acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

ACM Careers

Working From Home: Common Challenges and How to Tackle Them


View as: Print Mobile App Share:
dog begging for a treat

Pets can fail to understand your work from home requirements.

Credit: Getty Images

During the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic many organizations are recommending — and some requiring — that their staff work from home. Some information technology workers may already be familiar with working remotely, but for them and others this could become the longest period of time away from their office and the rest of their team.

"Even when organizations are able to utilize remote working policies, they will need to prepare employees who are unaccustomed to remote working to navigate the challenges involved," says Shainaz Firfiray, associate professor of Human Resource Management at Warwick Business School.

GitLab recently surveyed 3,000 knowledge workers who either worked remotely or had the option to work remotely. Most gave telecommuting an enthusiastic thumbs up: 90% said they would recommend home working to a friend, and 84% said they could accomplish all their tasks remotely.

But they acknowledged significant downsides as well.

Knowing where problems can occur allows for better preparation to avoid them. Here's a rundown of the biggest challenges, with a few ideas for how to dodge them.

From ZDNet
View Full Article


 

No entries found

Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account