I was driving to work last week and listening to Dermot & Dave on Today FM, where they were talking about a recent study carried out by NUIG on remote working.
95% of workers currently working from home favour some form of remote working after the pandemic. That’s a staggering number of people, and it got me thinking a little bit about the whole “work from home” situation (for the purpose of this blog, I will stick to the phrase remote working).
One interesting point to take from this survey is that while 95% of workers want some form of remote working, 75% of companies do not know yet how they plan on working post pandemic.
That statistic alone shows we are only at the very beginning of this topic and it’s not going to be as straightforward as some may think. I want to look at the remote working concept from all angles, so I’m going to break it into 3 blog parts:
- Part 1: pros and cons for workers.
- Part 2: from an organisations perspective.
- Part 3: the overall impact of remote working.
Read on to find out the good and the not so good of remote working for workers.
Benefits of remote working.
1. Reduction of time and cost on commute.
Let’s start with the obvious…no commuting to an office would be bliss to some people. Assuming most offices are town/city based, the build up of traffic at certain times of the day can be a huge strain.
Remote working can remove a lot of that. This could give people 1 or even 2 hours back to themselves rather than spending it in a car. That’s an amazing amount of extra time each day. Not to mention a reduction in cost on parking, fuel and lunches out.
Even if remote working meant using a nearby hub in a local village or town, savings on time and money would still be a huge benefit to working remotely.
2. More flexibility.
Depending on your line of work of course, but working remotely may allow you to tweak the hours of your working day. On any given day you could:
- start and finish a little earlier.
- start and finish a little later.
- adjust your lunch for appointments etc.
- work a longer day to free up hours somewhere else.
The approval of your employer may be needed, but this type of flexibility can be very useful in certain circumstances. SPICA writes well about flexibility and productivity while working from home.
3. More productive due to no office distractions.
Most offices right now are open plan, designed for communication and collaboration. This can lead to unwanted distractions, such as:
- phones constantly ringing.
- gossip.
- extra coffee breaks.
- background noise.
Unless you are incredibly focused on your task, the above distractions can lead to a less productive environment. All of this will be removed from a remote working set up, which should in turn help your productivity.
4. Reduces the need to relocate for a job.
Many people may feel they need to be close to the action to get a certain type of job. Big companies like Google, PayPal etc. tend to create office hubs in main city spaces, so that’s where the talent need to live, whether they want to or not.
Remote working may be best suited to employees of tech firms, so this need to live somewhere for a job may be a thing of the past. For those who want to work for these firms, but don’t want to live in cities, remote working may be a great thing. Leo Schwartz writes a good piece about tech workers not having to live in Silicone Valley anymore as a good example of what’s out there already.
5. Money savings.
We touched on this in point 1, but money can be saved in lots of different ways thanks to remote working, such as:
- parking.
- fuel.
- motor repairs.
- food and drink.
- cheaper rent/mortgage living elsewhere.
- no post work socialising.
- less impulse buying.
Who doesn’t want a little more cash in their pockets?!
6. Better work life balance.
Let’s say you sleep 8 hours a day and work 8 hours a day. If your commute time is 1-2 hours per day, this can be up to 25% of your free personal time. Giving this time back to yourself can be a huge benefit to your work life balance.
Not to mention the flexibility we mentioned in point 2. All of this can lead to a healthier way of living.
Disadvantages of remote working.
1. Difficult work life balance.
I purposefully put better work life balance and difficult work life balance side by side here, to highlight the complexity of the situation.
One major downside of remote working can be the difficulty in “switching off” from work. Some people enjoy the fact they get to decompress on the journey home after a long days work and once they arrive home they can get into a “non work” frame of mind quite fast.
If you are working from home you don’t get that. Unless you have an ability to switch mindsets straight away, you could carry work around with you.
Another work life balance issue that may arise is the fact you may always feel switched “on” for work. You might decide to do an hour here or there outside of normal hours and before you know it, you constantly think about it. Long term this is not healthy.
2. Home distractions lead to drop in productivity.
If you have an office space to yourself at home with no distractions, then good for you but many don’t have that luxury. Consider the following:
- house sharing with other remote workers.
- working from the kitchen table or bedroom.
- small kids running around.
- a noisy apartment block.
- friends, family calling round.
- TV, radio on in the background.
While some distractions will be left behind leaving the office, there may be other distractions at home which can affect your productivity.
3. Feeling of disconnect with your colleagues.
We tend to bounce off each other at work. Great ideas can come about just by having those face to face chats.
As well as that, there can be a great social aspect to working in offices or cities. Post work dinner or drinks can build great camaraderie among workers, and lifelong friendships can develop.
Zoom meetings just can’t give that same connection, in my opinion anyway. All of a sudden you don’t see your work mates anymore and that can be tough to take for some.
4. Isolation.
HR Daily Advisor speaks about the challenges of social isolation which can be brought about by working from home.
Humans are social creatures and need some form of interaction with others. Work often brings that for people, and from these interactions come nights out, sporting activities and other social events.
If working from home becomes the norm for some, they will need to think of ways to make sure isolation does not set in.
5. May struggle if you lack discipline.
For those who have a high level of self discipline and self motivation, remote working should not affect overall performance.
If you are easily distracted and need to be given clear direction regularly, remote working may be difficult to adjust to.
Another area to mention under discipline is fitness. You may not know it, but you could be getting lots of steps in leaving home to go to work, not to mention during the working day. Remote working could take away this vital exercise regime.
6. Potentially bad for your career.
I think this is a really important point for people who want to develop their careers. I’m not sure who said this, but I heard recently that remote working may be great for your job, but not so great for your career.
Consider the following; you work 4 days from home and 1 day at the office each week. Your colleague works 5 days a week from the office. You are both equally qualified and competent for a promotion that comes up… who do you think gets the job? It should be a 50/50 call, but you can be sure the odds are heavily in favour of the person they can see and hear every day.
I know companies will say remote working won’t hurt your chances, but even sub consciously, they are going to pick the more visible candidate.
To Conclude:
Before Covid, remote working was a pipe dream for many, and years down the road for companies to consider. Things have changed though and it’s up to everyone to adapt and embrace whatever their future working situation may look like.
Remote working will likely be a hot topic for many years to come, as we will not truly see the benefits or disadvantages of it for some time.
From a workers point of view, there is no “one size fits all” solution. It will be up to the individuals themselves to try work out what’s best for them. After all, it is Your Choice.