The Unexplained Fear Of Remote Employees
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On the plus side you are way more productive. Working from home also means no time is lost in commute and depending on your team you can generally work whatever hours work well for you.
However there are some downsides.. specifically it can be a little lonely at times if there is no-one else at home. This isn't a problem short term but it can become one. Physically it can not be good as if you work from home there suddenly is very few reasons to leave, resulting in less exercise if you are not careful. etc.
That being said, I think overall it's important to be flexible , remote employees can be many times more productive than their 9-5 counterparts.
I imagine so. But note that this isn't really a problem with remote work per se; it's a problem with working in a way that is different from what the vast majority of people do.
Once upon a time (before the Industrial Revolution) most people worked at home. The kind of loneliness you describe was rare, because home and its environs were where the people were.
Maybe there is a societal "hump" we need to get over. If more people worked remotely, then working remotely would become a more pleasant thing.
While it has been a clear benefit on the productivity and family life balance side of the equation, I do feel that I have sometimes lost out to opportunities. Opportunities for career advancement, or interesting projects that would have been nurtured by the more subtle communication patterns and interpersonal bonds formed by extended in-person interaction with co-workers and higher level executives.
Life is full of trade-offs.
I think 37signals from lot of good answers to these concerns. I highly recommend reading from 37signals, Remote.