Is Remote Working A Practical Solution Or A Hollow Dream

Gone are the days when going to work could only mean commuting to a demanding nine to five or burning the midnight oil on the night shift. These days, the world has made room for a more informal way of approaching employment. Contemporary workers enjoy a freedom that their counterparts from previous generations could only dream of having. What's more, access to the internet has made it possible for people to adopt the freelance lifestyle and work remotely. What's more, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic have accelerated the shift to remote working. With authorities having to enforce stringent regulations to curb the virus, many companies have had to take up the work-from-home arrangement to maintain productivity.

Nevertheless, not everyone believes that remote working is the answer to maintaining productivity during the pandemic. Many business owners prefer to update their office signage to address the pandemic challenges instead of remote work. People who support this idea argue that the entire premise of working from a central location is for increased productivity. Despite this, studies have shown that the rise in remote working will not end anytime soon. Experts indicate that the number of remote workers will increase from 16 percent to 34 percent of the entire global workforce.

With this imminent transformation in our midst, the question in everyone's mind is whether remote working is the answer to sustaining a healthy economy. This article argues the effects of embracing this new system to decipher whether it is the right strategy.

What Does It Mean To Work Remotely?

Remote working is a job arrangement where workers go about their daily professional duties away from the usual office environment. Therefore, people who work remotely choose where they want to be based. Supporters of remote working argue that workers don't need to do a job at a specific place for them to execute it successfully. This newfound paradigm shift has received mixed sentiments from people. While some claim that remote working presents countless benefits that will help boost productivity, some fail to see its feasibility. For this reason, business owners need to evaluate how distance working will affect their companies before implementing the idea.

The Indispensable Role of Employees

There's no denying that although businesses will be gravely affected by this paradigm shift, the employees will be the most impacted. Not every worker has the potential to be a successful remote worker. While most employees would prefer to work from home, there is no way of telling the percentage that will succeed. The fear that most workers wouldn't find the perfect work-home balance is why many companies shunned the thought of remote working before the global pandemic. Companies such as Yahoo regretted incorporating the work from home policy back in 2013 due to reduced innovation. The company revealed that speed and quality were often sacrificed when employees worked remotely. To provide a scope of what employee-related factors might diminish the efforts to work remotely, here are some of the reasons why workers might not be able to handle the switch.

Inexperienced Workers Will Be Disadvantaged

Studies conducted on the viability of remote working plans have revealed that this functioning model will be detrimental to young inexperienced workers. The study points out how relatively new employees will miss numerous learning opportunities when they work from home. Moreover, factors that will affect an employee's long-term career, such as apprenticeship and relationship-building, won't be available for inexperienced employees.

Discipline

For business owners, one of the most significant factors to consider about remote working is whether your employees are self-driven. Due to reduced supervision, productivity when performing office duties remotely squarely depends on employees' discipline. Individual roles also play a significant part in the success of remote working. Employees with more technical responsibilities that they can perform anywhere are most likely to succeed if they opt to work from home.

Reduced Morale and Productivity

There's no denying that happy and healthy employees lead to the success of a company. That said, many businesses that adopted the remote working setup saw a reduction in productivity a few months after the shift. One of the principal reasons behind this is the reduced morale and camaraderie that results from working remotely. The COVID-19 crisis and other detrimental events in 2020 have also taken a toll on productivity. Since companies can only remain profitable when employees are productive, remote working has proven insufficient for most enterprises.

How Remote Working Affects Mental Health

Anxiety and depression are just a few mental issues that correlate with work-related stress. Even so, this doesn't mean that eliminating conventional offices will get rid of the problem. In truth, remote working can contribute to poor mental stability. Research has shown that due to overreliance on technology when working from home, the boundary between work and life gets blurred. Consequently, this leads to higher stress levels for remote workers. The evidence of this lies in the fact that more than 40 percent of remote workers display high-stress levels. Moreover, given that most people are already dealing with the coronavirus blues making the switch to remote working could cause further damage to their mental health.

Furthermore, since most people think that remote working constitutes a smaller workload, the facts may be a horrible reality check. The truth of the matter is that working from home will technically increase an employee's workload. The reason behind this is the fact that employees will have to walk a tightrope when balancing work and life. Plus, due to the difficulty in balancing work responsibilities and life, remote workers may feel like they are always at work. In turn, this leads to burnouts and increased pressure.

Final Thoughts

For many companies that have been severely affected by the global pandemic, employing a remote working strategy may seem like a viable option. However, since this would mean that authorities within companies will generally have less control over how much work gets done, this operating model has proven to be unfeasible for most. Therefore, despite having several merits, working from home seems to favor short-term sustainability only. To ensure a business remains afloat in a worst-case scenario, company leaders must develop a surefire program for handling its responsibilities.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes