What Is Remote Work and Is It Right for You?

Many people wonder if remote work is right for them. We’ll go over exactly what remote work is, how you can get started doing it, its pros and cons, and other information you can use to make an informed decision. There are benefits of remote work for both employers and employees. Learn which apply to you.

We've seen a big shift towards remote work in the past couple of years. And that doesn’t sit well with everybody. Some miss the traditional office culture, while others enjoy the freedom and flexibility of remote work. Either way, there are both advantages and disadvantages to the remote work revolution.

Remote work itself isn’t new, it’s just much wider spread now than ever. Before May of 2020, only 6% of the workforce worked remotely. After that date, that number jumped to one-third — more than 33%.

Whether or not remote work is here to stay, anyone employed or searching for employment needs to understand what it entails. 

Make sure you have a reliable high-speed Internet connection and a dedicated space from which to work. You’ll want this space to look professional. LinkedIn’s Executive Resume Writer Jessica Hernandez lays it out like this: “Expect that the first interview you have will likely be a virtual interview…Make sure you test out the technology you’ll be using for the interview and that you have a professional-looking and quiet space to conduct the interview.”

Armed with this knowledge, as well as what we’ll go over below, you can learn everything you need to know to decide if remote work is right for you.  

 What Does Working Remotely Mean?

Remote work refers to both those working from home — or from some other off-site location — and those on a hybrid work model. Strictly-remote workers don’t ever work or attend meetings in an office building, while hybrid employees work both off- and on-site, often alternating days in a centralized office with days at home (or elsewhere).

Brooke Sullivan, principal people & talent leader at Hyperproof, a fully remote company, provides some insight on what the term “remote work” really implies. “Great work is not location-bound,” she says. 

“For Hyperproof team members, a home office might be on the beach, inside a mountain cabin, or at an Airbnb in a European capital — it's their choice … We define remote work as simply 'work' as we are all remote employees.” 

Working remotely doesn’t change what an employee does from day to day. In fact, a great deal of effort goes into setting up a remote workforce, all to avoid workflow disruption.

Moving to a remote or hybrid model doesn’t change a company’s purpose or mission, but it can affect other aspects of work life.

 How Do People Work Remotely?

Remote work requires additional communication touchpoints to help keep employees engaged. This means a few different things. Employees need to remain in touch with one another more or less as easily as they were able to in an office. To that end, applications such as Microsoft Teams are great for helping employees stay in touch, while video conferencing replicates some aspects of traditional conferencing that remote workers would otherwise miss out on.

If you’re wondering how people work remotely, experts at the University of New Mexico recommend acquiring and utilizing the following:

•  Peripherals. Mics, headphones, webcams, headsets, keyboards, and other essential office equipment. These are considered necessities for setting up a virtual workspace and working remotely.
• Software. You’ll likely need common programs such as Adobe and a variety of Internet servers such as Google Chrome or Firefox. Your company will also supply you with their proprietary software, which you will likely need to be taught to use correctly. Sometimes that software is downloadable and can be used on your home computer. Other times, companies will send you a workstation — laptop, monitor, headset, and whatever else is required to perform your particular job.   
• A virtual private network (VPN). In the absence of direct oversight, a small number of remote workers develop bad cybersecurity habits, making them vulnerable to hackers. As an across-the-board security measure, instituting a VPN is a good idea for security and privacy reasons. The materials your employer gives you may already have this installed. This helps keep you safe from cyberattacks and maintains the privacy of clients, customers, or other companies with whom you work.

But the right technology isn’t everything. Some employees are comfortable at home. They don’t miss the morning commute, the bustle of the office or the need to run to and from work to handle health or family issues. However, a June 2021 study by business psychologist Dr. Stewart Desson, et al. found that 10% of newly-remote workers “hate [remote work] and never want to leave the office.”

So clearly remote work isn’t a perfect fit for everyone. But it fits well with most, and remote workstations should be considered despite not being perfect for all employees.

To stay on track, LinkedIn News Editor Scott Olster suggests that “Making regular, meaningful communication with colleagues a priority, and encouraging remote workers to establish boundaries from work” can improve employees’ remote work experience.

Why Do People Work Remotely?

There are a number of reasons why people work remotely, including better work-life balance, lack of a commute, health and wellness, and more. For those employees who prefer having some office time, hybrid work may be the perfect fit. Remote work refers to work done outside a centralized office location, generally at home. Hybrid work, on the other hand, is part-time in the office and part-time remote. For health and safety reasons, hybrid workers often alternate home and office days so as not to fill an office to capacity. A hybrid worker may work in an office two or three times a week, then work remotely the rest of the time.

Some employees are embracing hybrid work after two years of working remotely. Others are hesitant. And in the event of a return to the office, 64% of employees would be upset enough to seriously consider quitting. Just like remote work, hybrid work may not be for everyone, as people have differing comfort levels throughout the pandemic.  

Remote Work Benefits for Employees

When surveyed, 61% of employees, given the opportunity, say they would continue to work from home. Remote work allows them to work in a familiar environment, customized to their comfort needs. It allows them privacy, flexibility and the chance to eat whatever they want — or at least whatever’s in the house.

Furthermore, a remote worker has no commute. This leaves extra time — hours, in some cases — for employees to take care of household and family matters. It also allows them to keep personal overhead low: Gas prices, tolls, and the cost of repairs and upkeep on a vehicle all compound, which means an employee driving an hour to and from work loses hundreds of dollars a week that a remote worker gets to keep.

In recent years, considerations of health and wellness have been at the front of everyone’s mind. And remote workers report experiencing improved health and wellness. They’ve also been more willing to push back against employers when they aren’t offered the benefits they want, which include not just a permanent remote/hybrid arrangement but usually improved health insurance, more sick days and paid time off.

