The Cons of Working Remotely

We will not only talk about the advantages, but also the cons of working remotely. Nowadays people tend to work as distributed teams or working remotely. It does not mean that they should work from home. Instead, they can go to the quiet cafè, a silent public library, or just rent a commercial working space. But yes, the plague makes all of us hibernate inside our caves. Without going further than your bed area, there are so many jobs that can be done in front of our laptop. For example, being a web programmer, writers, translators, or analyst.

Image by Florian Klauer

The cons of commuting

Spending 2-3 hours of your life doing nothing except staring at the congested street. Flushing gazillions of carbon dioxide to the air. Tired body and mind. Bad weather. Let's face it: commuting sucks. By cutting the time you wasted inside the cramped subway or train, will make you have enough time for the other things that more productive.

Secondly, the cost of commuting is not cheap. The gas, the public transport ticket, and the risk of crime is the price for being on the street. Furthermore, our lives are haunted by the spread of COVID-19.

Commuting is also bad for the environment. It pumps tons of burned carbon-based fuel to the earth. It will be too late when we know that we harmed the place where our grandchildren live.

Casual and formality

No need to learn how to tie. No more fancy clothes or formal outfit. You may forget how to knot the shoelaces. I don't know if now is the era where it's still a trend to wear a tie. Zuckerberg only wears shirts. Steve Jobs wears turtlenecks. In the end, it is not about the gears, but the essence of the message we bring.

The cons of working remotely

There is always another side of a coin.

Society's paradigm

You will get questions, and more questions, related to the reason why you're still at home. They think that if you work from home, that means you have a bunch of free time. The society is not used to remote workers or digital nomad. In short, people will think if you don't go to the physical office from 9 to 5, you have no job.

Working remotely is a kinda unconventional option of living. This path is full of unusual habits and life adjustments. Most of the time the shortest way to answer plenty of questions is just silence.

Verbal Communication

Bad collaboration is one of the cons of working remotely. Because it is harder to express your feelings with just text or emojis. A lack of communication can be vexatious. Moreover, if all of the workers come from various continents, languages, or cultures. The most important tools to have should bring the message not only from mind to mind, but also to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

The Distractions

The sound of your next-door-neighbor lawnmower. People passing by. The delivery man. Your very own family member. The distraction is everywhere, even from your laptop or smartphones. It is hard to have the ignoring skill. It needs discipline from day one. The people around us will have to understand that we are focusing to bring more money to them. They need to concede that we are working, not at home ready to take them to the grocery stores.

The boundary between Home and Work

There should be a wall between your real home and your working space. You can not eat while working on your table, nor typing on your couch or bed. Don't hesitate to make a bold line between the space where you accomplish job tasks, and where you spend your time with relatives. Once you feel that you should not cross the border, it's very easy to know the working-mode versus the i-am-home-mode.

Let's join the club!

The cons of working remotely should not stop you from joining the club. If you also consider following the path, I recommend you to read a book by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson titled "Remote: Office Not Required". The book is written by people behind 37Signals, a company that built collaboration tools such as Basecamp, Campfire, Ta-da List, and Writeboard.