Excellent boss affects subordinates’ evaluations : evidence from working full remotely

This study investigates how supervisor–subordinate communication in a fully remote work setting affects employee salaries. We use panel data from a company where all employees work entirely remotely and exploit the company’s routine supervisor rotations as a quasi-natural experiment (in a difference-in-differences-in-differences design) to identify causal effects. Our findings show that Slack-based text communication or Zoom video meetings with one’s supervisor have little overall impact on subordinates’ salaries. However, the impact varies by supervisor ability: having frequent meetings with a supervisor significantly boosts an employee’s salary only when that supervisor is among the top 25% in performance evaluations. In contrast, text-based communication volume shows no effect. Moreover, meeting length matters – the positive impact is largest when monthly meeting time ranges between 4 and 8 hours, yielding roughly a 9.1% higher monthly salary and 21.0% greater salary increase for those subordinates compared to meeting less than 4 hours per month.