Posted by Remote job has become a popular concept these days in the subcontinent, especially in Bangladesh. Obviously, this discipline gives the employees some facilities; that’s why it is so popular. For example, it gives you scope to be able to work in the international market, it gives you an escape from the hectic traffic jam, and the compensation it provides is more handsome than the local market unless the company itself is not local, and so on. But apart from these pros, there are difficulties as well.
I have been working for more than 12 years in IT, and within this time span, I was in remote discipline for more than 7 years. Within this long time of service, I found some challenges that almost all remote employees may face in their remote careers. In this article, I will try to shed some light on those and how I overcame them.
Language
It is actually a barrier for the newcomers who started working for foreign companies since the communication is made in English in general with the foreign colleagues,, and it is made most of the time verbally. It might be the first challenge you have to face. But don’t worry; the employers themselves know about this situation, and with time, you will be able to overcome it, gain fluency in speaking, and be spontaneous while talking. So, give time.
Time Management
Since you are working in foriegn companies, you may have to work matching their time zone. And this can make your other daily activities messed up in timing. Maybe you have to work at midnight and sleep in the day. But this is not the general scenerio in all cases. When you become a regular and senior in your company, upon being a trustworthy resource there, you will get some room and company may rely on you to make your working time more flexible. đ
Apart from that, you can use 3rd party apps to schedule your daily tasks either in your mobile or desktop. There are many apps out there. I personally use TickTick for this for its amazing features, easy to use interface and its both web and mobile support for app.
Leaves and Holidays:
As a remote employee, in general you may have to follow the leaves and holiday policy of that country where your company is located. And that might be a quite disappointing to you. Cause, you may have to have saturday and sunday as weekend and work on friday. But with the time, it will be quite normal to you. Also, you may have to consider working on the days when your country have a bank/official/govt. holidays. On top of that, to celebrate your religious holidays, such as Eid, you may have to take paid leaves instead.
Getting demotivated at certain time:
Sometimes doing the same work and service for a long time may lead your brain to have some relaxation, and you may feel denial from your brain to be productive and work actively. It will certainly lessen the productivity curve. And it is really demotivating. Almost all the remote employees have to face this phase once at least in their career of continuous work since there is an office environment, no colleagues around to have a short gathering for refreshment during work, and it gets boring. And it leads to working paralysis.
To overcome this situation or to make it not happen in your case, you have to maintain a routine. And a healthy diet, for sure. Avoid much-carbed items, junk food, sugary items, fast food, etc. You can go through this article regarding this.
Getting detached from community
Every profession has a community: doctor community, police community , tech community, etc. While working in a local maraket, you probably got involved in a community as well and got well known there. But when working in a remote job, since you have to work alone and work in a remote discipline, the chance is high that you will not have time and feel no need to interact any more in the community. This can make you detached from them. And after a long period of time, you might find yourself a completely new face there.
So, what you have to do is, assign a time each week when you will hang up or meet and interact with your old community members. Keep on joining the events and meetups arranged within the community. Keep in touch with your fellows. It will also solve the issue of getting demotivated that was mentioned earlier.
No change in designation, role, etc.
A remote job provides you with better financial benefits than a local market. But what it lacks sometimes is that you have to be in the same role and do the same thing for a long time, and skill will not improve. Obviously this is not true for all companies. Also, since you are not in office culture, the skills that come with that culture may not be explored by you. So, you may be lacking in that side. And that is the reason, I personally and highly recommend to join and start remote job career only after a few years of experience of on location jobs since that will teach you team work, leadership, interations and many other things apart from the main skills.
No respect to family members like you get when doing an on-location job:
Ha ha, this might be quite funny. But it is true that since you are working from home and going outside, your family members may not realize the value of the time that you are in the office. Sometimes,they interrupt with their activities and expect you to do something for them during your work time. That might be annoying for you and also make you less productive at work.
To solve this, what you can do is separate your work room completely and strictly prohibit others from interrupting or entering your room during work. The best is if you can hire a separate flat or room outside. And if not, a separate room at your home is okay.
About The Author
