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You need to think twice before taking a remote working job, else you may even fall into depression after a certain period

The other day, I went to visit my grandmother who is bordering 80 years. After a few minutes of conversation about our family, children and some other trivial things, she switched the topic to my job. She eagerly enquired how much I get paid by my current employer. I shared the secret with her. She exclaimed why the hell my employer should be paying me this much salary — just for sitting at home and doing some copy-pasting?

I smiled at her innocent, yet sensible question.

Indeed, my grandma is not the first one to ask me questions about my “seemingly no-tension job”. Most of my relatives and neighbours have been asking this question ever since they found me peeping through the window of the main hall of my home all the time. Mostly uneducated (yet highly sharp and enlightened), my fellow villagers have an illusion that a journalist’s job is risky and requires them to be on the field all the time, and involves a great amount of danger.

In my village, at least one member from every family is in the Gulf states doing some blue-collar/menial jobs under unhygienic conditions. Most of them come back to visit their family only once a year or once in two years. For them, getting a work-from-home job is quite a dream.

But is working from home as easy as is perceived to be?

I have asked this question myself many times in the past. The reality is that despite all the comforts and cushion, working from home is NOT easy at all.

It is true that there are quite a few advantages to remote working/working from home, as was detailed in my previous article “working from home makes me more productive, and I want to do it forever”. As I rightly and honestly mentioned in the article, it has been the best thing ever to happen in my professional, and even personal life. My productivity has gone up and I saved a lot of money, which otherwise would have gone into house rental, commute, and other unnecessary things, etc. I am also happy that I have helped my employer save thousands of dollars, rather indirectly. There are many more positive aspects too.

Also Read: Your guide to creating a unified remote work culture

My productivity has gone up and I saved a lot of money, which otherwise would have gone into house rental, commute, and other unnecessary things, etc. I am also happy that I have helped my employer save thousands of dollars, rather indirectly. There are many more positive aspects too.

But like any other things on this earth, there are many dark sides to remote working/working from home too (I deliberately stayed away from discussing the disadvantages in the previous piece, because I wanted to deep dive into the flip side in a separate article).

So, is remote working the best option a professional could get in his career? No, not really.

Let’s discuss the pitfalls of remote working:

Losing the collaborative nature of the job

Exchanging of ideas is key for any business. It leads to innovation, better results and improvement of products and services. Sometimes good ideas can come from an employee in the lower-rung of the job hierarchy. Lack of communication between employees and the management, and among employees themselves, may even lead to the fall of the business.

In essence, collaboration among employees is essential to keep a business alive. According to a study, those working from home can lose much of the collaborative nature of a job. True, there are messaging apps/video calling platforms to collaborate online, but there are times when a text-based conversation doesn’t have the meaning and nuance of a face-to-face discussion.

Distraction

I am a father of two boys, aged three and one-and-half years. Both are naughty and always want to play with their dad’s laptop and mobile phone. They go to bed very late in the night, and as soon as they wake up in the morning, they force their dad to play some cartoons/nursery rhymes on the phone/laptop.

Honestly, kids are a distraction. They often come to disturb you in the middle of a Skype call, or a Hangout call with colleagues. There have been umpteen instances when the speaker on the other side of the call asked me to mute my microphone, not just to escape from the noise of my kids but the noise of my pet animals.

Also Read: Is your long vacation abroad affecting your job? This startup will come to your rescue

Because of this, I always wait for my kids to go to bed to finish my pending work. I also get up as early as 5:00 in the morning to start work early before the kids wake up. This has, of course, taken a toll on my health. Deprivation of adequate sleep often affects my work. Most days, I take a nap on the sofa next to my office table.

Depression

As per a study, isolation from the office and not working around others can lead to increased depression and decreased motivation. You start to feel bored after a period of time and you would want to work in an office atmosphere. I myself have thought of working in a co-working space several times, but the very thought of the amount of money I would be spending and long hours of commute prompted me to reverse my decision.

While it is true that after a certain point of time depression will slowly set in, it has not come to haunt me yet, thanks to the presence of my family. But as the work pressure goes up, sooner or later I will start showing the symptoms of depression.

Lack of adequate equipment necessary for the job

I took the remote work option when working for VCCircle back in 2012. At that time, I did not have a proper office chair or a table to place my laptop. This forced me to sit on the floor in an unhealthy posture, resulting in my back pain. Finally, I purchased an office chair and table, but they were not enough to alleviate the pain. I had to work out in the gym/ play soccer to regain my health.

As far as I know, a good office chair/table costs hundreds of dollars, which I cannot afford to. I don’t think I would ever be able to afford to shell out that much money to set up office equipment in my home.

Conclusion

A few months ago, my friend of mine called me to check if there is an opening in the editorial team at e27. I told him that we didn’t have an office in India and he would have to work from home if hired. He said he could not think of working from home and he needed an office atmosphere to unleash his creativity.

In essence, remote working does not suit everyone. Some people need office environment to unleash their potential. Plus, remote working comes with a lot of riders. So, please be careful before taking up a remote working job.

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The post There are some dark sides to working from home (but I don’t care) appeared first on e27.

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