

This rapid feedback loop helps establish common ground more quickly. When you are co-located, it's a fully immersive experience and you have a lot of data points to process (tone, body language, etc). Next up, it can be difficult to collaborate on ambiguous problems when people aren't working in the same room. Takeaway: being in the same place provides more opportunities for ad-hoc discussion that can help build and deepen relationships. Here's some research if you'd like to learn more about the power of informal conversations at work. It can be easy to work an entire day without talking to other humans. There's so much you can learn when you have additional data points to process about the people you work with. When you work remotely, you have to force this stuff. As a remote worker, there are some days when I'd love to grab lunch with a coworker. It can be easy to grab lunch or coffee with a coworker, which deepens relationships and can help you be more effective when it comes to getting things done. These random events in the office can help establish rapport & trust. 3.) Fewer spontaneous conversationsĪn underrated aspect to an office environment is the spontaneous "water cooler" discussions that can help you get to know the people you work with. Takeaway: When you work where you live, you may not have enough separation and mash them together. When you live where you work, it can be difficult to manage and separate these two worlds from each other. In an office environment, there's clear separation. This means there can be a variety of distractions that pop-up, ranging from pets to babies, to laundry in the dryer.
#I am working remotely meaning upgrade#
For example, if someone lives in a small apartment in New York City, it may be too expensive to upgrade and rent/buy bigger place with a dedicated office. 2.) Home office & distractionsĪnother frequent problem when working remotely is that many people don't have a dedicated space to do their work. Takeaway: Social interaction is an important component of work and working remotely can increase the probability of you being lonely. Gallup research (admittedly I'm not a huge fan of these studies) suggests that the optimal engagement rate is for people who come into the office once a week. This is baked into the cake of an office environment.Īccording to the Buffer 2018 State of Remote work report, this is the #1 challenge to working remotely. If you work from home, you need to force yourself to get out of the house and interact with other people. When I first started working remotely, I didn't get out of the house enough and I got lonely.Īn office environment automatically provides social opportunities. The first downside to remote work is that it can get lonely, especially if you are extroverted like I am. I believe this is a discussion that needs to happen in order to move work forward. I will incorporate data when possible as well as personal anecdotes that I've experienced when working remotely. In short, I'm going to try to steelman a critic's argument of remote work. Reason #3: In future posts, I will outline ways to mitigate each of the downsides listed in this post.What may work for you may not work for someone else. Reason #2: avoiding discussion with people who have legitimate concerns about remote work is dumb.Reason #1: You will have a better understanding of what you are getting yourself into if you are considering remote work.There's many nuances to remote work that needs to be accounted for in this discussion, so as a fan of remote work, I'm going to outline as many downsides as possible for the following reasons:

With that being said, I think there's a discussion that needs to happen around the pros and cons. I have experienced a variety of benefits when working remotely. I've written numerous posts extolling the benefits. I've worked remotely for a few different companies for the past six years and I consider myself a fan of remote work. Currently Missing: an honest conversation about remote work The level of intensity around this discussion is similar to the current state of politics. If you work in technology, the conversation around remote work is consuming a lot of mindshare right now.įor many people who work remotely, the idea that anyone could be opposed to this trend is profane, while people on the other side are appalled when companies like Stripe announce a distributed office.
