Remote Working Practices, Benefits, and Pitfalls

The recent COVID-19 pandemic caused many people to shift from traditional in-office work to working from home. Studies show that before the pandemic, only 5% of Americans worked remotely, but the number had grown to 37% by April 2020 (Yang et al., 2022). The remote working model remained popular after the COVID-19 restriction measures were lowered, and today many big companies, including Google, Meta, and Amazon, still encourage telecommuting among their workers. The efficiency of remote working has been greatly influenced by technological advancements promoting the ease of communication between different workers and enabling employees to perform all required roles at home. Many people, especially young employees and students in internship programs, say that remote work has various benefits, including flexibility and reduced time wastage while commuting (Blumberga and Pylinskaya, 2019). However, remote work has pitfalls, the common being a limitation in socializing and overworking among employees. This research will focus on the practices, benefits, and pitfalls of remote work with an emphasis on student workers and young employees.

The main aim of this research is to critically review the practices, elucidate the benefits and discuss the disadvantages associated with remote work. This goal will be reached through setting and striving to achieve the following objectives.

1. To examine the contemporary practices that most organizations that have adopted the remote working model have.
2. Identify and discuss the benefits the employees and organizations that have implemented remote work enjoy over those that do not.
3. Discuss the pitfalls of remote work to both employers and employees.

First, the preliminary literature review, where an evaluation of key items of literature, theoretical framework, and main research questions will be done. Secondly, a research methodology that identifies paradigms, justifications for the research, its scope, limitations, and considerations shall be done. Finally, a timetable for research showing when each particular task should be completed shall be drawn.

Preliminary Review of Literature

Theoretical Framework

Remote work is an arrangement between the employee and the employer that allows the worker a flexible working opportunity from the comfort of their home or any other location other than the organization’s offices. The term remote work is used synonymously with other terms such as virtual work, telecommuting, virtual work, teleworking, and working from home, although there may be a slight difference in the definition of terms (Blumberga and Pylinskaya, 2019). Remote work arrangements can either be full-time or part-time (Shirmohammadi et al., 2022). Organizations that incorporate voluntary remote work arrangements in their work retain top talent for a longer time. The remote work field has gained increased attention from researchers revealing its importance to businesses. One factor that the researchers have found to be pivotal in the expansion of remote work is the availability of technological means to individuals and the willingness of organizations to adopt them (Charalampous et al., 2019). However, the main reason why many people have been willing to accept this type of work structure is the popular image displayed in the media of how people in remote work enjoy flexible, family-friendly work routines.

The concept of remote work was first introduced in the 1970s, but it was only in the 1990s, during the dot-com boom, that it became practicable. However, managers always approached remote work with skepticism, fearing that employees would not be able to perform well without close supervision. In 2020 however, the pandemic forced many organizations to try this new model of operations due to limited office space and government regulations (Yang et al., 2022). Most managers who would not have thought of trying remote work discovered that employees performed just as well or even better in remote work settings. However, the practicability of remote work is limited to some white color jobs, meaning that it is impossible for many organizations to adopt remote working arrangements for all their employees. Therefore, the practice of remote work can be said to be just complementary work for conventional office work. Therefore, managers today find it useful in reducing costs and expenses associated with offices.

The benefits associated with remote work are numerous and clear. Employees who work from home are more productive in time utilization because they don’t incur commuting time. When employees travel to and from work every day, they not only waste time traveling but also get tired in the process. Employees who work remotely are also more innovative and productive because they enjoy autonomy (Licite-Kurbe and Leonovica 2021). For example, some employees could be more productive at dawn while others could enjoy more productivity late at night. While they can work these hours in most remote jobs, waking up or sleeping in a traditional office is hard. A controversial benefit the employees have is improved work-life balance. A group of scholars argues that employees who work from home have more time for family and social events. This argument has been nullified by the fact that employees will try to overcompensate hence working more hours than necessary (Hayes et al., 2020). For managers to ensure that their workers enjoy this benefit, they should set a limit on the maximum number of hours that a worker can log in in a day or a week.

