The definition of remote work (also known as work from home or telecommuting) is a type of flexible working arrangement that allows an employee to work from a remote location outside of a company office.

If you’re a Gen Xer like me, working remotely wasn’t in the realm of possibilities when you entered the workforce. You commuted Monday through Friday to your office. If you were lucky, you might have had a laptop and the ability to work from home one day a week. Video conferencing? What’s that? You sat in a conference room face to face with your colleagues. Jeans at work? Only on Fridays.

The Workforce Has Changed Tremendously

Fast forward to 2022, and the pandemic made many companies realize that employees don’t need to be located in the same building to be productive. And, because of this, more and more remote jobs are emerging worldwide every day. Here at Front Porch Marketing, we’ve always been remote, and it rocks!

For many people, gone are the days of worrying if you are going to be late to a meeting because you were stuck in traffic. Business casual and casual Fridays are a thing of the past. It’s business on the top, sweatpants on the bottom. Want to work in a different location? Just change your virtual background on Zoom. Work lakeside. Work from the beach. The options are endless.

Overcoming the Pitfalls of Remote Work

Working remotely definitely has benefits that can range from eliminating a long commute to more control over your work hours to spending more time with family. On the other hand, it can also have drawbacks. Whether you’re a long-time pro of telecommuting, or new to the game, let’s talk through three of the pitfalls people make working from home and what you can do to avoid them.

1. Not having a dedicated workspace.

While not everyone has an extra room in their home for a dedicated home office, it’s important to find a space that is free of distractions. Setting up camp from your couch or bed is ok from time to time, but is not advisable for the long term because it lessens your productivity and blurs the lines between work and home.

Think of your work space as your home cubicle. Maybe it means rearranging your bedroom to make room for a desk and chair. Or, do you have a breakfast nook or dining room that no one uses? If so, make it your own with a fun lamp and a picture or two, but most importantly, keep it simple and organized and solely focused on work. This home office environment allows you to set firm boundaries between work and home.

2. Household distractions.

Having the ability to do a load of laundry, being home for a repairman, or putting dinner in the crockpot are all benefits of working from home. But, if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself wasting a good chunk of your day working on household responsibilities instead of your work task at hand.

Utilize your work calendar by scheduling breaks and a dedicated lunch hour. Use short breaks time to take out the trash, fold a load of laundry or prep kids’ lunches for the next day. Your lunch hour is also a great time to run a quick errand, or get your blood flowing and go for a walk around the neighborhood. If you plan out your time, you’ll find at the end of the work day you have accomplished your work responsibilities and freed up some time in the evening by checking off a few nightly chores from your to-do list too.

3. Work-life balance.

If you are accustomed to being in an office, you more than likely are used to a set start and end time. Sometimes you might go in early or stay late, but typically when you leave the parking garage your work day is over. This isn’t the case when you work remotely.

While flexible hours are a benefit of working from home, it’s important to set boundaries. For some that might mean a set start and end time. Log in at 8. Log out at 5. For others, it might mean working chunks of hours to accommodate kids’ schedules. Whatever your work hours are, when you aren’t working log off your computer and turn off email notifications on your phone. Let your colleagues know this time is dedicated for family or personal time. When you have a balance, and time to disconnect, you will find you are happier and more productive while you’re working.

Remote Work is Here to Stay

It may take time to get used to a remote work environment, and find the schedule and tools and resources you need to be successful. Just know that more than likely you are not alone. Reach out to your colleagues and friends and family. They might have some tips and tricks to help too!

The 2020’s Have Been Tough

The beginning of this decade has been a tough one. No one expected a pandemic in the 21st century. At least not one that would impact the way we live, learn, and conduct business. Covid-19 has forced humanity to adapt to the era of online learning, and remote work. Now that we have all had a taste for what its like to work at home I don’t think we’re going back to the office anytime soon. Or at least not back to full time positions in an office. In 2021 America experienced a momentous event: everyone started to quit their jobs. Journalists have called this “The Great Resignation”.

Following this, major companies in marketing and other knowledge industries like HubSpot, Twitter, Airbnb, and Microsoft announced that they’re switching to going fully remote or remote/hybrid. Due to this transition, more companies have started to look towards future advances in a new era of work. What comes next? The Metaverse.

