Community, Remote Work

The Top 6 Challenges of Remote Work and How to Overcome Them

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.

1. Improper Time Management

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. 

What to do instead:

• Employees who find it difficult to accomplish tasks within the stipulated period should consider working with timers.
• Learn to prioritize your tasks and have a focus for each day. Identify the high-priority tasks and the low counterparts.
• If you find some social media apps extremely distracting, why not use the Freedom app or the StayFocusd browser to maintain focus during work? 

2. Overworking

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. 

What to do instead: 

• Set fixed work hours. Once those hours are over, shut down and do something else
• Take breaks while working. Go for a short walk in the sun, take a snack and do something to ease tension from your body. 
• Separate your workspace from your private space. If you can set up a physical office at home, that’s fine. Otherwise, it could be as simple as leaving your laptop in another room once you’re done with work. 

3. Social Implications: Loneliness and Boredom

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. 

How you can deal with this challenge:

• Incorporate social breaks into your schedules. You could go for lunch with a friend rather than have it delivered to your doorstep. 
• Work from shared spaces or a restaurant. That way, you see people around you and may get to make new friends. 

4. Ineffective Communication

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.”

The best practices in overcoming this challenge:

• Learn to clarify issues before moving on. 
• Ask questions about unclear discussions, speak up when you have something to say.
• If you fear that you are being misunderstood, explain yourself and communicate effectively with your team members. 

5. Unrecognized Accomplishments 

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. 

What to do instead: 

• As an employee, if you’ll like to get seen, consider showing up for team events, lunch gatherings and get-togethers even if your presence isn’t exactly needed. That way, you’ll get seen and remembered easily. 

• For managers, team leaders should develop the culture of appraising an employee’s activities for a period. That way, their accomplishments are recognized and their contribution is valued. 

6. Technology Problems

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.

How you can tackle this problem:

• Test your devices and internet connection before virtual meetings begin. This is important if you’ll be delivering a presentation.
• Have a backup plan. Alternative computer? A mi-fi device to replace your mobile phone’s connection? You get to decide.

Conclusion

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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