Remote work is increasingly becoming the order of the day. The outbreak of a global pandemic made it more popular and today, 56% of global companies allow remote work. Goodbye to long commute hours, and dreading a Monday Morning. However, as with everything good, remote work comes with its challenges. In this article, we highlight the top 5 challenges you may already be facing, and ideas you can implement now to you can overcome them.
A large number of employees work from their homes. If you live alone, chances of concentration are high. But, employees who have spouses, children, and so many responsibilities in their homes may have a hard time managing their time properly. By the end of the day, you might not have achieved certain tasks and you’re unable to meet deadlines.
Many managers oppose remote work because they feel employees would slack off their duties. However, the reverse is the case. Remote workers have a higher chance of being overworked. The United Nations International Labour Organization reports that although employees’ productivity increases while working outside a regular office, they are more prone to working for longer hours, and eventually, facing greater stress.
When does work start? When should you shut off completely? Going on without breaks can cause burnout even under your roof.
Before remote work became a thing, people spent eight hours at work daily. Your co-workers, team members easily became friends and acquaintances. But with remote work? Loneliness and boredom struck. This is especially true if you don’t have family members and you get to be by yourself all day.
With remote work, chances are that an employee may feel out of the loop. This will be a problem especially if some of your team members still go to work physically. There’s the Fear of Missing Out. Also, introverts have a hard time communicating with their team members remotely.
Another angle to improper communication is that it gets easy for employees to develop bad blood. The founders of Basecamp, in their book Remote: Office Not Required, describe the importance of effective communication for every team that works remotely. They said, “when the bulk of your communication happens via email … small misunderstandings that could have been nipped in the bud with the wink of an eye or a certain tone of voice can quickly snowball into a drama.”
After achieving a feat at your workplace, it’s easy to celebrate with your team members and for your manager to notice you. But with remote work, the chances are slimmer.
Nothing hurts as much as delivering a presentation to your team members while having technology hiccups. Whether it’s your internet device or computer, a minor problem can escalate during remote work. There’s a huge dependence on virtual meetings, virtual phone conversations and virtual presentations.
It may be hard to get all your team working efficiently, but it’s achievable. No matter the challenges you’ll face, remote work has tons of rewards you and your team can benefit from. Now that you know how to overcome these challenges, it’s time to get back to work!
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