While we all know there are a number of advantages of working from home, have you ever considered the negative impact of not going to the office?
After speaking with numerous companies and executives we found that while working on a hybrid basis or completely remote offers so many conveniences, you should also consider some of the ramifications of not working at the office.
Here are some of the negative issues that we have found from working at home:
1) Social interaction, Culture- Not being able to interact with your colleagues and management on a face to face basis. This can be quite isolating and makes it very difficult to build a work culture. Meeting with someone on a video conference is not the same as in person.
2) Accessibility – As issues come up that need to be resolved, if you are in the office, your manager can reach out to you and discuss the situation and assign the task to you, if you are working remotely, you may not be available when they reach out to you and may not get the assignment.
3) Being promoted and moving up- If you are not in the office and your colleagues are, you may be “out of sight” and “out of mind”, meaning once again that your manager may go to the person they can actually speak with in person vs waiting for someone to get back to them via phone or email. When it comes to promotion time, the person in the office may have an advantage over the remote worker.
4) Developing management skills- While you can assign tasks, follow up and review the work of your staff remotely, working directly with them and being able to see when they need your assistance and working with them one on one in person, may put you in a better position to evaluate and help them develop better management skills.
5) Loss of Productivity- While some folks have the ability to work at home with a home office and extra space, many others do not . With young children, lack of space, pets and other distractions, some people are having a difficult time getting their work done at home.
6) Lack of Security- When working at home many individuals are working on highly insecure internet systems. This can cause significant problems especially today when ransomware and cybersecurity issues are growing everyday.
Like everything else in life, there are pros and cons of remote working and while so many people are focused on the advantages of working at home, we felt that it would be helpful to point out the disadvantages as well.
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate this joyous occasion!
Leave a Reply