5 Myths About Remote Work you Shouldn’t Believe

Remote work is the reality of most people nowadays, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Imagine you, having the flexibility of working from the comfort of your home with your computer. Each day you wake up and at your set time, you resume at the workspace created for yourself. Your work is well scheduled so that you have a healthy life and work balance. This is what remote work offers you – a lifestyle where your professional and personal lives are well blended and you don’t have to be in a corporate traditional office as it is the norm. 

With remote work, you can be flexible – flexible enough to carry your work with you everywhere you go. Taking a vacation wouldn’t be a hard decision to make as long as you know you can successfully execute your projects, accomplish your goals, and be accountable to the organisation you work for. This is so fascinating, you think; freedom at last!

Now, before you consider telling your boss of your intention to switch to remote work, you need to consider some misunderstandings that might discourage you from this flexible way of working. Here are some common ones:

Remote workers barely work enough 

This is what people imagine when they say this; a remote worker sleeps late into the morning, yawns and stretches lazily, reluctantly gets up from the bed to get breakfast, and, by afternoon, puts on the computer to work a little while still dressed in nightwear. This is a fallacy! An average remote worker sets out for work, just like the worker who goes to the traditional office and also gets the work done, even better and faster.

They get distracted easily

Life itself is full of distractions and the corporate office isn’t an exception. Loud phone calls, unnecessary meetings, chatty co-workers, gossips, snack breaks, amongst many others. All these can cause a worker to lose focus, thereby reducing his or her productivity levels. However, in a good workspace, a remote worker has few distractions to contend with. There’s enough time to focus on work and there’s no colleague to distract you with the latest gossip in town. 

Communication becomes a big problem

In this era of technology, how truthful is that? Though working from home doesn’t afford you the ability to walk up to your colleague or boss for clarification on an issue or have a chat, we can assure you that you won’t feel left out of any communication from your organisation, especially with great communications tools. These tools will not only serve as communication mediums, but they will also foster good relationships between you and your colleagues.

Here are a few we highly recommend: 

• Slack – is written communication and a central comms hub
• Git – for a flexible source control system 
• TeamSpeak – is a voice communication and a central comms hub
• Zoom,  Join.me – for pair programming and company presentations
• Confluence – great for documentation and knowledge sharing

Remote work means you work round the clock

That’s false. A remote worker has a life outside work too, isn’t a work junkie, and doesn’t work 24/7. People who work from home, work with schedules, calendars, and to-do lists. Just like everyone else, they also resume and close work at the appropriate time. They also have the luxury of organising their schedules to attend to other activities such as family matters, sports, book readings, etc. 

Remote workers live boring lives and are not social 

Working remotely doesn’t mean you’ll become socially awkward. With a flexible working lifestyle, you’ll be able to save more as you won’t be commuting to work. Now you can afford to travel to your dream destinations or go to those exotic places you’ve always looked forward to. You’ll meet people, make new friends, and create wonderful connections and networks. 

Now that we’ve debunked myths that might have discouraged you from remote work, we hope you’ll make the perfect decision to leave the cubicle life, and embrace freedom and flexibility. 

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Featured image: istockphoto