How remote work fosters personal and professional growth
With tech giants like Facebook and Twitter leading the remote work revolution, the world is gradually adopting an entirely remote or a hybrid work model for their future. The primary reason is that businesses have experienced first-hand how beneficial a remote workforce is for their success.
This stance on remote work has opened a wide array of personal and professional growth opportunities for people all over the world.
Let’s take a deeper look at how working from home has benefitted people.
The Benefits of Working From Home
Productivity and performance
A recent study conducted by Stanford University among 16,000 workers reflects that the productivity level of the respondents has increased by 13% over a span of nine months.
Working from home boosts productivity and performance because, compared to an office setting, it’s much easier to focus and get more work done in less time.
Working from home gives remote workers the freedom to design their own ideal workspace. Whether they do their best work from their kitchen table or in the garden enjoying the weather, it’s their personal choice!
Additionally, they don’t have to deal with the constant interruptions and the noisy environment that comes with working in an office.
If a coworker drops by your desk when you’re “in the zone” working on a complex task, it disrupts your entire flow of thinking. You have to stop what you’re doing, help them with their issue, and then shift your mind back to what you were doing.
Studies suggest that this type of switching in context can eat up around 80% of your productivity.
Since remote workers don’t have to face such interruptions, they can finish their tasks much faster.
Less stress of commute
Remote workers don’t have to deal with the stress and anxiety of traveling to their office every morning during peak traffic hours. If you add unavoidable external factors like roadworks or train delays, this scenario becomes even more frustrating if you are an onsite employee.
Working from home allows people to focus solely on getting their tasks done at the time they’re most productive.
Additionally, remote workers also save a significant amount of time and money that they can utilize to improve their quality of life.
Cost-effectiveness
As we’ve already mentioned, lack of daily commute saves remote working professionals a lot of money– be it expenses pertaining to car maintenance, gas, or even public transportation.
They don’t need to spend extravagant sums of money on fancy business suits since they can work comfortably in their pajamas from their living room.
Furthermore, expenses like the daily morning coffee and ordering-in lunch are additional aspects where remote employees save upon.
Reduced stress and anxiety
A recent survey by Flexjobs suggested that over 85% of respondents felt working from home has reduced work-related stress and anxiety, improved their mental health, and enabled them to prioritize self-care.
Collaborate across locations
Remote working allows individuals to communicate and collaborate with industry professionals who excel in diverse fields, giving them the opportunity to explore additional paths for career development.
Build professional network
Network and networking are two of the most critical aspects of building a career as a remote worker. Since they need to find opportunities online, remote workers spend a lot of time and effort building and nurturing their professional network.
This network comes in handy when remote workers need to leverage their connections to help them with any challenge they may face.
Better job opportunities
Remote work opens up a world of opportunities for individuals to work for big-name businesses that operate on the other side of the planet.
People from small towns and rural regions can work for well-known companies without stressing about relocating to Silicon Valley or other metropolitan cities.
As long as they have access to a steady internet connection and a laptop, it’s no longer an unachievable dream to work for giants like Facebook or Google.
How remote work boosts personal and professional growth
Become a better communicator
Communication is the most crucial aspect of remote work. Not conversing face-to-face makes it much more challenging to get your message across.
In an office setting, you can simply walk up to your coworker’s desk for clarification about a project you’re currently involved in. However, if your coworker is on the other side of the planet, just getting ready to go to bed, things can get a bit tricky.
Of course, you can drop a message via email or slack; however, you may not receive a reply until hours later.
Therefore, remote working professionals need to keep their messages clear and conceive while ensuring that they get their point across at the right time.
Being a part of a global remote workforce means working with individuals from different walks of life. This connection with culturally diverse people across different time zones is bound to make remote workers much more efficient at communication.
Time management
Efficiently managing time is a skill that can never be overstated. Working remotely gives people the freedom to set their own schedules. However, with this added freedom comes added responsibility.
As long as all the deadlines are met, businesses are usually open to letting their remote employees use their day however they choose.
This means you are no longer bound to work at set office hours. You can recognize your peak productive hours, be it four in the morning or one in the afternoon, and schedule that time to work on your most complex tasks.
While it can be challenging at first, remote work fosters time management skills. It empowers people to get more work done and feel more satisfied with their job at the end of the day.
Self-motivation
Remote workers need to be self-motivated and disciplined enough to complete their tasks without the need to be constantly monitored.
