CODEX

Benefits of Working Remotely

Photo by Kevin Bhagat via Unsplash

Did you ever wish to work from your own home or favourite travel destination? Doesn’t that sound amazing to work from anywhere you want without the need of daily commuting and leaving your loved ones?

For me it is the best blessing of the modern era. Being able to work from your very own cozy bedroom or from your best friend’s gaming lounge is super cool. I am a Software Engineer, and I have worked as a remote developer for almost two years and I simply loved it. Actually there are many reasons for it and I hope you will agree with most of them if not all.

Lets talk about some of the benefits for companies

Organisations are going cross-continental, they are pooling the best talent from all around the world. This revolution is completely because of internet; now the communication is easy, progress is trackable, results are transparent, profit is equally shared and so many other reasons are there. But in a nut-shell technology has disrupted the way we work and collaborate, allowing people from different background to come together and work in a way which was never possible before. There are many companies which are completely working remotely, some of them are listed here.

• Rapid Growth and quick results — Companies don’t need big offices in city centres. They don’t need lavish offices to attract the employes. There is also less money needed to run the daily operations. This allows companies to invest on their product and gain desired results in less time.
• Less paper work is involve — Companies has to do less paper work with their employees. There is also no need of relocation process, thus no visas and work permit issues. And depending on the region, taxes can be low as well.
• Hiring is easy and talent is accessible — Usually hiring is easy and quick. Candidates are not required to physically come into the offices. And talent from all over world is reachable. Rather then good CV good skills count for companies.
• More focused and productive teams — To keep everything going companies define a organised structure. Teams are small so communication is easy. Teams are usually result driven and focused towards performance.
• Mostly flat hierarchies — The remote employe cannot perform and deliver good results if the communication is difficult, even a little bit. So most of the times remote companies has flat hierarchies and functional teams. So this means there is no politics and favouritism in company.

Benefits for the employees

If you are nor running a company or startup yet and still doing a 9 to 5 day job then you must consider the option of working remotely. People who are at the intermediate stage of their carrier should seriously consider it. Because people at this phase already gained enough experience to work independently. And at the same time they aren’t old enough to crank the office chairs and follow the same repeated routine five days a week. So following are the benefits you will gain as a remote worker:

• Being able to follow your passion — Everyone has a passion, a hobby, a dream, which they always want to pursue. And usually its not 9 to 5 job. Yeah! its okay if its not your job. But our jobs shouldn’t stop us from following our very own passion. It is the reason we are born for. So working remotely will greatly help in this regard. We can save a lot of time working remotely and we can be more productive as well. Here is great talk explaining this: Why work doesn’t happen at work. You can use this time to work on your projects, ideas and dreams along your job.
• Your place, your rules — You will have total control over your working environment. You can work from your couch, bed, treadmill or even from toilet, if your job allows that. As long as you are working it doesn’t matter from where and how you are working. There is no need to wear a tie and shirt everyday. There is no need to eat unhealthy lunch daily. Eat whatever you like and however you like, everyday! This was awesome for me.
• Life long learning — I can say one thing for sure, you will learn a lot while working remotely. You will learn many new things, not only related to your field but also about other domains. You will learn to use many tools to automate your workflow and processes. You will use many online platforms to communicate and track your progress. Speaking of communication, you will definitely learn to write and speak better. It is most import skill to succeed in your remote job. So be ready to take your skills and expertise to the next level.
• You will earn more — As you are most likely to work with some foreign company so you will be able to earn more than your local peers. This is due to the difference of currencies and sometimes due to the higher average wage of the region where recruiting company is situated. Beside this you will be able to save few bucks which you were supposed to spend on the transport, lunch etc.
• Opportunity to travel — You can travel and work at the same time. This sounds so cool. Just imagine you are on trip in Hawaii and your bank balance is not going down. Sounds like a dream! but you can achieve this with remote job. You can work at nights if your employer allows or take advantage of different timezones and enjoy in rest of the time. Even if this is not possible you will have the weekends to wander around.
• Get closer to your loved ones — If you work from your home you will be able to spend more time with your family and loved ones. Even in your office hours you will be surrounded by your family. You can baby sit your kids, pick them up from the school or maybe brush your daughters hairs if you like that. Now-a-days work life’s balance is disappearing and working remotely can give you a chance to live a more meaningful life.
• You will make new connection — People might think that working remotely will impact their social lives. They will not be able to make enough contacts. But in my experience its quite opposite. Working remotely will give you a chance to connect with people from different regions and backgrounds. You will come across new cultures and people quite often. Your network will be far diverse and global then your locally working peers.

Working remotely is an exciting experience, at least for me. But in the end it all boils down to your personal preferences. I have wrote an article on How to get a remote job as well. I hope that will be helpful too.

Wherever you are working and whatever routine you are following, it all comes to one thing; HARD WORK. So please continue doing the hard work and keep appreciating others hard work. Cheers!