10 Common Remote Work Challenges and Solutions [2024 Updated]

Remote work has its benefits: No commute, low-stress level, setting your own working hours, spending more time with family, and more.

Plus, you work without shoes on. 🙂

Studies have found remote workers are more productive, healthier, and enjoy a more positive work-life balance.

But, remote working is not all rainbows and smiles., it also has its challenges.

Here’s the List of Remote Work Challenges

1. Isolation
2. Lack of Work Structure
3. Burnout
4. Prioritizing works
5. Unplugging after work
6. Dealing with distractions
7. Effectively managing your time and projects
8. Building and Maintaining Trust
9. Lack of Personal Growth Feeling
10. Time zone differences

According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work Report, remote workers struggle with unplugging from their work, loneliness, and communicating.

In this article, we’ll discuss ten common challenges of working remotely and tips on how to overcome them.

10 Common Remote Work Challenges (+Solutions)

Challenge #1:  Isolation

Let’s face it: You may feel isolated when your home suddenly becomes your office.

In offices, you shape your creative muscles by arguing, discussing, high-five, and celebrating together. 

Or do non-work activities like playing TT, grab a coffee, or go out for lunch with your colleagues. These activities can help develop a strong relationships between coworkers. 

When you go remote, you don’t have these luxuries. And you focus your time on “work” rather than relationship building, and you often feel isolated and disconnected from coworkers.

The Solution: Use tools to make a human connection with teams

Today, companies focus on building a positive remote team culture because a company knows that personal bonds formed between team members actually give their company a competitive edge.

Here are some activities and tools that you can use to foster a positive connection with your teams:

Team messaging tools: Use messaging tools such as Slack, MS Teams, and Zoom to say hello and check how people are doing. Share fun memes and stupid stories.

Virtual quizzes: Use tools such as Trivia to create virtual quizzes and play with teams.

Water cooler conversations: Use tools such as Houseparty and Jackfruit to create a video room for your team and have a random and fun conversation.

Play fun games with the team: Tools like Go Game, The Escape Game, and Scavify let you play amazing games and offer virtual team-building experiences for remote teams.

Peer-to-peer recognition: Missing high-fives from your managers and colleagues? Use tools such as EngageWith to give each other virtual credits to say “thanks” to one another.

Movie night: Use tools such as Netflix Party to watch a movie with your team.

Employee engagement tools: Employee engagement tools such as 15five, Assembly, and Culture Amp have a way to keep team members engaged and feel part of the same mission.

Challenge #2: Lack of Work Structure

 One of the biggest challenges of remote working is the lack of work structure. With different deadlines, colleagues, tasks, communication styles, and priorities, keeping everything on track and running the entire process smoothly often feels like a battle. You need clear objectives to be productive, but structuring the work is tricky.

The Solution: Use the help of technology

For some, working from home is a huge adjustment. Empathize with your colleagues and be patient as everyone settles in.

Check-in with your team and employee from time to time with clear and flexible agendas. Ask your remote employees to reach out to you if there’s any confusion. You can also check on their schedule and deliverables, especially if there are any changes. There are even solutions for real-time collaboration which means your team can instantly see and comment on any changes made by members.

Here are some ways:

Organizing notes and ideas: Tools such as Evernote and Ideakeep for organizing important notes and ideas (and share these with your remote team).

Managing team goals: Tools such as I Done This and Weekdone to define team goals and manage directions.

1-On-1 remote meeting: Use tools such as Zoom, Meet, and Slack for having a 1-on-1 meeting with an employee.

Standups: Tools such as Standups, Standuply, and Troopr will keep your teams in sync.

Digital Whiteboard for brainstorming: Virtual whiteboard tools like Meindmesiter, Ideaflow, and MURAL will bring your team together to brainstorm ideas.

Challenge #3: Burnout

One of the biggest shifts for remote work was actually the lines between work, and non-work are blurring. And employees who are working remotely for the first time are likely to struggle to preserve healthy boundaries between their professional and personal lives.

So, what can you do to manage your stress while working remotely?

