Remote work? Why it doesn't work?

You have never worked remotely on a long term basis. Now you have to try it. You may not have the right approach to this type of work. So in the end, you face difficulties while trying to work remotely in an efficient way. Why is it happening?

Imagine no office space around you, just unwashed dishes, slippers on your legs, the cat on your knees ... In this kind of surroundings, you often forget that you have to do something important… your work! Even more… you do not take it seriously. Suddenly - even if you are punctual – you are not on time, you do not meet deadlines. Lastly, you start asking yourself why this is happening… The answer is rather simple.

There is a risk of devaluation your work and rejecting your professional standards when the environment you work in is far away from being described as a stereotypical work environment.

Once you work in the office, you unconsciously deliver the promised work that teammates are waiting for. You wouldn't feel good about it if you didn't. However working from home, provides different conditions, so different attitude appears. It can be dangerous for your work if you don't develop the right skills.

You don't realize how big the dependence between your behavior and your current surroundings is. While working in a place other than the standard you used to, you can easily lose your professional attitude. You may lose control and start to behave differently than in the office. The others do not recognize you.

So is it really the environment that decides how we behave?

Apparently, this is the case for those who are not experienced in remote work. It seems the correlation of the workplace with the quality of work is very strong.

Opponents of remote work usually compare "poor-quality home office" to "high-quality office work". It’s obvious if they haven't worked with people who have the skill of "highly efficient remote work".

HR departments often underestimate the big difference between a person prepared and unprepared for remote work. Where does this view come from? There is a lack of positive examples around. It cannot be otherwise if HR sees only the bad effects of work executed by inexperienced people occasionally thrown into "homeworking". Then they can actually say that remote work is a bad solution They do not think that the reason is the lack of know-how related to remote work.

Why is it different to hire experts already experienced in remote work?

Effective remote work is the ability to focus and behave like professionals regardless of surroundings.  It is the ability to focus even when other people begin to behave unprofessionally. It is the ability to work without coercion even in inconvenient conditions. 

Getting into good habits by practice is essential. It makes work less emotional and effortless.

I estimate that developing such a skill takes at least 2 years of continuous remote work. This is the time it takes to go through critical situations and motivation drops. It's the time needed to learn how to deal with issues in a repeatable way.

Read more:

How to work remotely on a long term basis? Follow those 11 steps!

Feeling safe while delegating remote work