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Advantages and Disadvantages of Remote Working

19 May 2021
Advantages and Disadvantages of Remote Working

Remote working on a laptop

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working became more popular than anyone could previously have imagined. Many businesses were forced to temporarily shut their doors, and staff members who weren't furloughed under the government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme were often asked to work from home instead of coming into the office.

This new way of working has its pros and cons. Remote working undoubtedly helped to limit the spread of COVID-19 over the past year or so, but with lockdown restrictions now easing, many employers will have to decide whether to bring their staff back to the office or to continue allowing them to work from home.

In this blog, we'll take a closer look at remote working and highlight the benefits and drawbacks that employers - and employees - may encounter after making a permanent switch to working from home.

Advantages of remote working

Remote working isn't a brand new concept that was invented in response to this pandemic; it's a method of working that has been tried by hundreds and thousands of organisations across the globe for many years. Why? Because it offers both employers and employees several advantages that make working life better.

These advantages include:

 

1. An improved work/life balance

Working from home has enabled many people to spend more time with their families and achieve a healthier balance between their work life and their personal life.

Eliminating the daily commute can save a significant amount of time, especially if you live some distance from your workplace. With all of this extra free time on your hands, you may be able to get more things done outside of work, leading to reduced stress and anxiety levels, and ultimately, higher job satisfaction (resulting in improved employee retention).

 

2. Reduced carbon footprint

This point may not be of direct benefit to either employer or employee, but rather to the environment and all life on Earth.

When an employee is working from the comfort of their own home, they spend less time on the road. By reducing the number of people driving to and from the office every day, the big lockdown of 2020 dramatically reduced harmful carbon emissions - which is great news for the planet!

 

3. Healthier lifestyle

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can sometimes be difficult when you work in an office environment with lots of colleagues. Daily office snacks and the occasional birthday cake can make it hard to stick to one's diet. However, when working from home, all of these temptations are taken away.

With all of the extra time that remote working can unlock, you may also be able to dedicate more effort to your diet and lifestyle. For example, you could use that time to prepare more balanced meals, or squeeze in a quick exercise session immediately before or after work.

 

4. Reduced need for office space

With employees working remotely, the need for office space is reduced. Whether a company rents its premises or owns them outright, without the workers in the building, there is no need to continue using it. This gives organisations the opportunity to slash their running costs, either by using the office on a part-time basis or selling up completely and finding more flexible spaces to work from if and when needed.

Disadvantages of remote working

As we've seen, remote working offers several valuable benefits. However, it also comes with a few potential drawbacks for both employer and employee.

The disadvantages of remote working include:

 

1. Poor communication

When working in the same building as everyone else, it is very easy to communicate and collaborate with your fellow team members. When working outside of the office, this can become extremely challenging, especially if your colleagues take a long time to respond to messages. In this case, a simple task that would have taken a short amount of time to complete in the office can become exasperatingly long-winded at home.

This can be a real stumbling block for effective team collaboration, and is one of the most common issues with remote working.

 

2. Increased distractions

Whilst working from home, you are generally more likely to get distracted. Whether it's your partner, children, pets, the TV or the front door, there are far more distractions in our homes than in an office or other communal workplace, where the atmosphere is focused on productivity.

With all of these distractions, it can sometimes be difficult to get into 'work mode' and fully focus on the task at hand, again preventing effective team collaboration if colleagues are relying on you to communicate with them or complete a certain task ASAP.

 

3. Reduced social interaction

Despite all the advantages of working from home, many people still enjoy travelling to the office and seeing their colleagues in person as this gives them a nice break from their home life and a chance to socialise. This is especially true for workers who live alone.

The workplace is a crucial source of social interaction for a lot of people. Many end up making good friends among their co-workers and communicating even when they're not at work. When forced to work from home, this social interaction is lost, which can have a real negative effect on people and their mental health.

How We Support Our Employees' Mental Health

For these reasons, it's important that employers establish positive remote team-building exercises that keep employees engaged and social, despite having to follow safety measures.

 

4. Cybersecurity issues

When you are working from an office, you will most likely be working on your company's networks - which are (hopefully) highly secure, protecting much of the sensitive data that you use on a day-to-day basis. Whilst working from home, however, you are required to use your own home network, which may not be as secure.

As a result, there is an increased risk of a cyber attack, where personal and company information can be breached and potentially stolen. This poses a great risk for companies, as sensitive information can be compromised, potentially leading to a mountain of GDPR issues that will need to be addressed and dealt with.

 

5. Career advancement

The final disadvantage of working remotely is related to career advancement. When you're not in the office and continuously in the presence of your boss or manager, it can be easy for them to miss or not take notice of the hard work that you're still putting in. Instead, they have to rely on communication from another member of staff or yourself to gauge your performance.

This can become a real issue for employees who are striving to progress within their role or company, but struggling to climb the ladder because management are forgetting to carry out performance reviews and other important processes while everyone is working from home.

 

* * *

 

These are just some of the advantages and advantages that come with remote working. With many businesses opening up as lockdown restrictions ease, business owners may now face a tough decision: ask staff members to return to the office, encourage them to continue working from home, or introduce a blended form of working that blends remote working with traditional office-based work?

Working from Home Jobs

Further Reading