The Perceived Opportunities and Challenges of Remote Work from an Employee Perspective

Telecommuting and teleworking have been widely experienced by employees throughout the last decade. In 2020, there has been an increase in the number of employees working from home following the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative research is to discover the various opportunities and challenges experienced by employees who telework from home and how such experiences may vary among different socio-demographic characteristics. In this study, a questionnaire was sent electronically to employees who perform office duties remotely from their homes. The outcome of the survey was compared with the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants to learn more about the opportunities and challenges that are more likely to affect each group. The significant findings were reported and compared to previous evidence from literature. The findings indicated significant differences between the perceived opportunities and challenges and the following socio-demographics: gender, age, income level, education level, living with children, employment duration and telework duration. Lastly, practical solutions were recommended to employees, managers and decision makers to improve the management of the perceived challenges faced by teleworkers. Keywords: Teleworking, work from home (WFH), opportunities, challenges.