Is it possible to get a promotion when you work from your couch?

One’s passion for work, motivation, and talent for being noticed within the corporation are the ingredients that synergistically lead to professional development, enhanced knowledge, and the assumption of responsibilities. A complex wordscape, some would say, nonetheless, these are in fact the stakes behind a job promotion.

At any given interview we position ourselves as being ready to encounter risks, to be adaptable to change, and not at all being a rookie when it comes to team integration. I think that corporate HR instinctively ticks all these boxes because it already represents a standard profile and if we would like to find a common barcode for employees in multinational corporations, this one would be perfectly functional.

• The pandemic has led to social changes that have not yet been studied sufficiently to solve many of the effects of working remotely, which, in turn, has also altered the necessary ingredients for the recipe of promotion.
• The pandemic produced a switch to our professional roles, from a collegial work environment, where all our values and principles were perfectly illustrated, either through a PowerPoint presentation designed in a meeting room or an old-fashioned smoke break taking place in specially designed areas, that even non-smokers attended.
• The pandemic has partnered with all virtual meeting and call platforms, so not only have our ears became numb from our headphones, but the term ‘social skills’ has already become a redundant and archaic notion, and it’s hard to display your volatility with which you push results to achieve maximum percentages when wearing pajamas. Our sense of commitment, which until a year ago was plastered on our faces can now be heard and often our microphone’s echo blew back onto us.

Do we still find ourselves to be dedicated and prepared? How do we deal with this mix of remnants belonging to the employee who previously occupied office no. 89? No one expected the pandemic to completely change a well-crafted promotion perspective into a workday tool, and the number of hours spent on the couch with the laptop on one’s knees to replace the year-end evaluation.

Generally, people oriented towards successful careers, with all of the endorphins shooting within normal parameters, will have the opportunity to experience several moods, including dissatisfaction, frustration, and impatience. We will submit to mental stress, by way of the simple gesture of blaming ourselves and questioning our professional abilities, and we will seek confirmation for a job well done in any form of communication received from our managers. I was surprised to realize how many times I fell into the trap of my own comfort zone, just by associating the couch with the lack of a daily routine regarding my trip to the office. Still, just as many times, I set my own trap, because the role, tasks, and downtime were measured using the same evaluation criteria. The difference stemmed from interpersonal interaction, immediate feedback, and facial expression. But even the washing machine smiles beautifully, in fact, it does so at a 360-degree rotation.

One can be promoted from anywhere, regardless of the texture of the sofa’s fabric or the location of the office itself. We can garner more enthusiasm and more gratitude so that our appreciation and loyalty will add more substance to the process as we prepare for our interview. And if pajamas replace a tailored suit, it can turn any frown upside down. It’s just a matter of balancing the advantages and disadvantages, as we are in perfect control of manipulating the ‘Pros and Cons’ list.

Normally, the context for the promotion would be given to us by the company, and the choice of a candidate coming from office no. 88 to your or my detriment would be just as political. The context for the promotion we draft ourselves, although it may seem like a utopian idea, will be the one that will take us beyond our comfort zone, will stimulate constructive stress, and will alleviate the effects of the pandemic. Of course, the manager won’t smile at us after a successful escalation, but a WhatsApp GIF or a proposal to have a one-on-one meeting in a location set up for people who don’t give a chance to your home couch can certainly brighten their day.

Yes, it will be considerably more challenging to influence strategic decisions and actively contribute to the advancement of solutions, especially now that nobody can tap on our shoulders and the only physical presence is represented by the mobile phone or laptop. All we have left is motivation, with which the pandemic failed to establish a framework of collaboration, as it is so unique to each corporate member that it would have taken us a lifetime to reach an agreement.

And the answer is, YES, we now get promotions while working from the couch by a percentage of +x%, this being a restart of the way we work for all of the participants in this pandemic game. It’s up to you how you play the game!