By Michael Morris

This year, the world has undergone a vast remote working experiment. Although some companies had already introduced this option for their workers, COVID-19 drastically accelerated the levels of remote working out of necessity.

So has the experiment been a success? What are the pros and cons of remote working? 

The Advantages of Remote Working

Let’s start with the advantages of remote working.

For the employee, there are wide range of benefits that include:

• Greater work-life balance. Rather than working rigid 9-5 office hours, with a potentially punishing commute further consuming the day, remote workers can work from a location of their choosing. With less time spent commuting, they can fill their day with more personally rewarding activities – whether that’s spending time with the family, going to the gym, or simply relaxing at home.
• Saving money. Whether it’s a rail ticket or fuel for the car, commuting can also cost a lot of money.
• Improved focus. For many workers, a noisy office is not the most conducive working environment. In one survey of UK workers, 68% felt they were more productive or equally productive at home.

There are also benefits for employers, with some of the most significant being:

• Greater productivity and a more engaged workforce. Happy and healthy workers are also more productive workers. It’s not surprising that remote workers’ enhanced levels of wellbeing can lead them to work more effectively too.
• Lower costs. The cost of running an office for five days a week can be substantial. Whether businesses implement remote working full-time or part-time, they will end up saving some money.
• New talent. A remote working setup allows businesses to seek talent from further afield. 

The Disadvantages of Remote Working

Although remote working undoubtedly has many benefits, there are naturally some downsides that need to be considered too. Although video conferencing with colleagues is great for work purposes, it’s far from ideal for socialising. It’s difficult for more than one person to talk at the same time, and so group chats can descend into incoherent chaos. Face-to-face communication is important for the social culture and togetherness of a company, and remote communication is not quite able to fill the gap – yet. In future, of course, it could be that new virtual reality technology will improve matters here.

For the individual remote worker, too, this isolation can become depressing. It’s important to guard remote workers’ mental health, and ensure that they still feel involved as much as possible. Although remote working has some definite upsides for mental health, the potential downsides should not be ignored.

Has the experiment been a success?

Many businesses have been historically wary of introducing remote working, but the experiment during the pandemic has dispelled some of the misconceptions they might have had. Remote workers do not slack off, but continue to work productively – and some studies even suggest those who work at home are actually more productive. 

For the workers themselves, working from home can be something of a mixed blessing. Many have celebrated the improved work-life balance and wellbeing that remote working has brought them, but there are signs that remote working full-time can start to take its toll. Others have experienced increasing isolation – craving the social atmosphere of the office. 

It may be, of course, that the right balance lies in the middle ground – remote working a few days a week to improve wellbeing, but also benefiting from office socialising. In general, however, it’s clear that the remote working experiment has been largely successful: opening up new horizons of possibility for employers and employees alike. 

More great resources

Working from Home Guide

Please find below an in-depth guide on creating a healthy and productive workplace for people working from home. This is very useful since many are still under COVID-19 lockdowns. It will help you gain an understanding of the biggest challenges faced by remote workers dealing with stress, anxiety, and maintaining work-life balance at home.

Working from Home: A Guide to Creating a Healthy and Productive Workspace

Guide to Remote Working and Mental Health

This guide offers a lot of great information, such as:

• Why remote working has become the new normal due to lockdowns – An estimated 30% of the workforce could be home-based by the end of 2021.
• How remote working can significantly affect physical and mental health.
• Different ways you can alleviate stress when working from home, such as creating a comfortable work environment and taking regular breaks.

How employers can help to make working from home healthier and less stressful for their employees. Click below for the full Guide.

Remote Working & Mental Health: A Young Professional’s Guide

Your home and your wellbeing: how to achieve a work-life balance while working from home

This guide offers helpful insights:

• 65% of people value a good work-life balance as the most important factor when looking for work. 
• As of April 2021, 31% of workers still worked remotely for the majority of the time.
• The proportion of people working remotely varies hugely between sectors. In the Information and Communication industry, 81% of the workforce is remote. In contrast, just 8% of Accommodation and Food Service employees work remotely.
• As of December 2020, there were 22% more people who worked from home in rural areas than in urban areas.

For more helpful information about:

• Changing attitudes and behaviours to work-life balance
• Tips on how to adjust and be more productive when working from home
• Red flags that you’re not managing work-life balance well
• How working from home affects your mortgage

How to achieve a work-life balance while working from home