Businesses Increasingly Target Remote Workers for Termination

If the pandemic taught us anything about the American office, it taught us that remote work can certainly be done and done well. Face-time is not essential.

Or is it?

This report from The Wall Street Journal found that managers were 35% more likely to lay off white-collar remote employees than their counterparts.

According to consultants identified for the article, managers found it more difficult to fire people who they see on a daily basis. I mean, it’s a lot messier to terminate someone who could cry in your office instead of ending a Zoom call.

The article focuses on the lack of a personal connection as the reason for this increase in the number of remote workers terminated instead of those working in the office.

Is The Problem Really A Lack of Personal Connection?

Or are managers not properly trained to supervise remote workers? Let’s break this down.

Do managers require daily check-ins?

Are managers holding weekly or bi-weekly one-on-ones with direct reports?

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Are managers documenting employee performance or conduct—especially attendance— concerns for all employees?

Have managers been trained to recognize requests for reasonable accommodations?

These tasks are critical for managing remote and in-person workers.

What Employers Want To Know…

Check in with your managers. One woman quoted in the WSJ article said that as a mother of two children, she’s willing to take on the prospect of instability for the flexibility of remote work. Managers that disproportionately terminate remote workers may also create (inadvertently?) the risk of a sex discrimination claim.

And if the termination is unsupported by documentation? A suspicious former employee (or their lawyer) may very well conclude that sex formed the basis for the employee’s termination.

The pandemic shone a light on the disproportionate effect that childcare has on working mothers— many of whom left the workforce during the pandemic for lack of support.

As the October 2023 Women in the Workplace Report revealed:

As workplace flexibility transforms from a nice-to-have for some employees to a crucial benefit for most, women continue to value it more. This is likely because they still carry out a disproportionate amount of childcare and household work.

Indeed, 38 percent of mothers with young children say that without workplace flexibility, they would have had to leave their company or reduce their work hours.

Managerial misconceptions of remote work should not factor into your layoff decisions.