Mitigating the Impact of Proximity Bias in a Hybrid Workplace

Oh joy.......

wbt5845 said:

---

Mitigating the Impact of Proximity Bias in a Hybrid Workplace

Oh joy.......

---

I assume this marxist word salad translates to "white man bad"?

Maybe they can teach you about how policies affect gas prices too

Ha someone from HR just have seen the linkedin article from a week ago complaining about it.

Proximity bias is definitely a real thing. For those that don't know, it is that people who are in the office get more facetime and visiblity, so they're more likely to get promoted, better projects, blah blah blah.

There are pros and cons to work from home, and one of cons is 100% that I'm not nearly as visible as coworkers who are in the office. On the flipside, I work from home. Worthwhile trade IMO. File this one under WGAS.

Is it bad for a manger or director to flat out tell prospective employees during an interview or current employees already working from home that, yes, Skippy, who is here everyday learning from his managers and developing relationships with corporate function heads and executive management everyday because he sees them and talks to them a lot will have a leg up on next opportunities at the company?

Can someone show me why proximity bias is a bad thing?

Most of the leadership in our company in IT are all working remote so proximity bias isn't nearly as much an issue to deal with for me.

Somebody really didn't like your donuts

wbt5845 said:

---

Mitigating the Impact of Proximity Bias in a Hybrid Workplace

Oh joy.......

---

This is new.

Is the premise that remote workers are less utilized because 'out of site out of mind'?

I have a proximity bias to big bewbs.................

You should ask if listening to rap would help offset your whiteness. Then ask if WAP is a good place to start.

This is a bias for those that do work and those that don't.

The lengths that we are willing to go to in our society to pretend that decisions don't have consequences...

Pookers said:

---

wbt5845 said:

---

Mitigating the Impact of Proximity Bias in a Hybrid Workplace

Oh joy.......

---

I assume this marxist word salad translates to "white man bad"?

---

Of course, diversity is always anti-white.

wbt5845 said:

---

Mitigating the Impact of Proximity Bias in a Hybrid Workplace

Oh joy.......

---

My hunch is nearly 100% of your HR team are working from home and will continue to pull any lever to keep it that way.

Want to take the bias out of WFH policy, don't allow corporate leaders who are working from home to shape the WFH policy.

Bringing donuts to the office but not DoorDashing donuts to remote workers - proximity bias.

If it means I have to be around fewer people then bias away!

Predmid said:

---

Can someone show me why proximity bias is a bad thing?

---

It's just the classic case where HQ Employees or people who are in the boss's region are shown favouritism in hiring, promotions, etc.

When I used to work in SoCal field sales for a company with the HQ group in the East Bay, I couldn't even get my management to take a Southwest Airlines day trip down to the Southland.

They were so up themselves with Bay Area stuff that it wasn't even funny.


When I worked for a Boston based company, we would see it all the time where hiring reqs would get approved for Boston based teams and not elsewhere. This was especially frustration when the talent we needed was in the Central and Western US and there was very little talent in Boston and it was high priced to boot.


With my current employer, there is what I'll call a time zone ignorance with my management. They believe that they can hire folks in India to cover everything from Australia to London. That's 10 time zones for those of you keeping score at home.

Part II of that scenario is that they believe we can just tell these guys to work outside of their normal time zone by +/- 5.5 hours. This isn't the India of old. Top talent isn't signing up for that gig.

And as I was typing this message, I see that my NY based manager just hired a NY based guy over the better qualified female candidate based in Maryland.

So yeah... proximity bias is most definitely real and it usually hurts the business.

I could go all the way back to working for the State of Texas in the 1990s or heck, even at Dell in the 1990s, in my department, there was obvious Building Bias depending on whether you worked off Braker Lane or whether you were on the Dell Campus in Round Rock.

HollywoodBQ said:

---

Predmid said:

---

Can someone show me why proximity bias is a bad thing?

---

It's just the classic case where HQ Employees or people who are in the boss's region are shown favouritism in hiring, promotions, etc.

When I used to work in SoCal field sales for a company with the HQ group in the East Bay, I couldn't even get my management to take a Southwest Airlines day trip down to the Southland.

They were so up themselves with Bay Area stuff that it wasn't even funny.


When I worked for a Boston based company, we would see it all the time where hiring reqs would get approved for Boston based teams and not elsewhere. This was especially frustration when the talent we needed was in the Central and Western US and there was very little talent in Boston and it was high priced to boot.


With my current employer, there is what I'll call a time zone ignorance with my management. They believe that they can hire folks in India to cover everything from Australia to London. That's 10 time zones for those of you keeping score at home.

Part II of that scenario is that they believe we can just tell these guys to work outside of their normal time zone by +/- 5.5 hours. This isn't the India of old. Top talent isn't signing up for that gig.

And as I was typing this message, I see that my NY based manager just hired a NY based guy over the better qualified female candidate based in Maryland.

So yeah... proximity bias is most definitely real and it usually hurts the business.

I could go all the way back to working for the State of Texas in the 1990s or heck, even at Dell in the 1990s, in my department, there was obvious Building Bias depending on whether you worked off Braker Lane or whether you were on the Dell Campus in Round Rock.

---

I think it's real and these are good examples of it in a company that is far flung across the land. I have less sympathy for people who all work, at say, a central HQ in Dallas or work in jobs that require high levels of collaboration. For these people that choose not to come into work even though they live nearby, then I think this is a common sense trade-off you risk taking and have to own if it bites you in the ass.

I will liken this to the old school saying that "if you want the job then dress the part."

Admittedly, I'm threading a needle here with my scenario. If the company is naturally scattered all over the country, then a proximity bias would be frustrating if you suffered from it, unfairly.

wbt5845 said:

---

Mitigating the Impact of Proximity Bias in a Hybrid Workplace

Oh joy.......

---

Where do you work?

I have said many times on this board when discussing the "Work from Home" fiasco, that you take your career advancement in peril by not being in the office.

There are SO MANY things you miss out on by not being in an office environment in face-to-face meetings, discussions and unplanned chats.

At my company, If you live within commuting distance to an office, your ass better be in that office unless you are at another office/plant or with customers.

wbt5845 said:

---

Mitigating the Impact of Proximity Bias in a Hybrid Workplace

Oh joy.......

---

Why do they have to come up with these "new syndromes"?

Why don't they just say "benefits from working in office over working at home"?