Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Time to take your coding break. Hello, Hello, Hello, and
welcome to the Coding Break podcast. I am your medical
coding coach and Coding Breakcoast TAM talk here to talk
about all things medical coding related, which will include the good,
the bad, and the ugly of the medical coding industry.
On today's episode, I want to talk about working remote.
(00:27):
And I know many people are returning to the office
space or you know, they are going unwillingly or they're
throwing adult temper tantrums because they refuse to go back
into the workplace. And and I get it. Remote has
this benefits such as the amount of money we save
(00:47):
from commuting, the time we're saving from commuting, as well
as the again the money we're saving from having to
find work clothes. But on today's episode, I really want
to touch on the disadvantages of working remote. So, for
those of you who have read my book Remote Coding
Knowing the Requirements, I wrote that book specifically to address
(01:11):
the realness of the rawness of working remote. It talks
about what is required for an individual to work as
a remote coding professional, such as the technical things like
the equipment that is needed, the discipline, the time management,
you know, all of those characteristics and again the technical
skills that are needed to work remote. But I also
(01:34):
touched on some of the disadvantages of working remote. And
that's this one thing my mom used to always tell me.
She says, a job gives you more than a paycheck.
And I just thought she was just talking about just
having a job being employed. But the older I got,
and now that I've returned to the office, I really
understood stood or understand what she means when she's meant
(01:55):
when she said that a job gives you more than
a paycheck. To be honest, I didn't realize how lonely
I was, if I'm honest with you, I did not
realize how lonely I was orr I had become. Now
that I'm back in the office, and I kind of
reflected on that, I realized that, oh wow, yeah, I
was lonely. I mean I did things I did leave
my home, but also the amount of time that I
(02:18):
spent in front of my computer at home and the
time just you know what passed me. And I realized,
oh my god, I didn't even go out the home
house today, or I didn't interact with the outside world.
So anyway, So, like I said on this episode, I
really want to touch on some of the disadvantages of
working remote. So I help my helpful friend AI or
(02:43):
artificial intelligence to kind of give me some disadvantages of
working remote. And of course the very first one was
social isolation and loneliness. And according to AI said, the
humans are social creatures and the lack of daily in
person an interaction in the remote setting or in remote
(03:04):
work can lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness. And
also missing out on casual conversations and spontaneous social interactions
can impact mood, motivation, and mental health. So yeah, so,
now that I'm back in the workplace, I do find
that I'm excited about going to work. I mean, don't
get me wrong, I was excited about working remote because,
(03:28):
especially like during the holiday season, because I didn't have
to get up and go into work while everyone else
was home celebrating. And yeah, so but again, as I mention,
now that I'm back in the office, I do realize
that I do miss those casual conversations or like someone
(03:50):
had mentioned, they missed the opportunity to get up to
go to their colleague to say the next cubicle to
ask a question, whereas if they were remote may post
it in a group, chatter on teams and wait or
wait for a response. So that is something that I
do get. I will say enjoyment or pleasure or or
(04:11):
I have a better appreciation for it now that I'm
back in the office. It's being able to get a
quick response from a colleague in regards to maybe a
coding scenario or whatever the work that I'm doing, and
I have questions. I'm able to communicate with my colleagues
in real time. So the second one is the blurred
(04:33):
work life boundaries. It says working from home can make
it harder to separate work and personal life, potentially leading
to longer work hours and burnout. And then I actually
pulled from perhaps someone's blog posts. It says it's easy
to feel the need to be always on or available,
(04:55):
making it difficult to fully disconnect and relax. I can
attest to that statement. I worked on a project that
required me to be online at five o'clock in the morning.
There were days I did not get off until six,
maybe seven o'clock in the evening. I was on over
(05:16):
twelve hours a day, and I did experience burnout. I
experienced burnout. And again I was remote, So yeah, I
experienced burnout because there was no turn off switch. I
couldn't cut it off. Whereas now that I'm in the office,
when it's time to go, it is time to go,
(05:36):
and I leave right and I leave. Whereas when I
was working remote, I was on. I was rolling out
of bed into it. Although I was in a different
time zone, the time zone in which my colleagues were in.
