Schawbel isnвЂ™t arguing that managers summon employees back to their cubicles (as some behemoth companies like IBM have done in recent years), but he does see a need for a stronger bond between the employee and their workplace. Only five percent of remote workers always or very often see themselves working at their company for their entire career compared to 28 percent who never work remote.вЂќ

One study found that a third of employees globally work remote always or very often, and two-thirds of them arenвЂ™t engaged. Remote workers are more likely to quit because of loneliness and low engagement. вЂњThere is a dark side of working remote and that's the loneliness from lack of interaction. вЂњPeople talk about the freedom of working remote, but not the cost,вЂќ Schawbel says. The remote life is liberating, but it can be lonely ItвЂ™s not uncommon for me to look up from my computer, see that itвЂ™s 5pm, and rather than feel that old little stir of excitement that the work day is almost over, experience a bolt of dread in realizing that itвЂ™s been 8 hours since I talked to another human being in real life.ДЄ BETTER Way New to telecommuting? Here are 8 rules you should follow.

I donвЂ™t miss most aspects of office life, yet sometimes, I find myself nostalgic for the notion of gung-ho solidarity and team spirit that working in a shared space with colleagues can provide. ItвЂ™s been more than four years since I left the land of cubicles and keycards and embarked on fulltime freelance self-employment. An adaptable work arrangement that enables one to work from home or a co-working space isnвЂ™t just a perk for many itвЂ™s a demand: in a new survey, FlexJobs found that 30 percent of respondents left a job because it didnвЂ™t offer such flexibility, while 80 percent said theyвЂ™d be more loyal to their employer were they given more flexibility, including the option to work from home.

Even before the coronavirus, the number of remote workers has been on the rise, with some 70 percent of the workforce operating out of the office at least one day a week.

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