There are advantages and disadvantages to remote working. What is an advantage to one person may be a disadvantage to another. So, not everyone is suited to remote working.
Advantages
• It allows more flexibility for the individual to organise their lives and get a better balance between home and work.
• It reduces the gas emissions and helps the atmosphere by reducing the amount of traffic on the roads thus helping the environment.
• It can reduce the interruptions from colleagues and therefore enable people to concentrate on their projects for longer periods of time and be more time efficient.
• It helps to reduce stress from travelling and office politics.
• You can work wherever you want to and whenever you want if you have wire free technology.
• If you have a family it is easier to reorganise your work, if your children are ill or on school holidays.
• You need to be firm with yourself to prioritise your workload in conjunction with your personal tasks.
• If you have a dedicated workspace it is easier to keep all your business papers safe, together and to set boundaries for your family.
• You can arrange for deliveries and for maintenance contractors to do work in your home without having to take time off work.
With a fully integrated Information Technology and Communications system you can almost work in a paperless office, benefiting the environment even more.
Disadvantages
• One of the most difficult problems to overcome is communication. When working on your own you do not have other people around you to bounce ideas off; you don’t pick up on other people’s conversations which remind you that you need to do something; you cannot see how other people react when you communicate with them through email or on the telephone; you may feel lonely and if you are a ‘chatty’ person you may find it difficult not having someone there to listen to you while you work. We rely on reading people’s behaviour and body language to help us to understand how someone is feeling and we support them if they appear unhappy or troubled. This doesn’t happen if you work alone, so the support network is not there. However it can be overcome with regular telephone conferences, meetings and social get togethers
Remote working can be problematic and these problems have to be overcome and special strategies need to be formulated. To try to overcome some of the problems, we have weekly telephone conferences between all the offices, fortnightly meetings with all the team, monthly social meetings over lunch for all the team (paid for by the company). Then we have an internal telephone network between the offices and a computer network which enables everyone to see what each other is working on and the progress they are making.