Of course they were ahead of ahead of me. But
(05:56):
I was on at five o'clock in the morning, and
like I said that, sometimes I didn't get off until
six or seven in the evening. So that's what twelve hours,
ten twelve hours? Well yeah, twelve hours. Well, you know,
it was a long time online. And again because that
(06:17):
work life balance line was blurred, it just made it
difficult to create a cutoff or a hard stop when
it came to logging off from work. So the next one,
it says communication challenges. It says an individual face to
face interaction or the lack of face to face interaction
(06:41):
can hinder effective communication, making it harder to convey nuances,
build rapport, and brainstorm effectively. This is true, and it
also says time zone differences can further complicate synchronous communication
and collaboration. I just spoke on that because we were
in different time zones, which required me to get up earlier.
(07:03):
And again I was on all day, where some of
my colleagues may have already logged off, I was still working.
So yeah, So again it does make it challenge for communication.
And also when you're communicating like the online and I
would even say social media, it's hard for someone to
understand the emotion that comes behind what you pose or
(07:27):
what you type into a group, chattering teams or even
an email. So it's good to have that face to
face communication because an individual can pick up the emotions
again the nuances that comes along with it, and you're
also able to effectively brainstorm work projects or you know,
coding scenarios for example. So number four is the distractions
(07:51):
and lack of dedicated workspace. So your home environment can
present numerous distractions from household chores, to family members or pasts,
potentially impact and focus and productivity. And again, not everyone
has a dedicated quiet workspace, making it challenging to create
a separation between work and personal life. Now this is
(08:13):
true now for me, I did have a work space,
so I did have a dedicated work space. And then
again and as far as children, my children were of
age they knew better, or they were adults or young
adults teenagers, so they were doing their own thing. So
but I did have my dedicated workspace as well as
(08:36):
my dedicated equipments such as the internet, you know, or
Wi Fi excuse me wi Fi. So that can become
a distraction. For example, if you have small children, if
you have pets, you know, if you don't have a
dedicated workspace, Yeah, those what may not be a big
(08:58):
deal to you or not seem like a major distraction,
can become a major distraction. Because one of the things
with coding just says, in any other industry, you're based
on productivity. So if you are distracted or have small
distractions multiple times a day, that could hinder or affect
(09:18):
your productivity and the coding environment. So I do get
that one, and then number five it says it has
a potential impact on career advancement. So for example, oh,
let me go ahead and read what it has here.
It says remote workers might have less visibility within the
organization and fewer opportunities for informal networking mentorship particially impacting
(09:43):
career growth. It can be harder to demonstrate initiative and
leadership in a remote setting without regular face to face interactions.
That may be possible, but I did not have that
issue as someone who worked in a remote setting, as
(10:04):
I was in leadership in the remote setting. And I
can also say that I wasn't trying to pursue higher
roles in the remote setting, again because I was already
in leadership capacity of some sorts, so I didn't really
like push that or I didn't see that as an
(10:24):
issue for me because again all of us, the meetings
that are had, we were all in leadership. So I
didn't see that. But I'm sure that it will affect
or have some impact on individuals working remote because they
can't it may appear that they are unable to provide
(10:46):
an impact as it relates to being a leader, again
potentially hindrance of career growth. But again when I was
in these roles, I was in leadership, so it is possible.
It is possible. And then the last one, and I
think it kind of piggedback in ties into what I
(11:06):
said about the distractions, and it was. It is technical
issues and cybersecurity risk. Like if you don't have the
appropriate equipment, it will cause issue one with productivity. And
then if you don't have there again the right equipment,
and you run risk of cybersecurity issues, which is such
(11:28):
as hacking, accessing information that they're not supposed to access.
But that's where it comes into play. I feel, and
the organization should have the appropriate it individuals in place
to ensure that there aren't any cybersecurity issues. And then
I've worked as a consultant where the organization has actually
(11:50):
provided the equipment to me, so that kind of cut
down on me not me having technical issues again because
the company or the organization provided their equipment to me.
