“Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” according to the proverb. Or is it more a case of “out of sight, out of mind”? Lengthy periods of enforced remote working have demonstrated that, for any group of employees, both can sometimes be true.
Working from home during the pandemic loosened UK professionals’ ties with the consultancies or law or accountancy firms that employed them, the Financial Times recently reported. The lifting of lockdown then encouraged job-hopping because candidates could now bond with prospective employers face to face.
These are two sides of the “out of sight, out of mind” coin: heads, the isolation of remote working reduces loyalty to your existing employer; tails, the revival of in-person encounters encourages you to form an attachment with a new one.