Remote working for many has become the new normal by necessity, forced upon organisations by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the teams that needed to make this overnight transition, there was an immediate impact on their ways of working, and productivity.
For some, the productivity actually increased slightly – for the company I worked for this was certainly the case, and this is confirmed in this study. Regardless of any change in productivity, there are a number of challenges that these teams faced during the transition and in the months that have followed.
I reached out to the Agile community on Reddit and Quora to find out first hand some of the challenges and issues they have faced. The results were interesting, with some unexpected issues.
Here are some of the challenges remote teams are facing:
1. The Line Between Work Life and Personal Life is Blurred
Finding a good work-life balance was hard enough before remote working, and being forced to work from home has made this even more difficult. Parents with children, particularly young children, find it difficult to be able to focus and find a good routine to ensure that they are able to find work and family time. What is very apparent though is that many people are working longer hours and skipping breaks such as lunch because there is no separation between the office and home. The effects of this are now becoming apparent, with some people reporting illness and weight gain as a result.
The line between work and home is a constant struggle now.
2. Time Zones are Having an Impact
Now that remote work is commonplace, many business are employing people regardless of their location. However there is a downside – different time zones. Some people reported multiple time zones need to be factored into their daily work. Now that people are working from home, it means that switching off becomes even harder. This can happen because organisations employ people is different locations, or people can become stuck because of visa law changes in the US – the team member travelled to India for a family emergency and became stuck after the US visa law changed.
Working remotely has been great for getting top notch talent from across the US, but having teams that span 4+ time zones is challenging – and contributes to being unable to shut work off at an appropriate time.
They’re so time zone blind important meetings don’t occur within reasonable hours for half of us.
3. We Miss Standing Around a Whiteboard
Online whiteboards such as Mural or Stormboard have been a saviour in these times, and let teams engage on a level that would be difficult without them. However, some Scrum Masters reported that not being able to get people to stand around a physical whiteboard to discuss and debate makes some things much harder. Things like being able to agree on a technical solution for a big project, running retrospectives, and just collaboration and understanding in general. Being in the same room makes it easier to read body language, look out for frustrations and doubts.
Digital whiteboards might help, but they’re not the same as a real whiteboard in a real room, where you can see each other, body language, reactions, frustrations and doubts just by looking
Personally, I really miss white boards.
4. Engagement and Focus is Harder
Several people highlighted that keep all the team engaged and focussed is much more difficult, especially in longer meetings. Being able to keep everyone engaged, free from distractions and keeping their morale up are all more difficult when you’re not physically co-located. You can’t read someone’s body language, and you’re having to rely on Slack conversations or scheduled meetings to see how everyone in the team is doing.
Maintaining engagement and focus, dealing with distractions and keeping morale up
5. Shielding the Team From Random Requests is Harder
Part of a Scrum Master’s and Team Leader’s job is to ensure your team is able to focussed on the important work, and not let random requests come through directly to team members. For some teams these requests from stakeholders now come directly to them through Slack or Teams, and it is harder for the Scrum Master or Team Leader to intervene.
In the office it was easier for the team to redirect stakeholders and such from dropping by desks to hijack developers’ attention.
6. It’s Harder to Get Help When You Need It
For some developers, particularly junior developers, they may have been able to get help easier in the office because they can call out to the senior developers to get an answer to a question. Now that they are working remotely, this has become harder. They can of course use email, Slack, Teams, etc. but if the senior developers are not available, team members can become stuck quickly.
Now that they cant just talk to each other across the room, if they can’t contact the person via Teams their productivity just seems to plummet
7. Micromanagement
Not being able to see your team seated at their desks has made some managers resort to constant updates, checking work, and demanding that cameras be left on so they can be sure that everyone is working.
… there is a strong pressure to be online all the time.
A Positive Comment
Some people, including myself, saw that productivity increased, and some people and teams thrived in the new working situation.
…work has become more collaborative and productivity has increased noticeably
Real Challenges Faced Everyday by Real Teams
Teams across the world have adjusted to working remotely, and although the effect on productivity has generally been positive, there are still challenges faced by remote teams, such as the blurred line between home and work life, time zones, collaboration, engagement and focus, shielding the team from random requests, getting help, and micromanagement.
Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash
