Many people feel that working remotely is the dream. Working in pajamas, setting your own schedule, and working from anywhere in the world are all enticing benefits to working remotely. However, working remote isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. There are a few disadvantages to working wherever you want, some that you may not have thought about.

A lack of communication

One benefit to working in an office, is a constant ability to communicate face-to-face on a daily basis. While working remotely, one only has email, or chat. Sure, you can Skype, FaceTime, or any other type of online communication, but sometimes things are clearer when you’re talking in person.

Also, a workday moves quickly, and often decisions are made on the fly. A remote worker won’t know about changes immediately, and it may cost them hours or even days of work.

Missing out on work culture and work community

When you work in an office, you get to know those around you. You form relationships and tend to come to form bonds that last even when you leave the company. Employees go to happy hour together, they hold team-building exercises, and they even share cake on their birthdays. When you work remotely, you tend to lose out of this sense of community and culture. Unless you have tea with your cat, sometimes working remotely can be extremely lonely.

It’s hard to manage accountability and productivity

Have you ever tried to clock time that your employees work, while they’re not at work? You can never be totally sure that your employees are working when they say they are, or that the project they completed took the 5 hours, or cost them the $500 they report. It’s important to trust the people, but you may not always be able to do that.

On the other hand, one can argue that if you can’t completely trust your employees, to be honest in reporting time working remotely, perhaps you need to rethink who you hire.

Security concerns

For remote workers and the businesses who may employ them, the loss of a laptop or other data storage will be catastrophic. Because data travels further with a remote worker, there’s more of a possibility of a loss.

Even with a VPN, there can be concerns for security risks, especially when working at hotels, Airbnb’s, other countries, or anywhere else a remote person works. 

While working remotely is probably a goal for a lot of people, it’s not always all it’s cracked up to be. Working remotely is not always perfect and can come with its own set of problems.