Through the pandemic many information workers have been forced to stay home and adapt their working style. We have seen positive results from this move. Studies have found people who can work from home are more productive and healthier overall. However, there have been many unexpected challenges for individuals and teams in the workplace in the new model.

Remote work challenges:

The good news is that we have been at this for a couple of years now so many organizations are also developing new strategies to overcome these challenges. But that doesn’t change the level of confusion between people about what makes WFH harder than working in the office. A study by GoodHire found that 55% of managers, just over half, believe that their workers want to return to the office while at the same time 73% said productivity and engagement had improved or stayed the same.

In this article, we are going to look at some common remote collaboration challenges and their causes to better understand what’s going on.

Harder to unplug after work

Before everyone was forced to work from home, most of us had days with a clear beginning and end. The drive into the office was a chance to listen to the news and prepare your mind for the coming day at the office. Then when the end of the day rolled around, you would drive home and be “off work.” Sure, that did not stop the emails from coming in, but at least you had a defined schedule.

Now the situation is quite different. There are no clear boundaries between being “at work” or “at home.” While this versatility certainly comes with freedom (people have more ability to work when they want), it also means the lines between home and work are blurred and expectations change. This is causing many employees to work more hours than they used to with more effort happening later in the evening.

Hallway conversations are missing

People are social. When you put them together in a space, they are going to start talking with one another and sharing information. That informal communication serves as a valuable conduit for the company to move information between teams. But with remote work, spontaneous collaboration in the hallway has fallen off significantly.

When we work from home and our only interactions are planned meetings, we no longer have easy access to our team. We cannot turn our head and ask a quick question or run into someone from another department in the cafeteria and learn about the latest sales goal. Now everything needs a meeting, which has led to a massive increase in planned meetings.

Loneliness

Another challenge through this work-from-anywhere time is feeling a lack of connection with others. All your coworkers are still there during the day, but they’re hidden behind a profile image and a busy status. It’s difficult to get a sense of what everyone’s up to without extra effort, but when you share physical space it’s easy to see who’s doing what.

If employees have a better sense of what people are doing it becomes easier for them to tell if it’s a suitable time to talk so, they’ll do it more often. But when you work from home, it’s extremely easy to stay in your bubble until the next planned meeting.

Distractions at home

Barking dogs, weed eaters, road construction, and package deliveries can easily distract remote employees from what they’re trying to get done. When you get distracted, how long does it take you to refocus and get back to work? This form of context switching can mess with a person's flow and slow down productivity.

These sorts of nuisances also occur when the team works in the office, but it’s not usually as bad because organizations design workspaces to minimize interruptions. There might be a yard crew outside blowing the parking lot, but your office is likely better equipped to block that noise than your house.

Time zone differences

When everyone on the team works at various times of the day it can be hard to keep them on the same page. That can lead to project delays and miscommunications between team members, ultimately slowing delivery of tasks and value to the organization. What do you do when you need a question answered right now by someone who’s sleeping?

How to solve remote collaboration challenges

We’ve only talked about some of the major complaints, there are certainly more, and every employee’s situation is different. That said, there are some easy fixes to many of these problems that require little effort or expense.

Remote Work Hacks

- Organize regular meetups to get to know each other.

- Setup a calendar showing when people will be online and agree to time everyone will be online concurrently.

- Create coworking meetings for your team where they only speak when needed but can interact anytime.

- Try taking your work to a place outside your home when things get too distracting, or you feel lonely. Coffee shops work great.

JumpRoom Collaboration Platform

We’ve built a platform specifically to address the distractions, loneliness and other challenges in remote work by supplying an always-on space for teams to share. Whether they’re at the office or working from home, they get a place where they can stay in constant contact with the people on their team without unnecessary distractions. Each room also comes with a shared browser, custom applications, easy screen-share swapping, and a dedicated encrypted cloud drive for file artifacts.

Checkout JumpRoom.io to join our free pilot program!