Many businesses are moving from a traditional office layout to embracing remote work. But is it really worth the money saved? With remote work comes a lot less oversight and a lot more trust on your workers.
Sometimes, having an office location is more ideal, and other times it’s a waste of money. It all depends on the business. It’s also important to note that thousands of small businesses managed to get themselves on the market through utilizing remote work.
It’s undeniable that remote work has forever changed business and opened doors for business owners who would have never had an opportunity otherwise.
With all this in mind, we’re going to give you the ultimate remote work pros and cons breakdown.
Pro: Save Money (Lots of it)
Offices are expensive. If you are able to run your business a space full of computers and equipment to buy/rent, you can easily save tens of thousands of dollars by forgoing office costs. That’s no small number. For small businesses, offices are so expensive that they’re not even an option.
Con: No Space to Meet
That all said, there is still value to having a central meeting location. One of the biggest problems with remote work is that your workers are spending much less time communicating and interacting with others. This can cause an array of problems, mainly these 2:
- Stifling creativity because there are fewer people to bounce ideas off of
- Lowering work ethic because seeing no one for 8 hours a day isn’t healthy for everyone.
But these problems also come with solutions. Shared spaces have become very popular lately specifically because they fulfil the need for a business space without charging so much money. You can have more in-person interaction with plenty of check-in calls while still relying on remote work.
Pro: Work on Your Own Time
One of the huge implications of remote work is that employees can choose the time they do their work, so long as they meet deadlines.
Some might see this as potentially a con (which I will get to) because it might encourage laziness or procrastination. But you should consider the people who would not have had the ability to work despite being very good at their job.
Parents are one example. Folks who need to watch over their kids and can’t afford daycare.
Another group of people are folks with disabilities. Some people have a lot of trouble going outside and moving somewhere far away. Perhaps because they are blind, may use a wheelchair, or chronic fatigue. They might also be prone to high anxiety or get sick very easily. Remote work for all of these people open them up to job possibilities.
Con: Lack of Time Management
A potential con with timing is that you might open up your workers to potential time management and procrastination issues. These problems are very human and not having the accountability of being physically present makes it tough to stay on track.
But given all the benefits mentioned before, it’s worth looking for solutions so you can get the best of both worlds.
One solution is to schedule lots of check-in meetings. Making sure that you have regular phone meetings and constant, reasonable deadlines is a great way of building a system of accountability for remote work.
Conclusion
Some offices may find that the teamwork and group creativity is worth having an office location, and that’s ok. We don’t see offices going away anytime soon. But you must also admit that remote work is only going to become a more accepted framework in the future. It makes jobs open to lots of people who otherwise can’t work, while also cutting down on costs. While we can’t tell you what’s best for your business, we can recommend that you look at ways to see if remote work could do anything to improve your business.