5 challenges to navigate when adjusting to a remote work lifestyle

According to Entrepreneur magazine, this presents something of a double-edged sword for companies. On one hand, employees have discovered a number of inherent advantages to remote work. For example, they save an average of 40 minutes of time each day by cutting out the daily commute, and they save roughly $500 a month on average that they otherwise would have spent on travel expenses, meals, and so forth. And that’s just the beginning.

“Many companies have continued to support the trend of remote working,” explained Joey Hodges, founder and CEO of marketing firm Demonstrate. “They believe it is a way to increase productivity while still allowing flexible schedules for employees.”

On the other hand: There are definitely some challenges that come along with remote work. For companies today, finding ways to move past them will be crucial. Let’s take a look at five major roadblocks that employees in the modern work environment need to overcome.

• Dealing with isolation: Having the freedom to work wherever you want can be exciting, but it also means a lot of alone time, and not everyone will enjoy a daily routine of isolation. It can be difficult to stay inspired to do your best work.
• Maximizing productivity: Distractions are everywhere when you’re working from home, ranging from family obligations to personal emails to whatever’s on TV. Blocking them out is easier in an office environment; when you’re remote, you’ve got to exert a bit more effort.
• Maintaining work/life balance: When you have an office, it’s easy – you work when you’re there, and you don’t when you’re not. But those lines are blurred when you’re remote. When you always have access to phone and email, it can be difficult to turn off your work and have a private life.
• Building relationships with co-workers: It’s difficult to replicate the social aspect of having a true office environment. Relationship building is an important part of career building for many people, but in this remote era, it’s an entirely different challenge.
• Collaborating in the workplace: Or, shall we say, outside of it. Tackling group projects and getting things done with your work team used to come naturally, back in the in-office days. Nowadays, it still can be done, but you may have to put in a little extra effort.

At Zones, we can’t promise to solve all of these problems, but we can certainly give you technology you can use to try. We offer a Remote Worker Solution that’s designed to simplify IT for organizations that are managing a distributed workforce. Our services range from IT asset management to shipping and logistics to mobile device management; whatever you need to help your remote work teams survive and thrive, we’ve got it in spades. Connect with us today if you’d like to explore the possibilities further.

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