Is Remote Work the Future of Work?

Essay analysing the pros and cons of remote work

Introduction

Remote work is when an employee or freelancer/contractor perform their professional duties at a location other than a traditional office (Cambridge English Dictionary, 2018).

The possibility of working remotely is a recent development. Before the IT boom of the 1980s and 1990s, it would not have been a possibility for the vast majority of working people.

Nowadays, with the IT workforce growing worldwide, remote work is increasingly becoming an option. A whole lifestyle genre has been developed around remote work. People who have chosen to work remotely for the purposes of extensive or ongoing travel have taken on the title description of ‘Digital Nomad’ (Chi, 2018).

There are pros and cons of remote working for both the individual worker, and employers.

This essay presents an analysis of the pros and cons of remote working from both perspectives. I will endeavour to conclude as to whether, overall, there are more pros or cons to remote working.

The pros and cons of remote working: employees/individuals

Pros:

Remote working has a variety of benefits for employees. One major pro is that they no longer have to commute to work. The average daily commute to and from work in the UK is approximately one hour (gov.uk, 2017), and that is without any unforeseen transport issues. The remote worker also saves money they would have spent commuting for petrol and the upkeep of a vehicle, or the cost of public transport.

Remote workers can spend more time with their family. The time saved not commuting can be utilised for health and fitness purposes or to develop a better work/life balance.

Remote working also benefits people with specific dietary requirements, such as if they are vegan and/or gluten-free, for example. It is much easier to adhere to such diets from home.

Working remotely also enables workers to manage the distractions in their environment, and many remote workers experience a significant increase in productivity compared with working in a traditional office (Chignell, 2018).

As indicated in the introduction, depending on the specific requirements of a remote working role, there is the possibility of being able to travel extensively or continuously as a remote working ‘Digital Nomad’.

Cons:

While there are various benefits for workers to work remotely, there are also, for some, various drawbacks.

One con is the sense of employee isolation. While it is very possible to engage and interact with colleagues from anywhere in the world, it is almost stating the obvious to say that the sense of being a part of a team is more visceral in-person (Go, 2018).

Another negative can be that there are actually more distractions at home than there are at work. This can work both ways. Some workers are more distracted by the interruption of colleagues and the general office bustle, whereas others are more distracted by family or temptations such as TV etc.

While comprehensive studies have shown that remote working typically increases productivity (Bloom, 2015), this is not yet an established understanding among many employers. The image of a remote worker procrastinating and being distracted lingers on in some companies. Therefore, a remote working employee may feel as though they don’t have the trust of their management as much as if they were in the office being directly supervised.

That concludes my analysis of the pros and cons of remote working from an employee’s perspective. I will now analyse the pros and cons from an employer’s/client’s perspective.

The pros and cons of remote working: employers/organisations

Pros:

Organisations/employers have to consider a number of factors when deciding whether to implement and offer remote working to their employees. Their key concerns are primarily performance and finance related.

Positive benefits include the saving of money when it comes to the requirement for physical office space for employees. A business would have less overheads and increased cash flow as a result of employing remote staff. Recent studies have shown that remote employees are more productive than office based employees, and this, of course, has positive financial implications for a company (Forbes, 2017).

As well as the direct financial benefits, with the number of workers actively seeking remote working options, companies who do offer such options become a more attractive proposition. Therefore, companies who offer remote working options could attract the best employees, which again significantly impacts business performance and finances.

With the combined impact of saving money and recruiting the best talent, it is easy to see why more companies are offering remote work options to their employees. But what are the drawbacks?

Cons:

Less than ideal communication between team members is one of the drawbacks for businesses who employ a distributed workforce (Forbes Technology Council, 2017). While there are tools such as Slack that allow for open and instant messaging, digital communication doesn’t allow as easily for in-depth communicative requirements. Employees can feel isolated, misinterpretations can happen between staff, and interactivity can generally decrease.

Security is also a major concern. Options exist with cloud-based solutions, but implementation can be expensive and relatively time-consuming. Clients/customers will need convincing that their data is protected at all times.

Another con is just how new remote working is, and, if it is to be offered to all employees, it would involve a major fundamental transformation of the business, its operations and functionality, and its culture.

Remote work employees can appear to be less loyal and committed and more often see remote roles as temporary steps upward in their career (Go, 2018).

Conclusion

Over the last five years (currently 2018), remote working has become noticeably more mainstream, with an exponential increase in the amount of companies offering remote work (Shin, 2017). There is every reason to believe this trend is going to continue and increase.

That being so, and while there are cons to implementing a remote workforce for businesses, if they want to cut costs and hire the best staff, then it increasingly seems they will have to find ways to adapt.

The main cons for businesses are seemingly in the transition. There are various obstacles to overcome, but there are bound to be when the whole business world undergoes such a dramatic transformation as it has since the 1980s and 1990s with the advent of PCs and then the Internet.

When businesses have adapted, the signs are that the transition is positive. Overall, overheads are reduced, and staff happiness and productivity increases.

It would appear that the cons of remote working for both employees and employers are relatively minor. Add in the establishment of best practises developed over time, and the advent of more specific collaborative tools, and the future of remote work looks bright for employees and employers alike.

References

Bloom, N. (2015). Nicholas Bloom's Website. Retrieved 22 December, 2018, from https://nbloom.people.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj4746/f/wfh.pdf

Cambridge dictionary. (2018). Cambridge Online Dictionary. Retrieved 22 December, 2018, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/remote-working

Chi, C. (2018, 22nd June). What is a Digital Nomad and How Do You Become One?. [Weblog]. Retrieved 22 December 2018, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/digital-nomad

Chignell, B. (2018, 16th July). CIPHR. [Weblog]. Retrieved 22 December 2018, from https://www.ciphr.com/advice/10-essential-remote-working-statistics/

Department for transport. (2017). Department for Transport Statistics. Retrieved 22 December, 2018, from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/661933/tsgb-2017-report-summaries.pdf

Forbes. (2017, 3rd August). 13 Pros And Cons Of Having A Distributed Workforce. [Weblog]. Retrieved 22 December 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/08/03/13-pros-and-cons-of-having-a-distributed-workforce/#14ea856013d9

Forbes. (2017, 27th September). Seven Business Benefits Of Having Remote Employees. [Weblog]. Retrieved 22 December 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2017/09/27/seven-business-benefits-of-having-remote-employees/#44c7a8c3d1d5

Go, R. (2018, 9th January). CIPHR. [Weblog]. Retrieved 22 December 2018, from https://blog.hubstaff.com/disadvantages-of-working-from-home/

Shin, L. (2017, 31st January). Work From Home In 2017: The Top 100 Companies Offering Remote Jobs. [Weblog]. Retrieved 22 December 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/08/03/13-pros-and-cons-of-having-a-distributed-workforce/#14ea856013d9