3 remote work obstacles you’ll need to address in 2021

The work-from-home culture is now established. Which means there are a number of obstacles we will need to overcome in order to make things work for everyone.

Obstacle 1: Separating work life and personal life at home.

One of the first things I noticed working from home at the start of the pandemic was how blurred the lines had become between my work life and my personal / family life. If we are going to normalize working from home, then we are also going to have to normalize new ways of collaborating and communicating with our business partners, team members, and so on. This means being clear about each individual’s work expectations and remote communication habits that will make them the most successful. And most importantly, this means helping each other find ways to mentally and physically separate work life and personal life.

Obstacle 2: Finding ways to stay motivated and focused.

I do believe there are still ways to collaborate effectively from afar, but it takes more conscious effort. Conversations in an office can happen very organically, whereas over Slack or Zoom they have to be a bit more concretely initiated. So if businesses are going to continue working from home, then making it a point to engineer these more social, energetic moments throughout the day is going to be paramount.

Obstacle 3: Lack of space.

The solution to this problem used to be giving employees a stipend they could spend on a co-working space membership, or even a coffee fund they could use to work out of coffee shops instead. But during the pandemic, these options haven’t been feasible. Other companies I know have given employees stipends to invest a bit in their at-home setups—upgrading their desk, chair, office, etc.