Working Remotely
The pitfalls and how to overcome them
Remote work and working from home have grown exponentially with technological advances in teleconferencing, online collaboration tools, faster internet speeds and a greater emphasis on work-life balance.
I've spent the better part of the last 5 years working remotely from construction trailers, from home, or coffee shops, at WeWorks, in client or consultant offices, with a team located thousands of miles away. I can attest to the fact, regardless of the apparent and desire benefits, that working remotely has plenty of drawbacks, such as loneliness and a feeling of disconnection and loss of effectiveness. But it's the lack of the spontaneous interactions that I miss most that result in some of the best ideas and breakthroughs. Not to mention the continual frustration of not being able to simply turn to your coworker to discuss or share a current issue or problem for solving, let alone the latest musical selection. Lack of returned messages, unread emails, not getting the desired results, being excluded as part of the firm or team, an easy target for scape-goating, etc, they all add up. It’s enough to drive one crazy!
Despite these 'hardships', there are ways to survive and thrive while working outside the office. That's why I'm a big proponent of dissing emails and messaging and picking up that old piece of technology we used to call a 'phone'. And for God-sakes, get out there once and a while, find some comraderie at the coffee shop or WeWorks, fly up to the home office more often than not. Use some overhead time to plug back into your profession. All advice I need to take more of myself!