After the whole world plunged into quarantine caused by COVID-19, most people started to work remotely. According to the latest Slack survey, only 11.6% of people want to return to full-time office work. Most are happier, more efficient, and want to hang onto the benefits of remote work when the pandemic ends. However, does everything as bright and sunny as we think? SD Solutions has a personal interest in nipping things in the bud.
What is it like working in the office?
Senior in the front, let’s start with reviewing the work in the office. Live communication is not the only pros to talk about. Imagine how much more comfortable to deal with a team when mates are sitting next to you. It is much easier to ask a question in one second and do the work more appropriately than to switch to a messenger.
Also, performances and reviews are more productive than in Zoom or Google Meet. Live discussions without equipment problems shorten the spent time and let each team member be involved in the meeting processes. What’s more, you become more motivated seeing your colleagues work as hard as possible. And of course, motivation is not only about effectiveness but also ease in covering the task challenges.
On the other hand, in the office, you may face some distracting things such as other workers’ discussions. Often you might not be able to concentrate because of more people around. In addition and on the top, you should get up earlier, and spend more time and money to get to the office.
What is it like working online?
After all, remote work also does have a lot of pros. People can cope with some urgent and day-to-day activities like taking children to school, eliminating the stress of having to keep up with everything at once. They can save time and money to spend with their families.
If people are working alone in their room, it is much easier to concentrate and let the task be done much faster. There is no feeling of overcontrolling, and you quietly can cope with deadlines. However, as in the office, there are many distractions at home, and not always people can deal with them.
So despite all the positive press about working remotely, the experience shows another side of the coin. The first remote con is the lack of communication between team members, which may lead to problems with bonding and thus misunderstanding while working together. And the feeling of loneliness has psychological pressure on the team’s health and the outcomes.
Also, many strategies of managers may be impossible with a remote team. Some standard measurements of management and performance might not be applied to remote work, as the working schedule could differ from the classic one. Finding and implementing the new pattern can take much time and human resources before it finally works out.
Building an in-house culture, handling hands-on training/onboarding processes, and coaching/mentoring remotely may cause some difficulties as well, since you have to deal with different aspects and departments at the same time.
There’s another worry while working or managing remote teams — security. Storing it online exposes you to potential vulnerabilities, especially if your business deals with sensitive data.
So, which mode does SD Solutions choose?
The world is changing – there’s no doubt about that. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that full-time remote work is the best decision. Both remote and office working schedules have benefits as well as challenges. That is why we insist our employees have a flexible working plan — our team members can work both from home or come to the office any time they want. Our mates tend to stick to the system 2/3. Two is the number of days in the office for team communication and synchronization, and three days they choose to get done remotely. It perfectly works for our company, so we try to cover all the challenges with our own solutions.
