Oof, that’s rough.

I have a friend who worked for a fast-growing tech startup throughout 2020 and 2021. They went permanently remote pretty early on, while also growing at a rapid pace. He was mentoring a handful of new hires (straight out of college), and it seemed like almost every one of them was having some sort of mental crisis due to the difficult onboarding and loneliness.

I think that’s the big thing people miss when talking about remote work. If you’ve been in your job for many years, it’s probably true that you can be just as effective while being 100% remote, because you know what to do and who you need to talk to. If you’re starting a new job but you’ve been in the workforce a while, it might take you a bit longer to get up to speed, but you’ll get there eventually.

But for those who are brand new in the workforce and don’t have that prior experience of building effective professional relationships, it’s really, really tough, and may end up having a long-term negative career impact as these new hires fail to thrive in their first real job.