“Many business leaders think that ‘going remote’ is as simple as sending a worker away from the office, equipped with a laptop and a to-do list,” Laurel Farrer, founder of the Remote Work Association, told Business Insider before the COVID crisis struck.
Unfortunately, as many workers can likely attest now that the world is nearly two years into its pandemic-mandated work-from-home experiment, those business leaders were mistaken about various implications of remote working. Here are some of the biggest challenges it can pose…
Getting easily distracted from work
Your partner, kids and pets could all distract you when your home is also your office. Even if you live alone, you could too easily find yourself procrastinating, such as by tackling unwashed laundry.
The trick here is to move your workstation into a room somewhat separate from the rest of your home, like the attic. Through utilising the award-winning loft boarding service from Instaloft, many home-based workers in the UK can help to keep themselves toasty while working in the attic.
Tech problems that take a while to get resolved
When a technical issue arises in the office, a co-worker might be able to rectify the issue right there and then. However, if you work from home and its Wi-Fi falters, you might not even be able to use Zoom to inform co-workers that there’s a problem in the first place.
So, it would pay for you to already have fallback technology in place, like a cellular data plan that would let you quickly turn your smartphone into a replacement Wi-Fi hotspot for the home.
The lack of a rigid work schedule
In a conventional office, your work schedule can largely dictate itself, as your boss might enforce specific times when you would be able to, say, have a lunch break or take other time out.
It’s not quite the same situation when your boss isn’t literally looking over your shoulder to see what you are working on at that moment. Even in a home office, though, you could use digital scheduling tools to help keep yourself on course.
Working for longer than you should
“You can check work emails, chat with co-workers on Slack, or do work any time you’re on Wi-Fi,” Rebecca Safier, founder of remote job board Remote Bliss, tells The Muse. “As a result, it’s easy to keep working into the night, well past the time you said you’d finish up.”
Therefore, remember to unplug once you’ve got to 5pm or whenever else your working hours for the day are supposed to come to a close.
Having the FOMO
That acronym stands for ‘fear of missing out’, as Verywell Mind clarifies – and this FOMO can easily set in when you think of the many exciting conversations your co-workers could be having in the office during their absence there.
This would be a strong incentive for you to drop into that office from time to time Working From Home, even if it’s just once a week, so that you feel more like ‘part of the team’.