You've heard about it. You've seen it on the news and even had coworkers do it!

Remote working has an impact across numerous industries and has been touted as a potential solution to current working conditions.

Remote working is brilliant — unless you're a developer. I know you love your autonomy, working environment, and having no one to bother you when you can focus on what matters most: writing clean, testable, and maintainable code. But in the end, we all want to feel connected to our fellow developers, environment, and of course, the "social" part of the job!

This article takes a fresh approach to look at why developers might be looking forward to returning to their office.

Section: Less Distractions

In a perfect world, all developers would be able to work from home, in a quiet workspace, with no distractions. In reality, that's not the case for most. The majority of developers have to juggle work and family duties at home. That means doing laundry, helping kids with homework, answering phone calls from insurance companies, and taking out the trash between writing code and fixing bugs.

The distractions at home are too much for many developers to handle. Many will return to the office if given a choice."

As an introvert myself, I can think of quite a few reasons I would want to return to work," says developer David Gee. "I'm not trying to say that I don't like working from home; on the contrary, I do enjoy it. It helps me concentrate better, and I can get more done." Gee says he finds the lack of social interactions at home isolating and difficult to bear. He also misses "the banter and general conversations that you miss out on when you're working from home" — something many developers say they crave when working from home.

Section: No more "Zoom fatigue"

If a team is remote, it can be very hard to have a productive meeting.

If you have to state your point of view, be ready for many interruptions. You'll lose focus, and others will too.

Your thoughts might not come out as well if you were in the office because you're constantly being interrupted. This can make you feel like your points aren't being taken seriously.

It isn't easy to get quick answers or help from other developers when you need it when working remotely. Sometimes taking an hour to ask one question can seem like a huge waste of time when you could've just gotten up and asked someone sitting near you.

Section: More Creativity

Being cooped up all day in your house or apartment can stifle creativity. By working with other developers and bouncing ideas off each other, you'll find yourself with more of it.

You are more creative when working in a team than when you work alone. You can brainstorm with your teammates and talk about new ideas and features over coffee, lunch breaks, or even between tasks. This helps you get more perspectives regarding your project and its implementation. You also receive feedback from your colleagues, enabling you to improve your work. These interactions with your teammates can help you explore new areas of learning, which can be helpful for future projects.

Section: Better Work-Life Balance

Working from home has allowed employees to work while caring for their children, which is a huge positive. Some employees may not want to give up this flexibility, but others may find that they can focus more on work while they are in the office. The office provides a space where you can separate your work life from your home life. When you leave the office at the end of the day, you can truly disconnect and focus on family and other aspects of life.

While working from home is great for those who don’t mind mixing work with other aspects of their life, it isn’t ideal for everyone.Productivity apps help with efficiency and make it easier to separate work life from home life.

Section: Higher Productivity

The first reason developers will return to the office is that they will be more productive. Working from home means that it is harder for programmers to collaborate and work together as a team, leading to a less efficient development process.

One of the main advantages of working in a traditional office environment is more opportunities for collaboration and conversation. Ideas can be shared quickly, and there is an easier way to get instant feedback on your work.

Working in a traditional office environment also means that you are less distracted by other things that are going on around you. It is easy for people to become distracted when they are working from home – it might be tempting to watch TV or go and make yourself a sandwich during your lunch break! Having a dedicated workspace means completely focusing on your work without getting distracted by things like this.

Section: Easier Networking

There's no denying that there are many benefits to working in an office. The chance to be around other people who work with you and in related fields is one of the biggest perks. Talking to other developers or engineers can help you learn about new technologies and techniques or even just get some insight into how another team solves problems.

It's also incredibly helpful when you're stuck on a problem and need someone else's perspective, as there's nothing worse than having trouble that you can't explain to anyone but still need some help with.

However, keep in mind that just because you're working from home doesn't mean you can't network. In fact, you can leverage social media to network with developers that can help advance your career. Simply create and schedule LinkedIn posts regularly about the challenges you face and people will be more than willing to reach out and help. From there, you can network your way into new opportunities quite easily.

Bottomline

Ultimately, remote work isn't for everyone. The benefits are quite significant in many cases, of course. But it's not right for every job and team. Not to mention that remote work is still a young industry with plenty of growing pains.

If you can stomach those and can see the common sense in many of the reasons outlined above, it might be worth testing out a remote worker from time to time. For example, remote workers may be what you need to scale up staffing during the busiest season of the year but don't want to shell out for a physical office.

It's worth saying a word about keeping the effects of working remotely under control. The first step to mitigating these potential issues is communication. By communicating with your team members frequently and asking them about their day-to-day experiences, you can help ensure that everyone's happiness levels stay as high as possible.

And if you're not feeling too happy, don't be afraid to say something! Tell your coworkers that you're feeling squeezed for time, or let them know if you're feeling stressed over a project.

Talking about it can go a long way towards alleviating the problem. But if things become unbearable, working from home might not be for you (at least not daily).