And again that included the computer's laptops. Uh you know
all again all all of the only thing I had
(12:11):
to have was you know, decent Wi Fi, but the
organization provided all the other equipment to me. So yeah,
So again those are just some of the disadvantages that
comes with working remote. And like I said, you know,
the loneliness and some of these things I didn't realize
(12:31):
was specifically the isolation and loneliness. One I didn't realize
that I was in that space until I actually went
back into the office and I realized, like, Okay, maybe
I was lonely, or maybe I was just going going
through the motions, or maybe I had waves of loneliness
and I was able to step away and kind of
(12:54):
combat it or what have you. And then I have,
like I said, friends, and I was. I was active
in other things outside of the works, such as hobbies.
I had like small groups and you know, life groups
that I was a member of, so it kind of
combatd or prevented major isolation and lowliness. And then as
(13:17):
far as like the promotion, like I said, I was
already in leadership working remote, so I really didn't see
an impact or any issues with that because I was
already there. And I also did not seek or pursue
like a promotional leadership role additional leadership roles and activities
in the role that I was in. And as far
(13:40):
as technical issues, like I mentioned, some organizations did provide
the equipment for me. The only thing I had to
have was decent Wi Fi and yeah, so it worked out.
Even in the event where I did not have the
organization with the technical equipment such as a computer, I
(14:02):
had the equipment necessary to do my job. So yeah,
so these are some things I would say, some practical
things you may want to consider. If you're seeking to
work remote, or if you are remote and looking to
go into the workplace or into the on site location,
these are things you want to consider. Like I said,
(14:24):
when you're working remote, you want to make sure you
have again time management skills because it does require discipline.
And again, just as any other industry working and coding,
you are required to meet productivity measures. And so if
you lack the discipline or you have many distractions that
(14:44):
will hinder you it excuse me, it will hinder your
productivity quota or measure or what have you whatever, And
productivity measures are different for a different organization. So again
I can't quote a specific it productivity measure. Again, it
would very depend on where the organization that you work
(15:06):
for or work with. What else do we have here,
and let's see, like I said again, technical issues again,
and also the blur work life balance Again. Sometimes if
you don't have anything or any hobbies, or if you
don't have any hard stops, you run the risk of
(15:28):
working and not being able to turn it off, turn
it off. So like I said, for me, time zones
was an issue because we were all on different time zones.
So again I was up online at five o'clock in
the morning and not getting off till, like I said,
six or seven in the evening. So that is something
(15:49):
again that could be a hindrance when it comes to communication.
You know, you may be waiting for something or response,
or you're calling you maybe when you know a response
and because of the time zones or and I say
time zone because I've worked in that capacity, but it
also could be that when you're communicating via text or
(16:13):
via group chats, whatever, no one really understands the emotions
that come behind your your your your your post or
what have you. So unless they know you, they knew
knew you, and they knew your personality prior to you
being remote, so they kind of can kind of gauge
(16:35):
what your emotions are or what they were. But in
the case where they did not or it's hard to
gauge what your emotions are when it comes to you know,
working or communicating in the work in the remote setting.
So again these are things that you need to pardle on.
Think about. Uh, when you're looking for a coding gig,
(16:58):
whether you're looking for a remote coding role or one
on site, so I would suggest creating the pros and
cons list one finding your strengths. Do you have the
discipline of time to manage your time? Are you are
you an effective communicator? Do you know how to set
(17:18):
boundaries or I guess you could say boundaries or parameters
like heart stops when it's time to log off, like
do you have healthy work life balance boundaries? And again,
do you have the workspace as well as the equipment
to do your job well? And if you can answer
(17:39):
yes to all that, then I would say go for it.
If you don't, then you may want to consider or
reconsider going back into the office or going into the
office when you're trying to look for a coding role.
So yeah, so that's all that I have for this
episode or this coding break. I just want to touch
on the disadvantages of working. So that's all that I
(18:02):
have for this cold and break. And it's always cold
on until the next time. Toodles