home at least one day a week), it’s still a gray area for many workers.  One of the big worries that plagues people is how teleworking affects their career path, status, and value in a company. Research is somewhat conflicted about the actual effects on career success as well.  According to Schreiber, for woman at least, teleworking does not necessarily affect job success, while Shapiro, Ingols, and Blake-Beard find that flexible work arrangements including teleworking “are still used at great expense to an employee’s influence, reputation, and promotability.”  In either case, there are plenty of opinions on this subject and first-hand experiences, judging from this Slashdot discussion thread.

From what I can gather on the posts there seem to be 2 main camps:

• Camp #1 – “You’re only as invisible as you choose to be”
• Camp #2 – Invisibility is an inevitable by-product of “out of sight, out of mind”

Of course, there all the bystanders in between and the various factors like company culture, company politics, personal goals…that will affect just how visible or invisible you really are. Continue reading →