Key Points

• Remote work can fail due to a lack of effort on the worker’s part.
• A good home office is one that has clear boundaries and time set.
• Communication and collaboration are paramount for any remote worker.

What are the common challenges of remote work? Remote work itself has become a regular part of many offices. However, there are some drawbacks to this hands-off workflow. When remote work started becoming more prevalent at the start of the pandemic, these drawbacks weren’t given much thought.

That said, you give anything significant amounts of time, and the cracks are bound to show up. So, with that in mind, today’s guide is all about getting down to the pain points of remote work. We aren’t just highlighting these drawbacks and shortcomings though. We’re going to take the time to look for better and lasting solutions. After all, any workflow is going to have its drawbacks.

Understanding Remote Work

At its core, remote work is different from your typical office work. This is thanks in part to the concept that you’re completely divorced from the notion of a physical brick-and-mortar location. Now, for certain industries, there is no need for a physical space. After all, there is little use or need for a physical space for online journalism and content creation.

Remote work has certain drawbacks for the average person. It can’t be helped, everyone has different needs. For some, the idea of being able to spend more time with family or pets can be enticing. However, that also presents its own distractions and drawbacks. Instead, it is about striking a balance.

Work is work, even if it is at your house. As someone that has done remote work for years on-and-off, I feel like I’ve got a unique perspective on how to accommodate and overcome these challenges. It isn’t easy by any means. The building blocks for achieving success in online work are something that require dedication and commitment.

Is the Move Back to the Office Necessary?

This is likely my personal bias speaking, but I think the need for offices is entirely dependent on the sector of work. I wouldn’t trust a car built completely remotely, but I’ve used numerous apps and other products that were shipped without a physical location considered.

As such, I think the move back to the office is a case-by-case scenario. The world has changed in the years since COVID-19 run its course. Those changes have presented new challenges and also shown the cracks in the foundation for in-person and remote work alike.

I’m not going to pose as some sort of guru or expert, but remote work is fantastic for certain individuals. Other people might benefit from the structure and social constructs afforded to office life. That isn’t a knock against anyone, but neither solution is a catch-all, one-size-fits-all deal.

Common Challenges of Remote Work

Now that I’ve bored you to death talking about the merits and shift to remote work, let’s look at some of the challenges. I’ve been doing this for nearly a decade all told, with some shifts to hybrid work over the years. However, I was doing remote work before it was what we consider fashionable, as tech doesn’t necessarily require someone in the office.

That said, there are some sore sticking points that I’ve noticed over my time running a home office. These aren’t dealbreakers by any means, but things you’ll want to keep in mind as you start embarking on your own work-from-home career.

Isolation

When I think of the common challenges of remote work, this is at the top. Isolation is a common feeling to have when working from home. You aren’t immersed into a social environment, which just about every office or setting can provide. This is further exacerbated if you live alone. The walls you call home can feel somewhat suffocating after a time.

Additionally, this leads to drops in productivity, which will impact performance at work. Isolation is a normal feeling to have, people are social animals by design. If you’re feeling isolated, that is a completely natural response to have to working from home.

Communication

This goes right alongside the concept of isolation. When you’re considering additional challenges of remote work, communication is likely going to be a common sticking point. Office work shows us that we can just swing by a co-worker’s desk or knock on the manager’s door when there is a question. That isn’t going to be the case when working from home.

More often than not, depending on the organization, you might have a lag time between email responses. Communication is a key concept of any industry, and it becomes glaringly obvious when looking at remote work.

Balancing Work and Life

As a father, this is one of the most common challenges of remote work for me. Balancing work and my life is a challenge I have to tackle daily. When you’ve got kids milling about, it can be all too tempting to drop everything when you hear them getting into a spat in the next room. I’ve lost track of the hours which have just melted away in the wake of an argument between two of my kids.

Productivity

If you’re having trouble sticking on to tasks, you’re going to see your productivity suffer. This another of the most common challenges of remote work many will face. It is beyond tempting to go surfing social media, get lost in your Spotify weekly recommendations, or go binge watch something on your favorite streaming site.

