The Future of Remote Work: Pros & Cons

The COVID-19 led to quarantine, self-imposed isolation, and lockdowns. Millions of people around the world chose to work from home then. After the pandemic, many people are returning to the workplace. People have noticed the benefits and limitations of remote work.

Now, the question is what the future of remote work is. This article will explore the pros and cons of remote work and its future.

Many surveys have reported that hybrid models of remote work are quite effective. About 20% of the workforce can work remotely three to five days a week as effectively as they can from the office. The potential of remote work is confined to only highly skilled and highly educated persons. Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of remote work.

Pros Of Remote Work

1. Work-life Balance

In today’s fast-paced life, maintaining a good work-life balance is a kind of challenge. Working eight hours a day leaves much less time for family. Working from home enables you to spend quality time with your family as it curtails the journey from office to home.

2. Productivity

Working from home leads to higher productivity compared to working from the office. You can work comfortably from your home. In 2020, April and May, the pandemic months, showed the steepest productivity.

3. Punctuality

Working from home is a time-saving and comfortable activity. As remote work may start the moment when you wake up from bed, it doesn’t include a hectic journey. So, an employee can maintain punctuality because traffic jams en route can’t cause delays in work.

4. Save Money

Remote work can save money for company owners as it enables businesses to rent small office spaces, to save electricity bills and infrastructural expenses. Sitting in a small office area, you can get all your work done remotely by employers.

5. Flexibility

Remote work means working from anywhere, anytime. It leads to flexible working hours. So, businesses can stretch their working hours with limited staff. On the other hand, employees can work and complete their tasks at any time of the day.

Cons of Remote Work

1. Disturbance At Home

It is quite difficult to focus on your work at home as there exist many distractions. Disturbances include screaming children, household chores, roadside traffic chaos, and doorbells. Consequently, your speed and concentration in your work are hampered. It affects the productivity of the company.

2. Loss of Work-Life Balance

It seems that remote work will improve work-life balance. But the reality is the opposite. As working from home is flexible and generally does not maintain a schedule, an employee needs to work beyond office hours. That means an office hour extends from eight to ten hours. This hampers work-life balance, leading to low morale.

3. Need for Meetings

The employees of a company are spread far and wide. So, in remote work, the manager can no longer supervise the work of the employees by visiting the office. Here comes the need for frequent meetings, which is the only way to check the work. But, too many meetings lead to frustration among employees.

4. Cybersecurity Issues

Businesses give security the most priority. However, in the case of remote working arrangements, cybersecurity issues become critical. A company’s security is at stake when factors like VPN configurations, antivirus software, and firewalls matter. If an employee works from a coffee shop with public wi-fi and if he uses a personal device in a business network, complicating situations arise. Here, businesses must meet security expectations to reduce a cybersecurity disaster.

5. Unstable Internet Access

Internet connection is not always stable. Internet connections are disrupted due to load-shedding. Its speed and reliability may vary from time to time. In densely populated cities, low-speed internet, poor video connections for meetings, poor audio connections, and buffering are common.

Importance of Hybrid Remote Work

Currently, only 5-7% of the workforce regularly works from home in advanced countries. More employees working remotely means fewer people traveling to different places for work. This may reduce traveling costs, and hectic journeys and increase punctuality. But it affects the economies of the country. This would badly affect transportation, restaurants, auto sales, and demand for real estate business.

Conclusion

Even after COVID-19, some types of remote work are likely to continue. Remote work requires investment in digital infrastructure, structural change in cities, real estate, food services, and freeing up office space.

After considering all the advantages and disadvantages, it may be said that remote work impacts urban economies positively. It enhances productivity, punctuality, and flexibility. However, you notice that working culture and environment will vanish in remote work. Moreover, those, who stay alone at home, will feel lonely while working from home alone. Self-motivated persons can improve here because there are many distractions in remote work. Hybrid remote work, where very few highly-skilled persons will work remotely, is appreciable.