The Ultimate List of Remote Work Pros and Cons

No matter who you want to convince, your boss, your employees, your partner or just yourself, here are the ultimate arguments for remote work.

For Employees

pros

• no time for commuting
• no money for commuting (fuel, car, insurance, parking, train tickets)
• lower stress and reduced possibity of accidents while commuting
• improved health due to lower stress through commuting and busy city centers
• more productive work in less time
• no distractions by collegues and loudly cubical farms
• no long water cooler talks
• no useless face-to-face meetings
• work where and when you are most productive
• you are managing your schedule, that is not done by your manager
• you are measured by accomplished work and not hours spend at the office
• you can’t be micro-managed by your manager
• more time for family and hobbies
• time and flexibility to take care for family members (the young, old or disabled)

cons

• risk of loneliness and isolation
• the need for self-motivation (which is easier if your job fits to you and hard if not)
• sometimes lack of good communication tools
• no short water cooler talks

For Employers

pros

• infinite talent pool / higher qualified employees and saved time while hiring
• the skill shortage in your region will not slow your business down
• you will get self-motivated people instead of bored 9-to-5-staff
• good employees will most likely not relocate if you are a startup or a small company
• you are getting work done by the employees and not hours spend at your office
• your employees are spread over lots of different markets – so you get a lot of market information and trail opportunities for your products
• relaxed employees, because they have no commuting or office stress and better work flexibility (for collecting kids, doctors appointments, dog walks, etc.)
• more productive work in less time
• possibility of an easy around the clock customer service
• save cost on office space, furniture, energy, cleaning service, janitor
• availability of divers cultures which can be respected at creating products
• availability of native speakers of different languages while finding a name for your product or creating user documents
• products are better specified and documented, because the remote work requires it
• you are disaster ready: you are still online, if there is an internet or power blackout, flooding, snow storm or flu season at one location

cons

• work in different time zones need to be managed
• misunderstandings because of too less or bad communication
• you need good remote project managers to create a successful product or service

For the Environment

pros

• no pollution through commuting
• less demand for new freeways and railroads

cons

• pollution from travelling of digital nomads

So it is no surprise that the remote movement is unstoppable. My personal opinion is, that it will even accelerate and that we will find empty office towers in big cities and flourishing small towns and co-working hubs spreaded all over the counties. That will increase companies efficiency and our all quality of life.

Please let me know what pro or con I have missed in the comment section. Thanks!