In an office setting, your manager may walk by your desk to ask for updates and help you move past any obstacles. However, remote workers are efficient enough to remind themselves about the things that they need to get done by the end of the day.
Be it muting their phone’s notifications and only checking their emails once an hour, remote workers develop the discipline to ignore all distractions and stick to their work when they put their mind to it.
With time, remote work empowers people to become self-motivated individuals who can set their own goals, create and manage their own schedules, and achieve their tasks and goals in a timely manner.
Digital Literacy
Digital literacy implies your proficiency in using technologies to find, create, and share information.
Remote workers heavily rely on digital communication. Digital technologies continuously evolve and grow with time.
Any company to effectively collaborate in a remote environment needs employees to be comfortable using digital platforms.
Therefore, it should come across as no surprise that most companies that build a remote workforce offer training to upskill their employees and close the gap in digital literacy.
This means, as a remote worker, you’ll always stay on top of these digital tools and channels.
Even if your job is not a highly technical one, working remotely means that, at the very least, you need to have a basic understanding of the different technologies your company relies on.
This usually includes project management platforms like Allo.io, video conferencing software, and other company-specific channels.
Adaptability and Flexibility
In a remote work environment, people need to be adaptable and flexible enough to new ways of thinking and working. Remote work offers a wide range of opportunities to collaborate and work on projects that can significantly impact their career.
Remote workers develop an open mindset for how they adapt their work to complement how their coworkers operate. This flexibility helps strengthen work relationships.
Increase your freedom to become a Digital Nomad
Working as a remote employee allows people to travel the world and live their lives as digital nomads.
Well, almost anywhere since digital nomads need to be connected to the internet to build a sustainable lifestyle while they travel. But, in this day and age, there aren’t many places where you can’t access the internet (even though it might not always be the fastest).
You no longer need to live in noisy and crowded metropolitan areas to work with your dream company. You can experience the freedom and adventure that comes with a remote working lifestyle while maintaining your financial security.
Financial Growth
More and more businesses all over the world have started leveraging talent all over the world by building a remote workforce. They can now focus their hiring primarily on skills rather than other limiting factors like location.
On the flip side, this gives you the opportunity to work for international companies from the comfort of your home as a remote worker.
While companies may agree to pay the standard salary for your job based on their market rate, it would still be significantly higher than the local pay range in your region.
Work-life balance
The rigid 9 to 5 traditional work model has done no favors for people’s work-life balance and personal life. They often neglect their health and wellbeing for the sake of their jobs.
With remote work, individuals now have the freedom to finish their tasks faster and make time for themselves and their families. The amount of time spent in front of the laptop doesn’t matter as long as all the tasks are completed before the deadline.
Whether you have to attend your friend’s bachelorette party or your yoga class in the afternoon, you can create your work schedule to make time for anything you want!
By promoting a healthier lifestyle, remote work has made this control over work-life balance invaluable for people. In turn, this significantly reduces the likelihood of individuals experiencing burnout or sacrificing their sleep.
Resourcefulness & Versatility
While everyone dreams of a job where everything runs smoothly, that’s not how things function in the real world.
Remote workers develop a sense of independence where they can efficiently tackle challenges by taking advantage of the resources they have at their disposal. They can maneuver their skills to proactively learn new things and break down any challenge they may face.
The primary reason why remote working professionals are so adept at finding the right solutions is that they have a strong network of people they can reach out to.
Since most remote workers find high-quality work opportunities online, they spend a significant amount of time building and nurturing their network to build long-lasting relationships.
Critical thinking and decision making
While both of these skills can be fostered in an office setting, they may take time. This is because if there is an issue that needs to be addressed, employees can usually redirect the problem to the manager.
On the other hand, people who work remotely need to analyze and make critical decisions more frequently since their managers may or may not be available during their work hours.
Remote workers develop the capability to solve problems by themselves.
Because they don’t have their managers or colleagues nearby for the little things, remote workers need to make critical decisions by themselves and believe that they’re capable of it.
Therefore, they quickly develop the skill to examine an issue from all possible angles, analyze available options, manage difficult situations, and take effective actions.
Are you ready for remote work?
The COVID19 pandemic has transformed the way businesses function. While the corporate world was forced to adapt to a remote work model, things have come a long way since the pandemic first hit us.
With the measures businesses have taken to build and manage a global remote workforce, it’s safe to say that remote work culture is here to stay.
Now that you’ve understood the personal and professional growth implications remote work can have on your career, it’s time for you to work towards building a successful career while working from home!