The Solution: Time-blocking

The key is balance. Give yourself enough time during the day to walk away from your computer screen and phone. Move around, play with your kids, take a step back, and don’t forget to clock out at the end of your shift.

Create a fun lineup of songs if listening to music while working is your jam. Share it with your colleagues, too, to share the vibe.

Listen to music to reduce stress level: Tools such as Brain.fm and Mooodify help you to improve focus, mood boost and sleep.

Meditate: Meditate with tools such as Calm and Sattva to relax and reduce anxiety and stress.

Stay healthy while working from home: Tools such as Daily Yoga, SWEAT, and PEERtrainer will keep you healthy while working from home.

Mental well-being: Mental health and wellness are REALLY important to give your hundred percent at work. Tools such as Ginger, Modern Health, and Headspace look after your mental well-being.

Challenge #4: Prioritizing works

One of the oldest remote working struggles is knowing how to prioritize your work. With more jobs to do, non-stop emails, and higher expectations, it can be overwhelming to decide what deserves your attention.

When priorities are piling up, you need a transparent system in place to take you from overwhelmed to under control. 

So, how can you prioritize your tasks and time?

The Solution: Plan your tasks and time

Get ready like you’re going to the office. Set your alarm, take a bath, and wear nice clothes. Plan your day while making yourself a good cup of coffee too. This helps prepare your mind and body for a productive day of working.

Before you start, list down your priorities for the day. Set pockets of time to complete your tasks and make sure you stick to your schedule.

Here are some ways to plan and manage tasks:

Create a to-do list: Plan your to-do list with tools such as Todoist, Any.do, and Google Tasks. No matter where you are or what device you use

Save and share your important files on the cloud: Tools such as Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and OneDrive will store your files on the cloud, sync them across multiple devices, and share with teams.

Visualize your to-do list: Tools such as LeanKit, Kanban, and Pipefy give you a visual view of what you have on your plate.

Manage your tasks on the to-do list: Create, assign, and manage tasks with tools such as Asana, Taskworld, SmartSheet, and nTaskmanager.

Challenge #5: Unplugging after work

For most remote workers, this is the worst of all the challenges associated with remote working.  A typical office worker checks out at 6 or 7 PM, drives home to his or her family, and spends the evening doing some leisure activity.

But while working from home, it’s difficult to unplug. The struggle is real. 

According to a Remote.co survey, unplugging after work hours is the biggest challenge remote workers face in their working lives.

What’s the solution?

The Solution: Set your working schedule (and stick to it)

Start and end work on time to establish the boundary between work life and home life. Managers of remote workers need to really encourage their teams to develop healthy boundaries between home and office.

Decide your working hours and inform your manager and team. Here are some more ideas:

Update status on your team collaboration tool: Team collaboration tools like Slack and MS Teams allow you to update your status regarding your availability. Set your working hours in your status.

Build a morning routine: A powerful morning routine will improve your productivity at work. Use tools such as STREAKS, Moodnotes, and Blinklist to structure your day.

Unwind after a stressful day: Use tools such as Smiling Mind, Personal Zen, Memento, and Daily Burn to unplug and relax after a long working day.

Challenge #6: Dealing with distractions

Distractions at home were the 4th most common challenge reported in Buffer’s 2022 State of Remote Working report. It’s a productivity killer that can turn remote working into a nightmare and compromise team progress. 

You may get an unexpected visitor, or your family could have unrealistic expectations of what you can do while working from home. It can reduce your productivity.

So, what’s the solution?

The Solution: Set up your home office

Working from home all of a sudden can be a major adjustment. Coordinate with your spouse, children, or a roommate on work schedules and designate chores equally.

Having a space in the house purely for work can help you get into the right mindset. Working in leisure spaces like the bedroom or the couch can hamper productivity because the brain associates it with sleep or rest.

Here are some more ideas:

Avoid distracting noises to increase your focus: Use tools such as Noisli and Krisp to avoid background noise and create a perfect environment to work.

Block websites that reduce your productivity: Website blocker tools such as Freedom, Limit, and WasteNoTime can help you overcome the temptation of distraction and increase your productivity.

