Teleworking is one of the most important legacies left by the pandemic at the labor level and, in general, one of the most valued elements by workers when it comes to choosing one job offer or another. And yes, there are drawbacks to telecommuting despite the extreme convenience of working from home. What happens is that there are certain aspects that are not usually taken into account until they start to weigh on your day-to-day life.
It may seem strange to read such statements, considering that teleworking has made such a big, and for many, such a positive change in work routine and preference. However, it doesn’t take much digging to detect a series of shortcomings at both the individual and company level and, therefore, a list of teleworking disadvantages that you may not have noticed.
It should be noted that each item on the list acts separately and that each worker, team or company is affected in a different way for each of them. With this, we can now move on to the most common work inconveniences:
Disadvantages of teleworking
At the individual level:
- The feeling of loneliness and exclusion end up weighing on all those who consider human contact to be fundamental.
- Loss of relationships and work environment. The relationship with your colleagues, the bonding and the team feeling is something that is almost entirely lost when applying total teleworking. This also means that the essence of the company is practically lost.
- Decrease in productivity. Although in the long run it may become the ideal place, your home is not designed to be your workplace and that can end up being very noticeable. If there are more people or distractions at home (children, animals…), or if you simply have elements that can distract you from your functions, these are occasions when your productivity will be reduced.
- Difficulties to work in a team. It is not impossible to do so, but teleworking creates very obvious barriers to teamwork. There are many tools that facilitate communication, but personal contact is very difficult to replace in a solid way.
- Less learning. It is precisely personal contact that generates faster learning among team members.
- Decrease in motivation linked to the lack of positive stimuli in day-to-day work from peers and leaders.
- Feeling of always being at work because you cannot differentiate your place of work from your place of leisure or rest.
At the corporate level:
- Emotional disengagement with the company caused by this loss of close contact with the company (office) and colleagues (team).
- Loss of relationships and work environment. Having a good atmosphere in the office and a united team is a great asset for companies. This asset can be quite affected if the teleworking situation and the loss of contact with the worker and between workers is extended for a long time.
- Effort to adapt the company’s culture and organization . In order to face a new way of operating and communicating, the company must study and implement new methodologies to replace the previous ones.
- Investment of time and resources. Linked to the previous point, it is not only a planning effort, but also the time and resources that the company will have to allocate to the implementation of the new methodologies.
With all the drawbacks that we have mentioned, it would only remain to mention some solutions that can put an end, if not all, to many of these problems. We have considered the following to be the most valuable:
Solutions
If you have an office:
- Hybrid Work Model. If you have an office and your team is interested in telecommuting, hybrid work is probably an option to consider. It is a combination of both modalities (teleworking and face-to-face work) and, in addition, it offers several possibilities. On the one hand, there is the possibility of having one part of the team in the office and the other teleworking permanently. On the other hand, there is the option for workers to rotate throughout the week (or month). For example, many companies are implementing the 3×2 weekly format (3 days in the office and 2 days teleworking).
If you do not have an office:
- Coworking. The Coworking solution is ideal, especially for freelancers, freelancers, SMEs and startups. These are very economical collaborative spaces that also offer flexibility both in terms of prices and the use of their own facilities, creating an adaptability that is as evident as it is necessary for their users. They can make a workspace their own while sharing common spaces, meeting rooms, etc., thus facilitating respect for the work of others and the creation of relationships, links and synergies between different professionals.
- To learn more about the industry and the solution offered, we had the opportunity to speak directly with CREC Coworking. Present in Barcelona and Sabadell, with a large community and a very personalized treatment to its users, CREC Coworking has been able to adapt to the new situation to continue increasing its community and providing all the spaces and services that a professional needs. “Remote work has become increasingly common, but that’s not the best solution for everyone,” highlights one of its Community Builders. “It’s very important to have a place to work and just work, without the distractions of home and having the ability to separate your personal life from your work life.” In addition, “an important point is that you don’t have to worry about costs, supplies, cleaning…”. And finally, emphasizing freelancers and self-employed, they highlight the fact that “you will always give a better image if you have your own work area in case you have to hold meetings or events”.
Yes, the convenience of working from home is undeniable, but to what extent?
And you, are you already teleworking? Would you rather have your own workspace than work from home? Do you agree with the disadvantages of teleworking that we have mentioned? We are listening!
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