6 Challenges of Working Remotely

The new millennium has brought about many changes, working remotely being one of them. With the advancement of technology and the internet, it slowly started being popular to telecommute rather than commute to the actual, physical office. Nowadays, being in the middle of a global pandemic, working from home is ever more popular.

However, like everything else, it also has its advantages and disadvantages. Some reports show that even though people tend to be more productive when working from home and managing their own time, there are some challenges to overcome in order to do your job successfully and also live your private life as well.

Many people around the world find working from home more convenient. Some reports show that some nations, such as a vast majority of Australians wish to continue working from home even post Covid. The 2020 statistics show that around two-thirds of Australians worked from home. Before you decide what’s better for yourself, take a look at some remote work challenges.

1.   Overworking

Contrary to the general opinion that people who work from home tend to work less and procrastinate, the opposite is usually true: people work more when working from home. Why is that? There is a perfectly logical explanation for this phenomenon.

Since both your work and private life are under the same roof, it’s sometimes hard to separate the two. That’s why in order for remote work to be plausible for you, you need to try really hard to separate the two.How can you do that? Well, for starters set a starting and finishing time for your job and try to stick to it.

It tends to be especially tough as all kinds of things around your home can be a distraction. Also, set time for regular breaks and remember to use them. Try acting as if you were in the actual office. It needs some time, but it is possible to achieve it.

2.   Not being active enough

Another essential challenge that’s related to our health is physical fitness. The fact is that it’s sometimes difficult to stay active when working from home. Most of our jobs nowadays are sedentary and that creates all kinds of health problems for us. That’s why being physically active is crucial for us – not just because of our looks, but also because it’s necessary for our health.

Sedentary work is known to cause all kinds of back and neck issues as well as issues related to our posture. In order to avoid these issues, it would be good to do some exercises during your breaks: a few pushups, dips, or squats now and then will work just fine for you.

That’s a plausible precaution. However, if you’re dealing with some serious back and neck pain, you should definitely seek professional help in your area. For example, you can google getting physio, look through the results and opt for the most professional company offering these kinds of medical services to help you solve your issues.

3.   Inability to separate work from home

As a next key challenge comes the inability to separate work from home, as already briefly mentioned at the beginning. The quintessential piece of advice when it comes to separating these two things is to physically try to separate your work from your private life.

This means instead of working from bed, setting a working station, which will stand for working area. To overcome this challenge, you will need to make a conscious effort. It will surely take some time, but you’ll get a grip on it eventually.

4.   Lack of social life

Working all day from home and being all by yourself can make you feel isolated as you don’t have social contact with your manager and coworkers as in the typical working environment. These impromptu chit-chats are also part of our work, and they can make it even more interesting.

What’s more, as we’re social beings, it’s necessary to have social contact to maintain mental health. What can you do to avoid feeling isolated and lonely? Well, you should definitely include some social breaks in your schedule. For example, you could take a break after a few hours of working and spend some time outside, taking a walk or having lunch with a friend.

You can also try working in a coffee shop, for instance. Moreover, you could try being more intentional about joining some groups, such as yoga classes, cooking, or language classes.

5.   Dealing with interruptions

We have interruptions both in the office and at home, the only difference is the type of interruption. In the office, we can be interrupted by our colleagues or the manager, either about something important or in many cases about some unimportant things. On the other hand, when working from home, we face more challenges regarding interruptions.

For example, our children, spouses, neighbours, delivery people and pets can all interrupt us and it’s quite difficult dealing with them and working at the same time. In order to avoid these interruptions, you could set some kind of a signal for people to know that you’re working and that they shouldn’t interrupt you. Explain to your kids that when you’re working they should be on their own – teach them to be self-sufficient.

6.   Communication issues

Working remotely brings about other challenges as well, such as those concerning communication, because let’s face it, communication can’t be the same when working in the office and from home. It’s much more difficult to communicate when working remotely.

Usually, the communication is done through emails, which perhaps might not be enough to cover all the aspects and to ensure good communication among the employees as well as managers. Everything should be said clearly to avoid any misunderstandings and all the employees should be proactive in saying their opinion. That’s the only way to successful communication on a company level.

Like all things in life, working from home has also its positive and negative sides and we should make a conscious effort to make it the best possible option for us.