Everyone talks about the advantages of remote working. Skipping the daily commute to the office or working in pyjamas sounds like a dream come true. Moreover, employers are enjoying benefits of remote working: no more pricey office spaces or paying for travel expenses.
However, there are a few challenges of remote working you should consider as an employee and employer. In this article, you'll find most common challenges of remote working. No worries, we’ve provided solutions, too.
While remote working comes with the enticing promise of flexibility and freedom from the daily grind to the office, it's not without its share of challenges for both employees and employers. Balancing work and home life, carving out a productive workspace amidst household chaos, and the endless cycle of video calls can quickly turn a dream job into a juggling act. But fear not, for every obstacle there's a solution waiting to be discovered.
Employees might find it hard to adjust to remote working. The lack of a good work-life balance, finding appropriate working spaces, or scheduling too many video calls can make it hard to be productive. Additionally, all the above can cause a lack of motivation and burnout.
Read on to understand the key challenges of remote working for employees.
Maintaining a good work-life balance while working from home can be challenging. In the office, it's easier to separate professional and personal life as work stays in the office, along with laptops and phones.
It's no surprise that disengaging from work after hours is one of the main challenges of remote working, as revealed by Buffer's State of Remote Work report. This concern was acknowledged by 22% of respondents. What starts as finishing one task quickly can often extend into hours, which employees may not get paid for.
Over time, an unhealthy work-life balance can affect employees' mental health and productivity, leading to burnout.
Unfortunately, not everyone lives in the big house or an apartment. Living in a smaller space or with more people can make it difficult to create dedicated working spaces.
Often, the bedroom or shared living room has to double as a home office.
Finding appropriate working spaces can show as one of the most significant challenges for employees. Report shows 10% of remote workers (Buffer's State of Remote Work report) face problems with distractions at home.
Sharing space with other family members often means experiencing interruptions. Children crying, pets jumping on a desk or postman ringing the bell become part of every day working spaces.
While in the office, you can simply stop by someone's desk to solve a problem, but in a remote setting, you'll need to schedule video calls. Having too many video calls leaves insufficient time for productive work. Constantly jumping from one call to another and attempting to work in between consumes all the capacity for effective tasks.
Furthermore, employees often have limited control over their online calendars. With access to everyone's calendars, any team member can schedule a meeting. Additionally, many video calls result in follow-up calls, creating a vicious circle with an overload of video calls in the calendar. In reality, the majority of these calls could have been an email.
Potential solutions companies can implement to answer the challenges of remote working for employees:
Employers might be reluctant to switch from the office to remote working. Communication tools and company culture look different in a remote working environment. To make it work, employers need to be aware of all the ups and downs of transitioning to remote work for their company.
Find out below what the challenges of remote working for employers are and how to solve them.
Using too many different communication tools can be confusing. However, choosing the right communication tool can be equally challenging. With a diverse team working in a variety of job positions, it’s not easy to please everyone. While some might prefer old-school email, others might want to use Slack or collaboration tools such as Asana, Trello, or Monday.com.
Also, once you've invested in a communication tool, it’s going to be a nightmare to switch to another one. All these tools can be quite pricey for companies. It’s even worse when you pay for a communication tool you’re not even using.
Building a strong culture with remote employees in different time zones is challenging. Each team member has their own schedule, making it difficult to establish a foundation of collaboration, communication, and team-building activities, which are essential for a strong culture. These aspects seem more difficult to nurture in a remote environment.
One of the crucial challenges of remote working for employers is getting to know their team. Without any in-person meetings and gatherings with the employees, it takes a considerable amount of time for team members to get to know each other.
Building a strong culture with remote employees requires more planning. In the office, employees would naturally spend time together during lunch breaks or meetings. In a remote setting, employees from different departments rarely get the chance to talk to each other.
Among the biggest challenges of remote working for employers is assessing their team members' work. As an employer, you might wonder if your employees are working or watching Netflix. Many employers are afraid to go fully remote solely because of that concern; they're worried employees are not doing their work.
With many social media posts of employees sharing hacks on how to pretend they're working; no wonder employers are concerned. In the office setting, employers have more control over their employees, making it easier to assess their team members' work.
Potential solutions for the challenges of remote working for employers:
Other challenges of remote working for employees:
Other challenges of remote working for employers:
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