telework complaints | Telecommute Job Online

No doubt many telecommuters are thriving during the pandemic. For the most part these are upper-income office workers whose jobs easily transitioned from the office environment to successfully working from home as they continue to enjoy all the benefits from doing so.

For the rest of the world, things are not looking as optimistic. There are rising rates of domestic violence, depression, suicidal ideation, and mental health services are hard-pressed to meet the growing demand for both remote workers and the increasingly unemployed Americans who are tasked with having to manage work (or lack of work) and surviving during unprecedented times.

Research is ongoing, as we try to get a handle on what we are up against as we all are trying to do our best under such challenging conditions.

As the statistics continue to come in, one research firm (The Martec Group) has provided results of a groups study that confirms, even among those who are telecommuting and working from home, there is growing cause for concern.

According to statistics

32% Pissed Off

The largest segment of teleworking employees (32%) report that they are hugely in opposition of the current work at home conditions. They don’t like working at home, and they think that their employers are not doing a very good job at making adequate arraignments not offering the support necessary to ensure a successful telecommuting environment.

27% Disgruntled

Then there are the employees that also do not like working at home, but they are not blaming their employers at all. As awkward and uncomfortable as it might be, they are of the mind that their employers are doing the best they can with what they have. These account for 27% of the group.

It is disconcerting, that the larger part of the group (59%) is not enjoying the remote working scenario whatsoever. And who would blame them? Who likes being forced to do anything that is outside their comfort zone? (No matter how you try to explain how fortunate they are to have a job.)

Then there are the employees who don’t hate working from home, are not crazy about it and wished they didn’t have to do it, but also think that their employers will come out of the pandemic in good shape (25%), and they believe they will be able to return to work under more normal conditions after the restrictions are lifted.

16% Love It

If you believe the media, you will think the largest segment of the pandemic telecommuters would be those who are enthusiastically celebrating their new life and freedom associated with working from home. But it turns out that only 16% are thriving as the result of working from home, and if given the opportunity to continue to do so would jump at the chance, even if it meant taking a slight pay cut.

84% Do Not Want to Work from Home

It is interesting to note the majority (84%) of these employees are not happy. Not only are they not happy, but they do not want to be working from home.

72% Growing Mental Health Concerns

They feel like they are being forced to work under undesirable conditions, and 72% of them reported growing mental health concerns.

I think we could do better.

You might things are all fun and games telecommuting and working from home, and there are moments, for sure, when there is much to be grateful for while being able to work from home, but there is a dark side of teleworking that is affecting those who are trying to adapt to this new work model.

Certainly, the upside of moving your job online so that you can work from home is being able to eliminate the time and costs associated with the commute to and from work, while gaining the ability to multitask a bit while performing your ordinary work duties.

There is no way you could do laundry or enjoy the other benefits (including working unshaven or undressed for work, et al.) that come from working at home if you were still having to go to work elsewhere.

Here are the top 5 issues among the dark side of teleworking.

Top 5 Complaints of Teleworkers

1 – Childcare

The biggest problem to rear its ugly head becomes painfully apparent to telecommuters who are parents of children and are trying to balance childcare with effectively teleworking, especially if they are school children who are actively telelearning or being homeschooled. Unless you already have adequate staff at home to help fill the void, this can be a very dark place and a huge drain on your resources.

2 – Social Interaction

Then there is the lack of social environment, saying “Hi,” to your coworker as you pass by or even those brief water cooler conversations, all gone. If you valued these brief interludes with coworkers, not having them, can be missed, and you are likely not to know how important these little social interactions were to you, until they were gone.

You can try to replace it with little Zoom visits, but clearly its not the same thing. Plus, Zooming is not spontaneous, and it can interrupt your workflow on either end or both simultaneously.

3 – Productivity Pressure

When you are working at an office which is being monitored by a supervisor, there is less accountability because management can see your performance in real time. When you are working from home, it is all on you. You are the only one responsible to account for your productivity, and you know if your output is not more than you were able to do before you started working from home, it may affect your earning capacity.

So, you cheat.

Things may be a little loosely structured at home, and you find yourself not working as fervently as you did before you started telecommuting, so you try to make up for the lack to make sure your numbers remain good. You stop taking breaks, work through lunch, and work late, or on weekends in order to maintain your productivity to assure your survivability and success.

This is unhealthy in the short-run and even more so in the long-run.

If this applies to you, you are probably looking forward to returning to work, which is a more comfortable environment where you can perform without the stress of having to manage yourself much.

4 – Inadequate Home Office

Not all homes have the space to accommodate a full working office. While one can make do with what you have to work with for a while, it is a different proposition, this trying to carve out a makeshift work area to get things done is nothing near having a dedicated space with the supplies necessary to perform one’s job duties.

Not having a separate space to do your work emphasizes your lack of separation.

5 – Lack of Separation

Unless you have a separate office space in your home or live completely alone, life is going on all around you while you are trying to get things done. You need to be able to isolate yourself, at least somewhat, from the goings on around the home while you are working.

These issues concerning childcare, social interaction, productivity pressure, inadequate home office, and lack of separation are among the most pervasive challenges for telecommuters among the dark side of teleworking.

Now that you know that these are the most common problems experienced by those who just like you are trying to keep up with the other teleworkers who are thriving in there work from home environments, you can rest assured that you are not alone.

You are not among the minority. You are just doing the best you can with what you have.

But you can count yourself among the thrivers, if you can make some changes, enough to further isolate your home working environment from the dark side of teleworking.

What changes could you make?