That said, remote employees take fewer sick days than do in-office workers; they’re able to work through illness in an environment that, were it replicated in an office, would be called unprofessional. When you work remotely, what you look like and what you wear don’t necessarily matter.

Remote Work Benefits for Employers

Employers are sensitive to both safety issues and employee concerns. They must be if they don’t want to hemorrhage workers. But there are also measurable reasons why remote work is good for employers and companies.

A Stanford University study showed that remote work has resulted in a 13% increase in productivity. The same study has it that “[a]bout two-thirds of this improvement came from the reduction in office space and the rest from improved employee performance and reduced turnover.”

In addition to increased productivity, remote work means lower overhead. Without a centralized office, employers don’t have to pay rent on office space. They also save on:

• Utilities
• Maintenance management
• Equipment repairs

Another major benefit of remote work is the widened talent pool it provides. In theory, remote workers can work from anywhere, so employers have the option of recruiting amazing candidates from non-local locations. This didn’t make sense in the days of traditional office work. Recruiters were more or less limited to a specific area and could potentially miss out on great candidates due to geographical restraints.

Sullivan offers employers looking to expand remote roles some words of wisdom, “Do it. Your next great hire is ready to work with you, but you'll miss out if you've limited candidates to your city or close to company headquarters. 

“Companies are clear that they want to hire employees who can prioritize their responsibilities. Candidates living on a Colorado mountaintop or a tiny island off the coast of Maine are doing just that. Don't miss out on a chance to meet them!”

As noted above, that increase in productivity shows a correlation between happiness in employees and the work they complete. In other words, it’s in a company’s interest to offer remote work opportunities to future-proof themselves against attrition, increase productivity, and increase employee happiness.

 Common Misconceptions About Remote Work

Despite the well-documented and widely disseminated benefits of remote work, some employers and employees continue to believe certain myths about remote work. Here are a few big ones:

• It causes productivity to drop. As illustrated above, this just isn’t true. Not only does employee productivity increase, but with lower overhead companies stand only to gain from remote work. This makes it a win-win for employers and employees.
• It’s just a rebranded intranet. Some people steadfastly stick to the idea that remote work is just an individual company’s hyping their own intranet and proprietary software. In fact, most remote workers utilize common software programs. Hubstaff helps managers keep track of employee productivity; Microsoft Teams allows employees to chat in real-time; Zoom and Skype allow for video interviewing.
• It's all about Big Tech. While most remote companies do leverage apps and systems from major tech leaders such as Microsoft and Google, they aren’t doing so to boost tech brands.
• It lowers employee engagement. Most employees prefer remote work to in-office work. And because they’re being nurtured, employee engagement has increased. Employees stay connected via the communication technology mentioned above. Some companies even institute informal video chats — think of these as digital coffee talk or water cooler chats that help employees connect with one another on a more personal level.

Another common misconception in Sullivan’s opinion? That remote employees and teams face difficulty building community or connection. 

“In our experience, this challenge is more common for new hires than for tenured team members,” she observes. “Once our team members are established and understand how to communicate within our Slack channels and team meetings, the connections happen organically.”

Ways To Work Remotely

Not all jobs can be performed remotely. But a significant number of them within the financial, administrative, educational, and service industries can — with regard to both corporate, private, and government employers.

Even medicine can be practiced remotely — to an extent.

One thing remote work promises is a synthesis of diverse types of workers from all over the world. There are major implications there.  

Remote workers can be:

• Regular employees
• Contractors
• Freelancers

And if jobs can be worked remotely, and companies have their pick of talent worldwide, they’re potentially employing workers in poverty-stricken countries — as well as parts of the U.S. that continue to experience unemployment strife — while increasing profit overall.

Furthermore, without geographic boundaries, employees can explore industries that had previously been unavailable to them. But candidates won’t be hired for positions for which they’re unsuited simply because they can work remotely. Hernandez reminds job seekers that  “The content in your resume needs to support your candidacy for that specific position. The resume summary you write, the keywords you use, and the accomplishments you highlight all need to be related to that one role.”

Remote work opens up many options, but it isn’t a skill, or necessarily a qualification, in itself.

Deciding if Remote Work Is the Right Fit

Is remote work for you? That depends on what you like about the idea of remote work and what you’d miss about in-office work. Switching to remote work is a great opportunity to tackle a professional challenge that, statistically, will pay off for you, your co-workers, and your entire company.

But remote work is not, ultimately, about making company stock go up. It’s about employee happiness, comfort, and safety. You know you do your best work when your needs are met. For most employees, that means working remotely.

“Both the employer and the employee benefit from remote work. Remote work is built on a foundation of mutual trust… Trust isn't created by grand gestures but built by the small, day-to-day moments,” says Sullivan. “When something is essential to us, we treat it with great care.”

If you’re a self-starter, indifferent at best to an office setting, and do your best work in an environment over which you have total control, you might enjoy remote work.

How can you know for sure? If your employer offers a hybrid work model that you haven’t previously tried, give it a shot; if you don’t care for working remotely you can go back to in-office work. Or try some remote freelancing. This is an excellent way to see if a relatively low-pressure remote environment is for you. Whatever you decide, you know you best. Get out there and find what makes you happy!

Top Takeaways

What Is Remote Work and Is It Right for You?

• Remote work allows you to work from home or another off-site location
• Working remotely may require additional equipment and software which your employer may provide
• Remote work doesn’t change the employee’s daily responsibilities
• Remote work can benefit both employees and employers
• Not all jobs can be performed remotely

(Reporting by Mariah Flores and NPD)