High road & low road to remote work: the perceptions of remote work, visibility at workplace, and career progression

The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a global paradigm shift in work arrangements, prompting an abrupt transition to remote work across Malaysia’s banking sector and other industries. Despite extensive coverage of work-life balance and productivity in existing literature, a critical gap remains in understanding how remote work impacts employee visibility and the long-term career progression, an important gap given remote work’s growing permanence in human resource management. This study explores the lived experiences of managers and employees in the Klang Valley banking industry, specifically investigating the organizational strategic approaches to remote work (High Road vs. Low Road) and their consequent effects on career advancement. Adopting a qualitative phenomenological approach within a constructivist worldview, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants from local and international banks. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate that organisations adopted mixed strategies, balancing investments in employee welfare with cost-minimisation measures. Consequently, a central tension emerged: the "Visibility-Progression Nexus." Participants perceived a strong causal link between physical visibility and career advancement, substantiated by evidence that a lack of “face time” can lead to stagnation in their career. Crucially, the study identifies that this risk is not uniform; it is heavily moderated by organizational culture and job function, with new employees lacking pre-existing social capital being disproportionately vulnerable. This study contributes a theoretical framework visualising the interplay between remote work implementation and career outcomes. Practically, it underscores the urgent need for organizations to move beyond technological enablement and intentionally design equitable performance management systems that decouple career progression from physical presence.