Time Management

If you’re losing track of time, you’re losing track of performance. Another of the most common challenges of remote work relates to time. Keeping track of time is a cinch at the office. You’ve got set hours, you know when to arrive, and you typically know when you’re leaving. How do you delineate this experience when your home office is just mere feet away from your bedroom or the nearest TV?

Digital Security

This might not be one of the most common challenges of remote work for most, but it is a point of concern. Digital security is a top concern, especially when you consider how valuable data is. It just takes a single phishing email, an errant PDF clicked, and so forth to wreak havoc on an organization.

Tech Issues

Finally, one of the most common challenges of remote work is just dealing with tech problems. You don’t have an IT department on staff, unless you’re using a company-issued computer. As such, when something goes wrong, that’s on you.

How to Overcome These Challenges

How do you overcome the most common challenges of remote work? Well, it’s a bit simpler in concept than you might think. Implementing lasting changes can be difficult at first, but when properly done, you’ll see your productivity soaring and your overall happiness with work increasing.

Collaborate

Most work you’ll do is a team effort, so why not embrace the team part? Collaboration is a great way to meet your co-workers in a virtual space and develop a rapport. Further, it might help another remote worker get over their own sense of isolation. When working with other people, you’ll see isolation just seems to disappear.

Communication Infrastructure

Depending on the organization, there might be third-party communication standards in place. I know for a fact that many of the places I’ve worked for in the past use communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack to let people interact with one another. Slack is particularly useful because you can fire off messages to your co-workers when issues arise.

Setting Boundaries

When determining a work-life balance, boundaries are going to be a must. As tempting as it is to try and help your three-year-old with an issue they’re having while playing with blocks, now isn’t the time. You’ll still have ample time to spend with family and friends when the work is done. However, boundaries are a bit like fences when looking at a house. Solid boundaries are going to make for a healthy home office environment.

Milestones and Goals

Everyday when I start my workload, I look at what needs to be done and set up cards in a personal Trello board. These serve as my milestones and goals for the day. On average, I know how long each task takes me, so I assign time values to each card. Boards are further marked to distinguish when a task has been completed. This helps me to stay on task and avoid one of the common challenges of remote work with relative ease.

Set Work Hours

Remote work can be flexible by nature. However, setting clear work and relaxation hours are going to make a world of difference for how you approach things. From 10AM to 6PM, I consider myself on the clock at work. I set reminders on my phone, tablet, and laptop, and inform my spouse and kids. If I’m at work, then I’m at work. I’ll take scheduled breaks as well, but that depends on the tasks at hand for the day.

Basic Digital Hygiene

Learning a few tricks of the trade when it comes to using a computer is going to go a long way in maintaining digital security. Most communications from your superiors are going to be clearly marked, but that isn’t always the case. As such, take time to verify that you’re supposed to receive an email, message, or so forth.

Further, the installation of basic utilities like a firewall and antivirus suite are going to save more time and energy than you can imagine. Firewalls help prevent network intrusions, and an antivirus suite is going to make common virus and malware infections a thing of the past. Additionally, you might also want to consider using a VPN oriented toward security if your organization isn’t providing one.

Redundancy

When I started my journey into tech, there was always a saying that was bandied about, “One is none, two are one.” Now, this might seem murky at first glance, but let me explain. Modern tech requires redundancy by design. If your computer fails, that is horrible to consider, but how do you continue working? I backup all important work files online to a cloud storage service. There are plenty of options, like Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud.

Additionally, you might want to consider keeping a cheap secondary computer on hand. If my laptop goes out, I have an older MacBook I can fall back to. It isn’t ideal, but planning ahead is going to keep your work rhythm going without a hitch.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

Casting aside the common challenges of remote work for a moment, there are still plenty of stones left unturned in your business journey. For example, you might want to look into some of the digital tools and platforms organizations are using to make remote teams perform at their absolute best.

Further, you might want to look at how design thinking is used in cross-functional teams. Design thinking is a natural and intuitive way of designing products. Cross-functional teams show the strength and efficacy of this approach, as you’ll find from our guide.

Conclusion

Overcoming the common challenges of remote work can seem daunting at first. However, with a little time, dedication, and planning, you can make your home office a great place to work. It takes time and effort, but the final result is well worth it.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Ground Picture/Shutterstock.com.