Remote Worker's 5 Habits Led to Faster Promotion

Brian Jenney's first remote job nearly broke him, but his second one got him promoted faster than any office job ever did.

When Jenney joined his first distributed team, he made a mistake many remote workers make. He put his head down, worked twelve-hour days at his kitchen table, and assumed good code would speak for itself. Instead, he felt invisible, disconnected, and burned out despite logging some of the longest hours of his career.

The problem wasn't his work quality. It was that nobody could see it.

In an office, visibility happens automatically. Colleagues notice when you arrive early or stay late working through problems. They hear about your contributions in hallway conversations and over lunch. Physical presence creates recognition without trying.

Remote work strips away those natural signals. Your manager can't see you at your desk. Your teammates don't know you're stuck unless you tell them. You can work marathon days and still seem less engaged than someone in an office.

By his second remote role, Jenney figured out what actually works. He started sharing quick updates in team channels about what he was working on and what blockers he hit. These messages took seconds but made his work visible and invited help sooner.

He set firm boundaries, ending most workdays at 5 p.m. and transitioning out with a walk or gym session. That simple ritual prevented the kitchen table from swallowing his entire life.

He volunteered for presentations and demos, which felt less intimidating remotely than standing before a crowded room. This boosted his visibility beyond his immediate team while sharpening his communication skills.

When teammates helped him or shipped something impressive, he thanked them publicly in shared channels. In remote environments, visible gratitude builds goodwill and signals collaboration.

Most importantly, he created connection deliberately. He started an engineering book club that met every other week, giving him a low-pressure way to build relationships across the organization.

Why This Inspires

With these five intentional habits, Jenney moved from senior engineer to engineering manager in under two years while maintaining better work-life balance than he ever had in an office. His counterintuitive discovery proves that remote work's biggest challenge is also its biggest opportunity.

The flexibility and freedom of working from home come with a tax: you're easier to overlook and more likely to burn out without deliberate effort. But when you master communication, relationships, and boundaries in a distributed environment, remote work can unlock more career opportunities than you might expect from any office cubicle.