UNPOPULAR OPINION If you want to supercharge your logistics career, you do NOT want to work from home 5 days a week.
Yes - working from home gives flexibility and increased family time are often highlighted as key benefits - however if you want to succeed and climb the ladder, here are a few reasons as to why working from home stifles your career growth in logistics;
- Lack of Visibility: When you're not in the office, it’s easy for your contributions to go unnoticed. This is logistics - it is hectic - it is ever changing and everything moving 100 miles an hour. Those "water cooler" conversations, informal interactions, and spontaneous discussions that can help you get noticed just don't happen in the same way over Zoom or Slack. The chance to show that you are a leader is always easier in person.
- Limited Networking Opportunities: Career progression, especially when moving into leadership roles, is often about who you know as much as what you know. The chance to interact face-to-face with key people, mentors, and decision-makers is reduced when you're not physically present.
- Diminished Mentorship and Learning: In a remote environment, it can be harder to find and engage with mentors. The organic learning that happens when you’re working in close proximity to senior colleagues—picking up on their conversations, observing their decision-making, or even informal feedback—can be harder to come by when you're working remotely.
- Reduced Collaboration and Team Building: The synergy that comes from working in person with a team can foster better collaboration. Remote work often leads to siloed work environments, which can affect creativity, innovation, and cohesion among colleagues. Team-building activities that strengthen relationships and foster trust are also less effective virtually.
- Missed Growth Opportunities: Often, career growth is accelerated by taking on new challenges and stepping out of your comfort zone. These opportunities tend to arise more often in an office setting, where leaders can quickly identify potential for new projects or leadership roles. Remote workers may find themselves passed over for such opportunities, simply because their leaders aren’t as aware of their capabilities.
That said, there’s also a counter-argument that for some people, the flexibility of working from home allows them to focus on deep work, improve productivity, and maintain a better work-life balance - and I get that! But in the world of logistics - if your ambition is to rise in your career - you have to be in the office with your colleagues giving it your all!
My 2 cents, as someone who has spent close to 25 years in the world of logistics in various ops, sales and leadership roles!
Mom of Gael & Martin / Regional Director Reefer Seas Americas at Blue Water Shipping
1moSpot on, Rasmus! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
National Account Manager at XGen Logistics | Strategic Logistics Solutions Expert
1moI absolutely agree with you in every way. Truth is I learned this the hard way and will never forget it.
30+ years in logistics and transportation and I would never want to work from home full time (an occasional day is OK). I have to be in the office where I can have in-person discussions with my team.
Purchasing Coordinator at Encompass Health
1moI’m going to have to respectfully disagree. Your points do have some merit to them but they can also be used against workers who show up to the office every day as well. Remote work is here and needs to be embraced and adapted into the regular work force as well. Part or being successful is adapting to new technologies and trends in the work force. If employers stick to outdated methods then failure is more likely to happen because they refuse to grow. One point I think that should be examine is being a leader and/or mentor. If you cannot pivot and adapt to how your employees do their job then why are you a leader or a mentor? While your job is to guide and hone their skills you also should learn from those you are guiding. If not then you need to move on to another role. Instead of forcing your workers to be either miserable or eventually quit try working together to find some common ground. Ruling out work from home entirely is not the best way to approach things.
Taking care of people and their teams. In particular during midlife, spin-offs, M&As and transformation. Managing Partner at novosensus. Singapore, Copenhagen and Hamburg.
1moRasmus Nielsen I don't think your arguments are invalid, but some people may not want to hear them. Since 2 years, I have observed a rift between senior leader's wish, and some employee's willingness. But I also observe that the rift is closing more and more...