Remote work offers excellent opportunities to both employees and employers. Conveneo is always concerned about news from the remote working space and is up to date about trends and scientific research. This helps and inspires us to achieve optimal performance on both the life satisfaction of our employees and the results we deliver to our clients. Some of the advantages of remote work are, for example:
Commuting Time
The average US citizen needs 26.1 minutes to work for a one-way commuting trip (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017). Over one year, this amounts to over 200 hours or nine full days of commuting. The average EU citizen requires less time for a one-way commute, at about 25 minutes (Eurostat, 2019).
The first and obvious benefit is thus the amount of time you save while doing remote work.
Monetary savings
While employees can save a lot of time from remote work, it seems like they will also save a lot of money. But, surprisingly, this is not the case – Most employees indicate small to moderate monetary savings (Iometrics and Global Workplace Analytics, 2020, Tyhaar, 2022).Well-Being
Remote work brings a lot of flexibility to balance private and professional life. If done right, gains usually include increases in overall well-being, more sleep, more exercise, healthier eating and less stress (Iometrics and Global Workplace Analytics, 2020).
These positive aspects of remote work are sometimes overshadowed by the disadvantages of remote work. Some of which include:
Family-Work Conflict
According to Greenhaus and Beutell (1985), inter-role conflict is the emergence of conflicts between one domain of life and another. In the case of unbalanced remote working practices or attitudes, tensions may arise in the form of burnout, increased absenteeism, family-related issues, and health issues (e.g., depression and anxiety) (Amstad et al., 2011; WHO & International Labour Organization, 2021).Social Isolation
During the pandemic, young people were especially at risk of social isolation and feeling excluded from society (Eurofound, 2020).
The positive or negative aspects are not completely listed here as it is still a developing field, and not necessarily everyone that enjoys its benefits suffers from its drawbacks. More aspects of remote work will reveal themselves in the future – influenced by many other macro-trends.
At Conveneo, we try to identify such issues and develop solutions that improve our lives in the real world by harnessing digital powers. The primary advantage we focus on providing you is working from anywhere, whenever you wish. Of course, you can also simply work from home – wherever you find it.
