Thoughts on Working Remotely

Positives #

These are the most positive things about working remote for me:

1. Regained Commute Time: I have about a 45 minute, one way drive to work. So I spend roughly an hour and half on the road daily. That’s a lot of time wasted, especially when some of it is in traffic. Working remotely means I regain that hour and a half.I can sleep longer, exercise, and read the morning news with time to spare. It is definitely nice to leave the house to get some fresh air, but working from home also means I can take a morning or mid-day walk easily too.
2. Less Interruptions: One of the things that bother me in the office is when you are in the zone and working intensely, only to get interrupted by someone. Often because someone wants to chit chat. It is a lot easier for me to focus on my work when I’m remote. I know people can still ping you via Teams or Zoom, but it is possible to put on Do Not Disturb to mitigate.
3. Sunlight: Having my own home office is amazing, not only because I can use my own desk and furniture, but because I get to sit near a window and see the sun! I hate working in an interior cubicle. Especially when I have a wonderful view from my office room. It may seem like a little thing but seeing the outdoors and sun through the day makes me much happier and productive.

Negatives #

And these are the most negatives aspects of working remote for me:

1. Weaker Relationships: It is much tougher to build stronger relationships with your colleagues and leaders when you’re not physically in the office. It’s that simple, less social interactions = weaker relationships.
2. Siloed Working remotely is somewhat isolating, especially when you work for company that is both in-office and remote. I assume this is one reason why people say to look for companies where everyone works remotely, not just a few people. You’re more likely to miss communications, and general news being remote.
3. Distractions I find it more difficult to have 100% focus on work when working from home. It’s much easier to be distracted. Mostly, it’s the less interesting tasks, or less challenging tasks, that I find myself having trouble with, rather than hard problems. Once I’m in the “zone”, I find it easier to power through the work at home. Anyway, this is not to say that you can’t be distracted at the office, but there are simply more possible distractions at home.

All things said, I find analytical work well suited for remote working. In the office, I spent most of my time sitting behind a computer screen 💻. I always asked myself, why am I driving all this way just to be alone! At home, I’m still behind the screen but I save commute time, making the world a bit cleaner and I can build a more productive work environment as I’m in control of my office and space.

All-in-all I do feel the positive benefits of working remotely outweigh the negatives for me.