Despite having a wide range of advantages, remote work also has many disadvantages. One of the pitfalls associated with remote work is the erosion of a company’s culture and morals because employees don’t get enough time to interact with each other. For leaders to have a transformative impact on an organization, they have to act as role models and have subordinates imitate them, which is impossible when employees work virtually. Methods such as video conferences and regular in-person meetings have been proposed as possible solutions to this problem. However, they have not had the same impact as person-to-person interactions in an office. Managers are also likely to underestimate the volume of work given to a particular employee or group, leading to work intensification (Perry et al., 2020). This could lead to employee burnout resulting in less productivity or even employees quitting (Hayes et al., 2020; Perry et al., 2020). Remote workers also often overlap personal work with office work, and this could result in either underperforming or the employee doing more work than necessary.

Gaps in the Literature

Remote work has continued to gain popularity in many organizations and has greatly influenced globalization. As previously discussed, its practices, benefits, and disadvantages are numerous, but studies on it remain limited. Specifically, the relationship between the benefits associated with remote employees is not conclusive (Charalampous et al., 2019). For instance, some studies reveal that employees who work remotely enjoy various benefits, including more flexibility and increased work-life balance, i.e. (Vyas, 2022). However, contemporary research nullifies this observation as it has been revealed that employees who work remotely could end up overcompensating. There is also a gap in involuntary remote work arrangements where employees are given no alternative but to work from home (Shirmohammadi et al., 2022). These gaps have resulted in scholars calling for more studies to determine the practices, benefits, and limitations of remote work arrangements (Bolino, Kelemen, and Matthews, 2020). There is a limitation in the literature on how managers can ensure remote workers’ well-being while maintaining their productivity in the organization.

Main Research Questions

The main research question for this research is “What are the perspectives of student employees and young workers on the practices, benefits, and pitfalls of remote work.” This main research question will be further broken down into five questions to understand the “why” of the issues. The five specific questions are:

1. Does your organization allow people to choose between remote and in-office work?
2. What is your opinion on a remote work environment?
3. How do you think that the remote work environment can be improved?
4. Which tools do you believe are necessary for remote work?
5. What do you love and hate most about remote work?

Methodology

Research Paradigm

This paper will employ the pragmatism research paradigm, which states that there can be single or multiple outcomes in empirical research. Pragmatics generally agree that all knowledge is socially constructed and some realities fit some people more than others (Kaushik and Walsh, 2019). As such, this study looks at both the positive and negative practical outcomes of remote work for an organization. The research questions will be set up in a manner that conclusions will be reached if students give a certain response. Since this research will seek to identify remote work’s positive and negative impacts, a quantitative research methodology will be used. The study will use secondary data to identify how student workers see remote work. Most of the data used for this research shall be sourced from online sources. Some qualitative data shall also be gathered and analyzed to further expand on the qualitative data collected.

Justification for the Choice

This study will use secondary data because many researchers have dedicated their efforts to remote work practicability, pros, and cons. The sources to be used are scholarly journal articles from Google Scholar. Primary data will also be used to add numbers to the study and will involve asking students in internships or younger workers about their views on remote work. Using student workers in the research is justified by their availability and ease of collecting data from them. A pragmatic research paradigm will be used because the study aims at providing practical solutions and an understanding of the remote work environment. The research wants to use a method that works best in understanding the benefits, practices, and pitfalls of the field under research. The study will use mixed methods of research where qualitative aspects of remote work will first be established and then supported by quantitative data. The mixed method approach is justified for this research because it enhances a comprehensive understanding of a problem and helps people understand the context better.

