Stanford economist says workers should go to the office at least 3 days a week if they want to compete for a promotion

Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom says the key to succeeding at work these days is showing up at the office —at least three days a week. Elizabeth Viggiano

• Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom found hybrid workers can be more successful than fully remote workers.
• Heading into the office at least “three days a week” is enough to get noticed, Bloom told WSJ.
• Hybrid workers are more likely to get feedback, favorable assignments, and promotions.

Heading into the office a few days a week could be a way to stay in the good books of your managers, according to Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom.

Bloom told The Wall Street Journal that “three days a week is enough” to ensure that “you’re not out of sight and forgotten about.”

Workers who go into the office are more likely to get face time with upper management — whether in-person meetings or casual office conversations — which can increase their odds of scoring a promotion. Only 42% of fully remote workers received a promotion in 2023, compared to 54% of hybrid workers and 55% of full-time office workers in a survey of 1,190 full-time employees from Resume Builder.

Executives seem to believe that simply showing up at the office demonstrates that a worker cares about their job. Around 90% of CEOs in the US said they would reward employees who try to come into the office with better assignments, raises, or promotions, according to a survey from consulting firm KPMG of 1,325 CEOs.

And workers who go into the office are also more likely to receive helpful feedback. Economist Emma Harrington conducted a study of software engineers at a Fortune 500 company, and found that remote workers, especially female workers, are less likely to receive feedback than those who were working near their teammates.

When junior women are working near their co-workers, they’re also more likely to receive feedback from more people, Harrington explained in a podcast from the Hoover Institute. “It does seem consistent with a story that when you’re remote and you’re a woman you just don’t feel that comfortable asking for this additional feedback and advice,” Harrington said.

Whether or not this is a good thing is still to be decided though. Remote work has helped boost women in the workforce to record levels. And the data is mixed on whether remote or hybrid workers are more productive. “There’s some proximity bias going on,” Bloom told The Journal. “I literally call it discrimination.”