Work-life balance is one of the major phenomena in everyone’s life. By scheduling the right number of hours to be spent for your work and also for your personal life activities seems to be challenging, unrealistic, and ruins out original happiness of the soul. Also, the right balancing of your work vs life is not an easily predictable one. For example, the right balance of work & life today may probably change tomorrow in certain cases.
A remote work (also known as “Work From Home”) is being one of the better options to balance the work-life of an employee, as this creates a source of encouragement and a healthier environment in both professional and personal life.
Few years ago, remote employment is basically used for the purpose of telemarketing or customer service position at below minimum gross. But, in recent days, the number of people who work primarily from home has grown faster than any other commute method.
What is remote work?
Remote work refers to a job that is done outside of the office and is also referred to as telecommuting or teleworking. In the beginning, remote work is demanding and seems to be a difficult one. Anyhow, the merits and comfort that aids with working from anywhere are massive, few among them are:
- No need of transport means to go to the office
- No traffic tensions
- No need of biometric attendance
- No managers or co-workers hanging in your shoulder
- No need to go canteen / café shop
However, the remote workers have to face a lot of problems which leads to a lack of work-life balance. Whether you’re on the hunt for a remote job or currently a remote worker, you’ll be the person who will face the few challenges. To be more productive and to do happy work, one has to overcome them.
I am listing here the top 6 challenges faced during remote working along with a list of best solutions to overcome those challenges.
(1) You are being out of the Loop – Communication disconnect & fragmented!
Communication is one of the biggest problems in this remote working, even in a physical office too. Still, remote teams are highly limited, and interacting with the co-workers possess a challenge. When you’re not in synchronization with office, you’re going to miss impromptu meetings, project progress, even small celebrations, spontaneous deskside brainstorms, etc.
Have more face-face interactions; Leverage meetings whenever possible; Meetings with no agenda
- Organize regular video meeting conference calls – “Create a relationship in the face to face conversation”
- Take responsibility for team co-ordinations in all meetings – “Stay in focus mode”
- Clarify everything utmost possible – “Kick out the cause of misunderstanding”
- Organize small meetings or small discussion regularly with your colleagues for creating uninterrupted time to focus on the work you love – “Back-Back meeting with no Agenda”
- Commit regular 1-1 conversation with your organization. Say monthly or weekly -” Affixed with your organization”
(2) You extend your working beyond the hours – Round the clock!
Even though working remotely gives flexible time in different hours, with no commute or way to leave the office, it is hard to separate from your work. The work timings go into your personal life where some people spend more time on work during the day than needed.
A genuine break is important in any task in our life; Unplugging the work at the end of the day is important for the human soul; Always schedule in buffer time
- You decide your calendar, say 9 am – 6 pm – “It is worthy for your organization productivity and your healthiness”.
- Make yourself ready to finish the task of a day on or before the end of regular office working hours – “Define your routine hours”.
- Focus on finishing what really matters – “Getting stuff done is fine, but getting the right stuff done is what really matters“.
- Before closing for the day, send an email to your co-workers stating “I am closing the day / signing on and offline” – “Be informed”.
(3) You have a trouble in managing your time & other tasks – Arrival of Interruptions!
Small interruptions can make a big impact. Distractions in work tend to slow down your progress, also can impact on productivity. Unexpected tasks will delay the delivery of already planned ones. We cannot avoid it but we can manage them with proper planning.
Cultivating an awareness around what triggers you to become distracted; Gets rid of it to hit the goal.
- Should take a separate dedicated room to work – “Place where the stuff is done and you leave when the day’s target has been finished”
- Switch off the notifications from social media. Say, Twitter reveals that an unscheduled break or email notifications that grab your attention and bring a halt in your progress – “Keep electronics away”
- Keep yourself motivated with positive thoughts to stay on the day to day task -” Reward yourself”
- Figure out where all your time goes throughout the day for a week, you may notice when you tend to get distracted and how you distract yourself – “Track your daily activities”
- Schedule a time (say e.g. 10 mins) to relax, instead of letting distractions occur throughout the day -” Time to relax”
(4) You’re Not Visible from remote – Building trust!
As a remote worker, you’ll need to be your own best advocate for success, notability, and advancement. Even if you work in loyal, building trust with your organization is a big challenge. Building trust is very valuable, because once trust is lost, then everything seems to be different.
Keep your promises and align your behaviour with your values; conscious effort to walk your talk.
- Ensure that your words and actions match – “Not just some of the time—all the time”
- Deserve confidence and consistency in project deliverables – “Deliver in Excellence – Always”
- Meet organization expectations utmost possible – “Always stands in the top of the hill”
(5) You got tensed with Technology Hiccups – Poor Internet connection & Computer breaks!
At Office, we all will be equipped with uninterruptible internet connection, and companies will always prefer fast, reliable, and secured connections. And, I am sure we will have our Admin to take care of any laptop/system issues. But, when it comes to remote working, we will face internet hook-up (or weak network signal), sudden shutdown of the laptop, battery issues, and many more. These has to be checked and addressed properly with the support of your team.
Internet outage is not like a big wall between India and Pakistan; Technology world brings enormous option aids to tackle the intervention.
- Make sure to know the proper network connection before settling on your remote location – “High data speed internet, say 5G”
- Make sure to create back up plan with your team mates, so that the team can work together on things without version issues – “Place photocopy of the file in team desk”
- Mobile hotspot or a cell phone plan that allows tethering, can protect you when your internet goes out – “Stepney – a spare internet connection”
- Check the health condition of your computer habitually -” Health is wealth” which applies to your gadgets too.
(6) You are detached with team members – Lack of team bonding!
Working remotely awards you by getting away from our colleagues. You can build team-building with your colleagues by spending time which is a worthwhile investment in employee productivity, retention, and engagement.
Attachment & Affection play a key factor in team bonding
- Ensure face to face interaction often at the office – “Frequent office visit”.
- Make an extra effort to get to know team members by appreciating, encouraging or wishing your colleagues to be in bonded – “Strengthen team bonds”
- Give importance to everyone. Consider everyone ideas and thought process – “All are equal”
- Be transparent between you and your colleagues – “Open door policy”
Finally,…,
Despite the challenges above, remote work is worthwhile–as long as how you’re getting into and tackle these common challenges. Below I have quoted some of the concepts for work-life balance:
“Balance is not something you find, it’s something you create” – Jana Kingsford
“If I see someone hasn’t logged into our system in a while, I will reach out to them and see how they’re doing or ask if they need help. I’ve learned about co-worker’s health issues, and other career endeavours by taking the time to do this” – Emily Perschbacher
“Throughout my career, I’ve consistently found that when I know my co-workers better (enough to be on a friend level), it’s just better working with them” – Trello
Steve said in his book: “Communicate with people directly and honestly”. Be open and honest with your organization; Follow your commitments; Apologize when you make a mistake; Share your thoughts and ask for feedback which will help you to develop your thinking.
Balancing work and life give you flexibility, self-sufficiency, a chance to work in your best environment, higher productivity, and happiness.
ENJOY REMOTE WORKING…!
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