Point At Issue: Is The Remote Workplace Harmful For Your Career?
Alistair Berg
Working from home is good, right? Rethinking the workplace has become an element of this pandemic. There are two sides to this situation; the first is that working remotely is an excellent option with life balance, and the second is counting down the days to get back into the office for human interactions. Working from home is an excellent option, but not everyone thrives in this environment.
The biggest issue right now is what working your job remotely is. Now the "typical" office does not exist. Everything that made it into an experience is gone. Conversations consist of emails and chats and way too many Zoom meetings. More times than not, employees and staff lose connectivity, and disruptions are constant. Significant interactions with coworkers are a thing of the past as the ability to brainstorm and share ideas becomes challenging to accomplish. Another significant issue is knowing when to stop working.
"Several members of our team confess they have a hard time remembering to take breaks, stopping work at a reasonable time, and even knowing when is a reasonable time to stop," said author and coach Jeff Gothelf. It is essential to take breaks and not burn out because your personal and workspaces are the same, and it is hard to separate. You need to set boundaries with your teammates to let them know when you will be ending your day, and you need to shut your computer.
Workers are working harder while remote. In a recent survey, 54% of employees increased their working hours under lockdown. It goes against what some employees believe that workers will slack off and not take working from home seriously. It is the opposite, because technology workers put in more hours and are more productive. Some workers feel the pressure to be available at all hours of the day, and there are many surveys out now regarding remote worker burnout. A July 2020 survey by FlexJobs and Mental Health America reported that 75 percent of remote workers are feeling stressed. Adding to this is the fear of 6-in-10 respondents who felt their job would be at risk if they didn't work the extended hours. To counter this feeling is the recommendation that you focus on working during work hours and do things that are not work-related to ease the stress. While it is crucial to stay on track, the remote experience for some have fewer distractions.
There are no people stopping at your desk in a remote setting to discuss their weekend plans and lives, but there are disruptions. The doorbell, deliveries, a load of laundry, playing with your pet, a television show you want to watch; there are many ways to kill time. The problem with this is that you can get sucked into doing other things and then not complete your work tasks. "Without other coworkers around to hold you accountable, you may not be as productive when working from home," wrote Natalia Lusinski.
The remote experience is not a new concept, and a lot of workers say that they can do their jobs thoroughly at home, but were not able to do so before COVID because of company mandates. There are about 71% of workers working remotely, partially or entirely, said a recent Pew Research Center survey. "And more than half say, given a choice, they would want to keep working from home even after the pandemic." Before the pandemic, only 7 percent of Americans worked from home. While at home, we focus more on the work that matters to the company and less time going to large meetings that are not beneficial to our positions.
For a lot of people going remote has been an easy transition, barring any technical issues. People like having the ability to work according to their schedules and have more family and work-life balance. But, working from home isn't for everyone. Younger workers have a hard time feeling motivated to do their jobs. Forty-two percent of workers ages 18-to-49 say working remotely is getting in the way of them getting their jobs done, said the survey. The first step to getting into the right space for working remote is to have the proper setup.
Setting up a home office was an undertaking when a majority of workers switched to remote. Now that this is no longer an issue, the workforce is prepared to be productive. It is more effective for some not to commute, and having a work-life balance makes people more productive. Even when the pandemic is over, people will still be working from home; a recent research by Gartner found that 74% of companies expect some of their employees to continue working remotely.
"CFOs, already under pressure to tightly manage costs, clearly sense an opportunity to realize the cost benefits of a remote workforce, said Alexander Bant, practice vice president, research for the Gartner Finance Practice. This cost savings translated to organizations being able to retain employees and avoid downsizing. Other cost savings went into the deferral of on-premise technology spends, and reduction of real estate spends.
Working from home is a considerable cost saving for companies, creating benefits for the employers. It is also cost-saving for workers, not paying to commute, for meals, and business clothing. These saved expenses are essential right now as employees don't know if the financial tide will shift due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. It also helps cost savings that employees do not travel for meetings or events, and everything is virtual.
The platforms used to communicate like Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft Teams, which are the popular ones, have workers a bit exhausted with being focused on a screen for hours at a time. "Forty percent of teleworkers (ages 18 to 49) who use these platforms often say they feel "worn out by the amount of time they spend on video calls." Trying to stay focused while in front of a screen all day is not an easy feat for some. People would rather be talking to their coworkers face-to-face and miss that interaction.
The lack of real human contact has people suffering from loneliness and isolation. Remote workers spend most of their days on their own, both physically and mentally disconnected from their teams. This "can lead to symptoms of isolation including increased stress levels and bad decision making and a general unhappiness for employees," explained Miro, a publication about the future of distributed teamwork.
The void of human interaction is hard for employees who regularly worked with others to build out relationships, brainstorm, and connect to get work done. "Brainwave patterns associated with stress and overwork were much higher when collaborating remotely than in person," said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365. One thing to remember is that everyone in your company is experiencing the same challenges. You can channel negative energy into positive experiences for you and your teammates.
Encourage ways to support your team based on things that you like to do. If you enjoy working out, offer to hold a morning exercise session. Start a virtual book club or have a remote cooking class. Conduct after-hour virtual happy hours to get team members together to bond and share experiences. You need to reach out to your coworkers proactively and set a time to speak to your manager as well. These experiences will give you and your team things to look forward to and a way to stave away the feelings of isolation.
The idea of returning to the workplace has some workers unhappy. Recent research by Gartner found that 74% of companies they surveyed expect some of their employees to continue working remotely after the pandemic ends. There are issues with remaining remote, and it is far easier for a boss to get rid of someone they do not see and do not fully understand what work they are producing. It is also true that if your job is fully remote, anyone can do it anywhere else in the world. Remote employees run into the risk of being replaced with cheaper labor from a foreign country.
The pandemic has changed the workplace. Whether or not this is good or bad remains to be determined. It is the more comfortable option for some, and workers prefer it, but it does not make sense for others who thrive in an office. When the pandemic is over, we may see some people change their jobs depending on this new way of working.