As everyone got a taste of working remotely, a lot more attention got brought to these types of questions.
In my case, my biggest pains are:
1) Feeling part of the company and engaging with other employees
2) Having to pay for my own benefits (in my company, I need to get them myself)
3) Getting good wifi depending on where I am
2) Not having the work social circle and chatter. I consider myself an introvert but I still find myself missing the short conversations in the open office and in the hallways that often led to new ideas implemented, quick checkups, social integrity.
3) Not having work equipment. I'm a designer. Been able to work off of the laptop fairly well, but I miss our (specialized) printers deeply.
- Family thinking that you actually don't work and instead thinking they can schedule tons of things to do while you're supposed to be working
- No boundaries in terms of when work ends and begins
- Not leaving the house enough; eg getting tired of being home all the time
If I had to do it over again I'd find other WFH people in my area and rent a space where we could hang out and get our work done, like a hacker space. That leaves me in control of my working environment while providing some separation from home.
1. I can't handle one of my work colleagues who is an awful awful man and instead of powering through it like I used to I've become borderline phobic of going into the office at all ever. Also because everyone else is working from home if I do go in I'm there with him on my own.
2. I can handle my work/home boundaries and when to switch off at the end of the day but other people can't or choose not to and they end up acting inappropriately, for example by messaging me work queries through personal social media at 11pm or using a work query as a trojan horse to start a more casual conversation I otherwise wouldn't have with them. This was always simmering in the background but there is definitely a new layer of entitlement since March 2020.
3. Increase in pressure to do things like work drinks
4. More difficult to get ahold of other people who are also working from home
Previously:
4. I worked from home a few years ago and had issues with people thinking that meant I wasn't working at all and they could schedule things for me or with me, or otherwise easily attention seek. This was a good catalyst for me to spot that these people saboutaged me across all areas of my life and I got rid of them and things are so much more peaceful now. What I am left with now is the people in my life like this that i can't so easily shake - tradesmen for my landlord dicking me about and my alcoholic neighbour.
- Feeling disconnected from my company and team
- Lack of physical/ face to face human interaction
- Reduced motivation
- Lack of spontaneous opportunities to meet new people, learn from others and socialise
I try to work from (SE) a different environment at least 3-4 days a week (Coffee shop, shared workspace etc, I head there after I've had lunch) and it really makes a difference for me - The small price of a couple of filer coffee's is definitely worth it.
In my apartment I can never quite switch over to work mode. I just think about cleaning my bathroom or going for a walk or doing the core workout I meant to do yesterday. At best I can inject "Implement feature x" into the same list, but I can't fully flush the home stuff. Which means I do much less work stuff.
(2) Interruptions/distractions
(3) Can you hear me? Well, oh sorry didn't mean to interrupt. What are you saying? Let me whiteboard this...okay need to share this window, now that...
Having said that, I do have something to add to the list: since going fully-remote the amount of after-hours social time with colleagues has dropped categorically. This is not entirely a bad thing, of course, but it has resulted in fewer chips and salsa/queso sessions (and that is a pain).
1) Meetings
2) have to work on a beautiful sunny day
3) have to work
2) Trust is also difficult to establish for new teammates.