Proximity bias is the tendency to favor people we see in person more often. It usually operates without intent. Researchers Kimberly Elsbach, Dan Cable and Jeffrey Sherman studied what they called passive face time: simply being seen at work, without any interaction. In interviews and an experiment, they found that being seen during normal hours led observers to describe someone as dependable, and being seen outside normal hours led observers to describe them as committed. Observers formed these impressions spontaneously, without being aware of it. Being seen was standing in for evidence about work.
That matters in a hybrid workplace, where some people are in the office on a given day and others are not. A supervisor who works on-site may simply know more about the work of people nearby, notice their effort more and think of them first for new assignments. Over time, that can shape who gets visible projects, who is described as a leader and whose name comes up in succession discussions.
Does hybrid work itself hurt performance or advancement? One of the largest studies so far, a randomized trial at a large travel company in China published in the journal Nature, assigned more than sixteen hundred employees to either full-time office work or a hybrid schedule with two home days a week. Hybrid work reduced quitting by about a third, and the researchers found no evidence of differences in performance reviews or promotions over the following two years. Managers who expected hybrid work to lower productivity became more positive after the trial. This is one company in one country with one hybrid design, so it does not settle every question for a Minnesota state agency. It does suggest that remote days do not automatically mean weaker work, and that manager expectations may drive perceptions more than performance does.
The practical response is to make evidence of work, not presence, the basis for decisions. Define expected results and review them the same way for everyone. Keep a simple record of who received visible assignments and recognition, and check whether on-site and remote staff are both represented. Before you nominate someone, ask: am I choosing based on results, or on who I happened to see this week?
