In recent times, the landscape of the professional world has undergone a significant transformation, thrusting remote work into the spotlight. Though the concept of working remotely has been around for a while, it wasn’t until the global shift prompted by the pandemic that its true challenges came to the forefront. A considerable portion of the workforce found itself grappling with unforeseen hurdles, underscoring the importance of understanding and addressing the intricacies of overcoming remote work challenges.
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic informs readers that those challenges consist of loneliness, stress, anxiety, and not having a substitute for face-to-face interaction. If not experiencing all four of these qualities, employers and employees must have at least experienced one of these challenges. It’s hard to not have human interaction on a weekly basis.
David McGeough enlightens us on a secret to fix the challenges mentioned above: culture. He states, “Culture is created by people, not a place, so you need to encourage communication and collaboration as much as possible in a remote team. It’s important to keep in regular contact with your employees and get to know them as individuals, ensuring that there are no gaps in your communication” (McGeough). Being apart from your colleges for a prolonged period of time is not the common way to work, so it is important to continue to strengthen communication along with keeping culture alive while being apart.
