The Disadvantages of Teleworking and the 1 Solution

Contributed Post with an Introduction by Janice Wald

Have you ever considered the advantages and disadvantages of teleworking?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, teleworking is “the action or practice of working from home, making use of the Internet, email, and the telephone.”

Today’s guest author points out the advantages and disadvantages of teleworking.

Of the 5 advantages and disadvantages of teleworking, 4 are advantages of teleworking and only one is a disadvantage of teleworking.

Can you predict what it is? I bet you can because it’s a pretty common problem. However, our guest author solves the problem for us.

By the time you’re done reading this post, you’ll know the advantages and disadvantages of teleworking and a solution to one of the disadvantages.

What is the Difference Between Teleworking and Telecommuting?

According to FlexJobs.com, The prefix ‘tele’ means “distance.” Teleworking refers to working from a distance. Telecommuting refers specifically to the elimination of a daily commute. Telecommuters are always teleworkers, but teleworkers are not necessarily telecommuters.”

The Problem with Remote Teams and How to Fix It

Contributed Post

Ever since the mass adoption of cloud technologies ten years ago, business leaders have been toying with the idea of operating remote teams, and for a good reason.

Virtual working opens up the possibility of providing employees with much greater flexibility over how they spend their time.

It also enables firms to draw people from a global talent pool instead of having to source them from the towns and cities near their offices. 

Remote teams have opened up fabulous opportunities for particular groups of workers. Those with disabilities, for instance, have found that they can put their talents to productive use from home, without having to go to the office.

Other workers who do travel to the office say that staying at home for a couple of days per week offers them the work-life balance they desire, helping them avoid the perils of burnout. 

But there’s a problem, with remote teams: the lack of improvement in productivity.

Of all the businesses surveyed in the following infographic, only 22 percent said that they saw a productivity increase when workers worked from home. Furthermore, only 33 percent had charters designed to promote high-performance virtual work. 

The good news is that there is a solution to this problem: high-quality leadership. Leaders in organizations need to adapt their approach in light of this changing working environment.

The more that they can adopt new techniques fit for the virtual world, the better their teams will perform. If you’d like to learn more about these methods, please check out the infographic below. 

Learn more about implementing remote work

Wrapping Up: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Teleworking

Host blogger’s comments:

To recap: Today’s guest author mentioned the following advantages of teleworking:

More Disadvantages of Teleworking

There is only one item on the list of the disadvantages of teleworking:

Do you know first-hand the disadvantages of teleworking?

I do.

Years ago, I worked for a marketing firm. My job was to send letters to potential clients printed from a special machine.

The firm sent the machine to my house, and I worked out of my home.

The experience was unsuccessful.

As today’s guest author predicted, I was terribly unproductive.

The following reasons account for my lack of productivity:

First, I was disinterested.

Although I was interested in the job when I worked at the firm, sending these letters struck me as extremely boring when attempting to print them from my house.

Next, I was distracted.

This is why I was disinterested. Everything seemed like a better activity than sending these letters.

Finally, I delayed printing the letters.

Since I made excuses to complete activities that seemed more interesting to me, I kept procrastinating.

I put off doing my job to such an extent, I didn’t get around to producing and sending the letters until midnight.

The guest author is correct: unproductivity is a problem with working at home.

The guest author has a solution: a change in leadership style.

Perhaps this is what I needed: more structure. Instead, I was left totally to my own devices.

Many companies don’t care when you work as long as you get the job done. Procrastinating until midnight was not productive or healthy for me. I needed to sleep. Instead, I would squeeze in another television show believing I could still do my job in the wee hours of the morning.

There are more disadvantages of teleworking:

I know several people who don’t want to lose human contact and refuse to telework.

In anticipation of this post, I asked my Instagram followers if they believe working at home is a good idea.

Look:

67% responded favorably and 33% responded unfavorably.

UPDATES

July 2020

Teachers are weighing whether to continue teleworking when the fall semester resumes. In many districts, schools reopen next month.

UTLA, United Teachers Los Angeles, the second-biggest school district in the United States, polled its members to ask how they fee about continuing long-distance learning begun in the spring.

An overwhelming majority, 82%, voted to continue to continue long-distance learning despite the disadvantages of teleworking.

May 2020

I’ve been working from home for five weeks due to the Coronavirus Shelter-in-Place restrictions.

These are my observations:

We figure we are saving a fortune. We no longer spend money on gas to work, the wear and tear on the car, and dry cleaning expenses.

However, procrastination is rapidly deteriorating into the corruption of values. Everything feels more important than our online jobs.

Therefore, both procrastination and a change in values are both disadvantages of teleworking.

Do you believe they both fall under the umbrella problem of a loss of productivity?

Wrapping Up: Disadvantages of Teleworking

Can you suggest any additional advantages or disadvantages of teleworking? I look forward to your views in the comment section.

Readers, please share so business people learn the advantages and disadvantages of teleworking.

This post was made possible by the support of our readers.