In other words, a remote job means you will not drive to the same physical business or office building from Monday to Friday and stay there for the duration of an eight-hour shift. Remote work is easy to define as work that does not take place in a traditional office. But remote work can be quite broadly defined: "Not in a traditional office" with high-speed internet access can be anywhere.
You need to decide whether you're imagining yourself working from home or working remotely outside your home (somewhere like a co-working space or a coffee shop) in order to nail down a better idea of what a remote job might look like for you. There are large differences between these two remote options, but it is helpful to note that it is not an either / or proposition. Remote staff can work one day from home , work the next day from a co-working space, and work the day after that from a library or coffee shop. I compared notes with some of my Skillcrush coworkers to get a sense of the differences between working from home and working remotely, the ups and downs of each approach, and which might work best for you. Here's what they must have said.
The versatility of being able to work from home without leaving for a physical office is also what enables them to engage in the workforce at all for individuals with some form of care duty (caring for infants, seniors, etc.).
Since 2014, Erin Denton, Skillcrush 's Design Mentor, has been working remotely, and she has spent some of the time working from home while becoming a caretaker. For Denton, the positives of home-based work focus on the above-mentioned flexibility: being able to balance the requirements of others who rely on your assistance with the demands of paid work. Denton, however, adds the caveat that care and paid work are still a difficult balance to preserve. Working from home is certainly a way to do paid work for individuals with a lot of household obligations, but it's not a magic solution.
If you're going to telecommute from home, you need to put structures in place to be successful, such as a designated home office space (don't even think about working regularly from your bed or couch), a fixed work schedule (no matter how flexible your schedule is, you need to plan ahead and know when you're going to work), and clear boundaries (friends and family need to know when you're going to work). Once these systems are developed, even while juggling domestic tasks, your home can become an ideal workplace.
But that doesn't mean that, when working from home as a remote employee, you won't manage to encounter any snags. Even with everything dialed in, there are moments when mounting distractions can fall victim to the most well-oiled home activity. If you're called from behind your home office door by the teasing piles of laundry and nagging stacks of dirty dishes, one of the best ways you can counteract this is to change your work environment. Just because you work mostly from home doesn't mean you can't duck out for a few hours in a coffee shop with Wi-Fi or drop in to refocus and mix things up in a coworking room (see below). Note, there is flexibility in remote work (from home or otherwise).
Although work-from - home options are all about commuting to your office from your apartment, optional pants and welcome pyjamas, working remotely outside the home bears a little more resemblance to a typical workplace. Working remotely involves travelling from your home to wherever you want to work and being around other people in a public or semi-public environment. However, it is infinitely more versatile to work remotely than working in a 9-5 office. You can switch from a remote workplace to a remote workplace as you see fit, and your schedule and hours remain yours to create.
What makes it so attractive is the fact that working remotely outside the home can take place anywhere with high-speed internet connectivity and on any schedule you want, or no schedule at all. Jessica D'Amato, Skillcrush 's Marketing Operations Assistant, enjoys working from home, but she says that it is important for her to combine being at home with working remotely elsewhere in order to retain efficiency as a remote employee. D'Amato says that stopping it from being its own oppressive 9-5 office with the same timetable every day is one of her greatest challenges when telecommuting from home. By mixing her work from home with daily work from cafes or co-working spaces (community office space that can range from free-to-use to membership-based), D'Amato handles this. Even if one morning out of the week it's only working from a Starbucks near her house, D'Amato feels that this variety helps prevent remote work from losing its spirit of versatility.
Denton acknowledges that getting out of the house (even if home is your primary base of operations) is an integral part of remote work. Yeah, being at home helps Denton to jump between paid work and treatment when the need arises, but she goes to a co-working space in situations where she wants to really zero in on her work and get things done. As an added benefit, Denton uses her co-working time as an opportunity to network and get face-to - face contact with other remote staff, something that can be missed when you work from home or on a remote team. Ultimately, though co-working spaces can sound like offices that you have to work out of every day, Denton says to bear in mind that many co-working spaces provide different levels of membership depending on how frequently you want to use the room, so it's easy to make your primary or secondary work environment co-working depending on your choice.
While working away from home remotely can provide much needed variety and allow you to get away from household distractions, Denton says to note that each alternative has its downsides to go along with its benefits. Driving is one of the major negatives of working away from home for Denton, even if it's only a quick trip, getting in the car, paying for petrol, and finding parking is just not something you're concerned with at home. And, Denton notes, it can be difficult to cope with the ambient noise that makes it difficult to hear if you're speaking calls or holding video meetings when you get away from a work-centered co-working room and end up in a coffee shop or other public place with Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi can be hit or missed outside of co-working spaces.
Are You Ready to Find Your New Virtual Address, Mailbox or Office?
We have just what you are looking for! Victory Workspace serves professionals in the Walnut Creek, California area. At Victory Workspace, we offer a variety of Virtual Office packages designed to give you all the benefits of a traditional office at a fraction of the cost. What does it mean to have a virtual office? What would it look like to have one? How would it change your business and your day-to-day work life? We are the leaders in virtual workspaces in Walnut Creek because we have an innovative and comprehensive approach to non-traditional workspaces. To learn more, set up your free tour or inquire about which one of services might be right for you, reach out to one of our amazing Community Guides at Victory Workspace for more information.
