#Leadership : 3 Pitfalls Of Remote Work That You Probably Aren’t Thinking About…Ask yourself a Few Key Questions to Suss Out Whether a Home Office makes More Career Sense than an Open-Concept Office.
Before you Decide to Accept a Remote Role or To Take Advantage of your Company’s New Work-from-Anywhere Policy, it Makes Sense to Ask yourself a Few Key Questions to Suss Out Whether a Home Office makes More Career Sense than an Open-Concept Office. You know the conventional wisdom about having a dedicated workspace and avoiding taking conference calls in your PJs, but there are weightier factors you should also be considering.
If the concept of workplace flexibility conjures up happy visions of writing code on the beach in Bali or designing marketing materials on your laptop at a Bushwick coffee shop, you’re very likely one of the many, many, young workerswho romanticizes remote working as a golden ticket to having your cake and eating it, too — a steady paycheck and the ability to govern your own daily schedule.
Of course, there is a catch. Not all remote work opportunities are created equal. Even though the growth of the gig economy means that teleworking (including contract and permalance roles) is on the rise, many companies don’t excel at managing a dispersed workforce or prioritize career development and cost-cutting equally and not all remote work setups will benefit your own work style or future goals. Before you decide to accept a remote role or to take advantage of your company’s new work-from-anywhere policy, it makes sense to ask yourself a few key questions to suss out whether a home office makes more career sense than an open-concept office. You know the conventional wisdom about having a dedicated workspace and avoiding taking conference calls in your PJs, but there are weightier factors you should also be considering.
How much is face-time valued at my company?
I knew a manager who was very puzzled by the fact that a survey of his team uncovered the fact that many of them thought they were working harder than their teammates. It turned out that having a flexible work schedule and no set policies governing remote work meant that the employees who came to the office every day for 9 a.m. felt that those who came in later or worked from home weren’t being as productive. Out of sight, out of mind is a real danger for remote workers , especially in companies that have an old-fashioned more time in the office = more commitment and productivity mindset. Think of Yahoo’s decision to halt all remote work in order to improve “speed and quality,” for example. The not-so-subtle message there is that remote work is both less productive and of lower quality than what can be achieved in the office.
Not seeing your team every day does mean that you obviously miss out on spontaneous, synergistic conversations, but it also means that no one sees you performing your job and in-the-moment opportunities to display leadership are much rarer — both factors that affect which employees get recognized and promoted. You might be a valued member of the team, but your ability to be a day-to-day influencer is limited by the fact people don’t see you day to day. If career advancement is one of your goals, understand that moving up the ladder when you aren’t in the same room with it is often a tricky proposition.
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Am I good at setting boundaries?
The typical corporate workday provides inherent structure. You start. You go for lunch for a predetermined amout of time. You end the day. In between, you may have meetings, do calls with clients or serve customers. How heavily do you rely on this built-in structure and associated norms to keep you on track? If the answer is “a lot,” working remotely is going to be a big adjustment for you. If you tend to be an overachiever type, the temptation to work through lunch or to keep answering emails into the evening (after all, there’s no commute to worry about) is strong and there’s little to check it but your own willpower. By contrast, if you tend to procrastinate by nature, working remotely removes the checks and balances on this tendency that a formal workplace offers. If you were one of those college students who pulled all-nighters to finish papers and you haven’t built better habits since then, remote working provides a prime opportunity to slip into your old ways.
How much of my social life revolves around work?
As companies increasingly compete on the basis of amenities and perks,especially when trying to attract young talent, our workplaces are morphing into social hubs. And as we work longer hours and take greater advantage of those offerings, more of our social lives become dependent on the office. Sure, grabbing a beer with colleagues is nothing new, but now you can also play on the corporate dodge ball team, join a group of coworkers training for Tough Mudder or take part in the monthly poker night. If you work for one of these super-social employers and/or this is a facet of your working life that you value, be aware that going remote will limit your opportunities for non-work engagement with your colleagues. If you’re a die-hard introvert, you may welcome the free pass this gives you on socializing, but if you’ve been used to converting coworkers into friends, it might be a rougher transition.
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Forbes.com | August 17, 2015 | J. Maureen Henderson