Working remotely: dream job or Nightmare?

I get confused when people say, “You’re lucky you don’t leave your house to go to work”. The issue is that people have not understood the idea behind working remotely. I’ll be giving you an expose on what remote workers go through.

The remote work pattern has been ongoing for years now. The pandemic only gave it more popularity and usage in 2020. It involves you bringing work home, and it is preferable to avoid delay in projects. There so many disadvantages but the advantages are usually mentioned first.

You get to save transport cost

One advantage of working remotely is that you don’t have to dress up and get on an early bus. You could go a bed day in your night wears without having to put on make-up, or dress up to impress anybody.

More time spent on projects

As you work from the comfort of your home, you have time to focus on your project without considering the evening rush home. You are in your house, and you can give it the time it requires.

Saves you from the pandemic

In as much as the pandemic is no longer a major problem here in Nigeria with the ease of the lockdown, the virus is still out there. This is the reason for the popularization of working remotely in the first place.

You get to spend time with family

If you have children, you could fix them up in time amidst work, take care of them, and get them ready for school. You could also make out time to take care of the house chores while other members of the family are not in. When they are around, you still get to spend time with them even though you are merely present physically.

These are the advantages that people see, and they feel you are living the life. However, they fail to see the other side of the story, and they still won’t understand until they experience it. Here are some of the disadvantages of working remotely.

Late to bed, early to rise

The consciousness that you have strict deadlines that you have to meet makes you proactive, and you find yourself glued to work. You wake up very early and go to bed very late. I know this from experience. You are more conscious of work because it is timeless.

Zoom meetings

Meetings are used, once in a while, to checkmate proceedings and progress, so they are very crucial. However, they can be very tiring, and in this case, data consuming. When you work remotely, you get to have series of meetings online.

Family drama

Just as you get a chance to spend time with family, they still find it hard to adjust to the fact that you are at work, even when you are at home. You become the first option when errands come up. You are still expected to be actively involved in household affairs. The only time my family remembers that I’m working is when there is a financial need…lol.

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No schedule

There is no scheduled timing for work compared to the regular 9-5 work life. It is more like a 24-hour service. There are no restrictions to when you work. When your boss calls you, you are ready to answer as there are no limits. The only time there are limits is based on agreements.

Little or no networking

When you work online, you meet fewer people, and opportunities are lesser to get a hold of. You only get opportunities if you are very conversant with the internet and how social media works. Without that, you are left in a box.

Boredom

It may seem unrealistic, but working remotely makes you feel left out, to be very honest. If your firm has an offline office, you will feel like every activity goes on without you. And if your firm only has an online platform for an office, you will feel left out of the physical world.

To wrap this up, I’ll be leaving the comment section open – for you to drop comments on how working remotely has been good or bad for you.