Scope of Research

This study will integrate qualitative and quantitative data to broaden the understanding of how remote work is practiced and how it benefits and hurts various parties. The scope of this research will be limited to students and young employees and will seek to understand their positive and negative views on remote work. Sample size shall be decided when the study is being conducted and will be influenced by factors such as the available time and resources. The duration of the study shall be six months, starting in November 2022 and shall end in April 2022. Topics to be discussed shall include a literature review on remote work, Methodology, Results, and conclusion. The student or employee’s location shall not be considered, meaning any students or young workers willing shall be allowed to take the interview. Both male and female participants shall be allowed to answer the questions, although there will be an age limit between 15 and 30 years.

Limitations of the Research Design

Although this study will aim at providing conclusive results, there will be limitations caused by costs, time, and other constraints. First, the study will focus on students and young workers whose results may not indicate the whole population. The study shall also emphasize qualitative aspects of remote work, which could result in some important quantitative aspects being neglected. Similarly, overreliance on qualitative data could result in personal influence and biases leading to inaccurate results (Rahman, 2020). Although this study will seek to clarify some results, this could nonetheless result in limitations. This study will aim to be pragmatic and get results to be used in decision-making. Younger employees and student workers could be influenced by popular culture and media to answer the questions making remote work benefits exaggerated. The sample size the study aims to use has also not been established, and this puts the research at risk of using excessive or limited data. Costs and time limitations are the main reason why a definite sample size has not been established and will also negatively impact other aspects, including the age of interviewees and the use of quantitative data.

Consideration of Ethical Issues

The study will take into consideration a variety of legal, ethical, and moral principles. In the literature review, the paper shall have proper citations to avoid plagiarism which is academic misconduct. The study shall also maintain scientific and academic honesty by ensuring that the study is original and has not been submitted previously by any other researchers. The study shall seek approval from various ethical bodies, such as the institutional review board (IRB), before commencing interviews). Participants who answer the questionnaires shall be voluntary though well-reported incentives shall be used. The study will ensure that the questionnaires do not influence the respondents in any manner. Furthermore, anonymity shall be ensured for all respondents, and it is impossible to link any data to a particular person. The researchers shall ensure this confidentiality by not asking respondents questions that reveal their personal information. Psychological, social, physical, and legal harm shall be avoided by not asking sensitive questions and ensuring that respondents are not publicly embarrassed.

Timetable

Reference List

Blumberga, S. and Pylinskaya, T. (2019) Remote work advantages and disadvantages on the example in its organization. In International Conference NORDSCI. Athens (Vol. 281).

Bolino, M.C., Kelemen, T.K. and Matthews, S.H. (2020) ‘Working 9-to-5? A review of research on nonstandard work schedules’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42(2), 188–211.

Charalampous, M. et al. (2019) ‘Systematically reviewing remote e-workers’ well-being at work: A multidimensional approach’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 28(1), pp.51-73.

Hayes, S.W. et al. (2020) “I’m not working from home, I’m living at work”: perceived stress and work-related burnout before and during COVID-19.

Kaushik, V. and Walsh, C.A. (2019) Pragmatism as a research paradigm and its implications for social work research. Social Sciences, 8(9), p.255.

Licite-Kurbe, L. and Leonovica, R. (2021) Economic benefits of remote work from the employer perspective. In Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference” Economic Science for Rural Development, Jelgava (pp. 345-354).

Perry, S.J., Rubino, C. and Hunter, E.M. (2018) ‘Stress in remote work: two studies testing the Demand-Control-Person model’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 27(5), pp.577-593.

Rahman, M.S. (2020) ‘The advantages and disadvantages of using qualitative and quantitative approaches and methods in language “testing and assessment” research: a literature review’, Journal of Education and Learning, 6(1), p. 102.

Shirmohammadi, M., Au, W.C. and Beigi, M. (2022) Remote work and work-life balance: Lessons learned from the covid-19 pandemic and suggestions for HRD practitioners. Human Resource Development International, [online] 25(2), pp.163–181.

Vyas, L. (2022) ‘”New normal” at work in a post-COVID world: work-life balance and labor markets’, Policy and Society, 41(1), pp.155-167.

Yang, L. et al. (2022) ‘The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers’, Nature Human Behavior, 6(1), pp.43-54.