What is the Metaverse?

So what is the Metaverse? The Metaverse is a virtual 3D world that can be accessed by using either a VR headset or through a computer. Its goal is to create a world that is more layered and connected than the internet. It will allow users to create their own avatars and converse with one another, making remote projects significantly more efficient.

What Might Business in the Metaverse Look Like?

So how does this effect businesses like marketing? Well, to start off, one of the many challenges in working from home is communication. It takes a very well structured team with consistent communication and clear goals to make remote work flow efficiently. The Metaverse would only help this work style. It would allow for more open communication and allow people to separate their home life from their work life.

Often times people blend their work life with their home life when they work remotely, and this would solve this problem. You would simply say good bye to your coworkers once work is done in this virtual world, and log off. You would no longer have this distance problem. And be able to have more effective collaboration while you’re there. Just imagine everyone having a shared virtual space where you can freely move around. It could be the future of remote brainstorming sessions.

A Cheaper Alternative

Business might want to shift towards implementing the Metaverse, because in the end it’s going to save them money. There would be no need to pay office rent anymore. No need to fly employees out to meet clients in other countries and rent them hotels. This gives smaller businesses a chance to do business with clients overseas. In a way, it could even the playing field to meet in a virtual world.

Having a Metaverse office might also allow companies to save time on trainings. With this new technology managers will be able to train new employees at a much faster rate. Instead of just sending them a standard pdf of the tasks they need to complete, they could jump into a virtual simulation that has been specifically designed and tested to maximize their efficiency. The possibilities are endless.

Is the Metaverse a Necessary Change?

It may seem like a sudden and drastic change, but that’s what life has been like these last two years. And as humans, we continue to adapt to all of these sudden changes. I think the way we look at work — at least in the corporate setting —has forever changed since 2020. “The Great Resignation” is proof of it. It may take awhile for companies to change, but I believe there is no going back to fully in-person at the office in the future. I think you could compare this time period to a time in history when we stop using horses and started driving cars. It was a sudden drastic change that the world was not expecting, but over time it just became the new normal. You can either adapt and stay up with the times and join your colleagues in the Metaverse, or stay behind. There’s no moving backward now.

Remote work happens and has before 2020. Newsflash!

The pandemic made it essential. Corporate offices closed. ODL. Now what are we going to do?

Many were unsettled.

Front Porch Marketing didn’t miss a beat.

Going back to 2011 when our company was founded, I was inspired by a business leader who started her business on a virtual model years prior. They still are rocking remote work and a “galactic headquarters.” F yer I. Successful companies have been using this model for years and years.

Companies functioned virtually decades before 2020. Really? Yes, friends, yes, they did.

Many questions were asked in 2020:
• Team engagement. How can we function as a team without our myriad of useless meetings?
• New business development. How would I do new biz development if not meeting one-on-one? Talk to your business partners. Existing clients, associations, affiliations, time to find new connections via LinkedIn.
• Meetings. We must be in person and spend an hour at least pontificating all the thing. Nope. No, you do not.
• Client relationships. How can we nurture them if they aren’t in person? Pick up the phone.

5 key reasons, and there are more, remote work works

• It is more efficient. Less time spent commuting, more working.
• Remote work is flexible. Choose the hours you work. Throw in a load of laundry between emails. It is important to remember, however, you don’t always have to be “on.” Walk away from the computer light, Carol Ann.
• Enhances the work horizon. Our team is all over North Texas and Colorado and and and which means we can benefit from being a part of many communities and have access to top talent anywhere.
• Business development happens. Less disruptions, more focus. Biz dev doesn’t have to be face to face. Utilize your resources. Resourceful people find new ways to make shit happen so their businesses thrive.
• Saves money. Eliminates the unnecessary things. I pay my mortgage only, not rent for an office and its utilities too. Only one cleaning service. Less tax burden.

How we work impacts everything from our satisfaction to the broader economy. Speaking of broader economy, we are seeing wide reaching benefits from the pandemic. More small business owners are open to working with agencies that aren’t in their own backyards.

I will save the story of the business referral someone gave to a rocking business owner in California that recently led to our newest client relationship.

We aren’t “remaking work.” Remote work is how we have worked for 10 years. We focus on doing great work with people we love for people we love while taking care of our loves.