Learning without compromising your work: Use tools such as Pocket and Email This to read your favorite articles or content (that you found online) later when you have time.

Activate “Do Not Disturb mode” in Slack: Do you need to focus on a task? Activate Slack’s Do Not Disturb feature. When you turn on the DND mode, Slack stops sending you notifications.

Challenge #7: Effectively managing your time and projects

Working from home means that you’ll have to manage your own time and be responsible for meeting project deadlines without reminders from coworkers.

So, what’s the solution?

The Solution: Time management and project management tools

Here are some ideas and tools:

Manage your projects and track the progress in real-time: Use project management tools such as Trello, Basecamp, Monday, Teamwork, and Wrike to manage and organize projects.

Use time management tools to track how you spend your time: Time management tools like Toggl, RescueTime, Doodle, Clockify, and When I Work allow you to track your time and maximize efficiency.

Calendar tools to keep things on track: When’s a good time to sit down with the team and discuss the project? Use tools such as Google Calendar, Calendly, and Workato for scheduling meetings and reviewing important milestones.

Screen sharing tools to collaborate with your team: Use tools such as CoScreen, Screen, and USE Together to control each others’ screens to get things done.

Challenge #8: Building and maintaining trust

Many virtual teams face challenges while building and maintaining trust among remote employees, which affects performance and productivity.

In some cases, team members may have never met each other personally, which subconsciously affects trust between them.

What can you do to avoid it?

There are some solutions to build and maintain trust across your entire team.

The Solution: Take the help of remote team-building tools

A study found that employees at high-trust companies are 106% more energetic at work. Here are some tips that remote team can implement to build trust among employees:

Virtual Coffee: Virtual coffee helps you recreate that coffee culture irrespective of geography. Trivia’s virtual coffee can help in fostering meaningful connections.

Avoid Micromanagement: People behave differently when teams are expected to take ownership of the work and build trust. Don’t do micromanagement.

Create shared goals: When employees have shared goals, they show interest in working together, helping each other, and covering each other’s backs.

Functional remote work policy: You must create a functional remote work policy which provides structure and direction. Your policy should include information related to the working hours, accepted behavior, company values, the use of collaboration tools, etc.

Challenge #9: Lack of Personal Growth Feeling

Without normal office interactions, it’s easy to lose a bit of motivation and confidence. If your team only focuses on completing tasks each day, they may not feel as if they’re making growth or developing new skills, which is the opposite of what you want as a manager.

The Solution: Do one-on-one meetings and run pulse surveys

Here are two solutions to overcome the above challenges:

Virtual one-on-one meetings: You can schedule monthly one-on-one meetings to discuss employees’ personal and professional development. Help them if they want to join any training or development programs. 

Not sure what to discuss during these meetings? Check out this library of 200 one-on-one meeting questions and see where they lead:

Pulse surveys: Send personalized or group pulse surveys for your remote team to get involved, respond, and let their opinion know. Collect feedback and identify areas for improvement.

Challenge #10: Time Zone Differences

In a remote work environment, team members may be spread across different time zones, leading to challenges in scheduling meetings, collaboration, and timely communication.

The Solution: Flexible working hours

Allow team members to have flexible working hours within certain boundaries. This can accommodate different time zones and enable individuals to work when they are most productive.

Overlap Hours: Identify and establish “overlap hours” where all team members are expected to be available for real-time collaboration. This may involve adjusting work hours for some team members to align with the majority.

Transparent Communication: Encourage transparent communication regarding working hours. Team members should communicate their availability and non-working hours to ensure everyone is aware of potential delays in responses.

Use Time Zone Tools: Implement time zone tools or features in project management and communication platforms. This helps in automatically displaying the local time of each team member, making it easier to schedule meetings.

Recorded Meetings: Record important meetings and share the recordings. This allows team members who couldn’t attend the live session to catch up at a more suitable time.

FAQs

Now it’s your turn!

We’ve discussed the ten most common remote work challenges in this article and solutions to overcome them.

What challenges do you face while working remotely (and what do you do to overcome these?

Check out our employee engagement and HR tools.

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Originally published July 8, 2020 4:48 PM, updated Jan 22 2024