Although some companies are calling employees back to the office full-time, in a post-COVID world, remote work remains a lasting part of the professional landscape. For many high-performing professionals, flexibility and freedom of working from home has become the norm. But too often, people jump into remote work without building the strategies needed to support long-term career success.
With insights from ACS Coach Evan Inra (EMBA ’08, Senior HR Leader, AWS), we explore the less obvious risks of remote work and how to navigate them for continued growth.
Rethinking Your Workspace
Your workspace isn’t just where you work—it’s how you work. Without a dedicated, ergonomically sound setup, remote work can quietly become a liability. Performance may dip, and stress and long-term health issues may build up over time.
Blurred boundaries between work and home are another challenge. The distractions of household chores, family members or roommates can make it difficult to focus. For many, the ability to move around whenever the mood strikes is a perk, but the clutter of paperwork and technical components that spread around the house, sometimes taking over common areas, can be a disruption to the household. It can also lead to feeling that you never leave work behind.
Ergonomics also matters. Working from a couch or kitchen stool might feel easy, but it can lead to fatigue, poor posture and chronic discomfort. Lighting, noise and temperature can also influence your mood and output. If your environment doesn’t support sustained, focused work, it may be time to reassess your setup. Evan shared, “for too long I didn’t address the ergonomics of my home office until it led to chronic neck pain and visits to the chiropractor. Raising my monitors to eye level, a focus on my posture, and installing a standing desk did wonders for my neck and ability to work effectively.”
A professional remote workspace also affects how others perceive you. A clean, consistent background and reliable WiFi signals that you take your work seriously—something that matters even more when your presence is virtual.
Invest in Community and Career Capital
Loneliness is one of the most common complaints about remote work, but beyond the emotional toll, isolation can erode the relationships and informal interactions that drive long-term opportunity.
Evan shared this can be a significant challenge, particularly for young professionals. Recalling his own early career, he remembers, “My wife and I both formed very close personal and professional relationships in the first several years of our careers that would have been very different—and likely not as close—if we’d been remote. Impromptu conversations in the office can lead to mentoring and networking opportunities that are super valuable. And office interactions can lead to post work or weekend get togethers that also build professional and social relationships.” Without those touchpoints, remote professionals, especially newer ones, may miss key chances to build trust and expand their networks.
If you’re working remotely without a strong support system, invest in your network. Join peer groups, participate in alumni events and make a habit of reaching out to former colleagues and classmates. Connection builds resilience, creativity and visibility.
Don’t Be the Remote Outlier
Some professionals have embraced fully remote roles from far-off locations. But if the rest of your team meets in person, you may be operating at a disadvantage. Remote outliers can miss subtle dynamics and real-time decisions.
To stay on equal footing, be proactive. Share regular updates. Contribute actively in meetings. Make your work visible. Remote workers not only need to perform—they need to be seen performing.
Career Stage Makes a Difference
Remote work doesn’t impact everyone the same way. For early-career professionals, it can be especially limiting. As Evan points out, “remote work does not provide the same level of learning/experience in terms of how to behave as a professional, including communications, attire, social interactions and other office behaviors that generally have been absorbed by young professionals early in their careers in the office.” New grads also miss out on casual mentoring and feedback that help shape their reputation and growth trajectory.
But later-career professionals aren’t immune either. For leaders, managing a team remotely can dilute their sense of how individuals are really doing. Subtle shifts in culture, morale or talent development are harder to spot from a screen. Without effort, disconnection creeps in.
Setting Yourself up for Success
Research shows remote work offers real benefits, especially around work-life integration. As Evan notes, “In many ways, remote work, of course, helps the balance—eliminating commuting time and enabling workers to fit in personal and family responsibilities. But it can undermine this balance for people who aren’t intentional about setting boundaries between work and personal life.”
For Evan, the solution is to be deliberate because “a key issue with working from home means you’re never really leaving work, and there’s no good transition time.” So, be sure to set limits, create routines and make time to mentally transition out of work mode. Evan uses the characters in HBO’s Severance to remind us that “we can’t flip a switch in our brains when the workday ends and sever work from home.” Remote workers must create their own version of that switch.
Remote work isn’t just a convenience—it’s a choice that requires real effort. Without intentional strategies, it can quietly stall your career. But with the right structure and consistent connection, it can absolutely work in your favor and for your life.
If you’d like to schedule a career coaching session with Alumni Career Services, please email alumnicareerservices@darden.virginia.edu.
