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What problems did IT people face when they were forced to switch to remote work?



We continue to share the analytics of our quarantine survey . 

In the previous report, we learned how quarantine affected the labor market in IT in general:

  • About ⅔ specialists switched from office to homework.
  • Most IT people do nothing beyond the usual, but one in four has either increased activity in finding a new job, or slowed down such activity. 
  • On average, layoffs are at the pre-quarantine level. But there are still industries in which there are more layoffs: sports and beauty, culture and art, hotels and tourism.
  • In half of the companies, the dynamics of hiring in IT has changed: it continues only partially, or is temporarily suspended.

Today we will tell you what the main difficulties IT-specialists faced in the emergency transition to remote work. At the time of publication, about 3,000 people took part in the survey - users of Habr and Habr Careers.

And in the next report we’ll talk about the nuances of remote work and new habits that arise with forced isolation.
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The convenience of remote work - especially in conditions of home isolation - for many of us is directly related to the conditions in which we live. First of all, this is our marital status, the number of people living with us and the number of children. Before you look at how all these factors affect our comfort of remote work, let's see what the IT people have about this?

Two thirds of IT people live in separate families with their soul mates. Most families consist of 2–4 people. Almost a third have 1-2 children, most of them are officially married.










Who often chooses a remote


Among family, in comparison with single people or living with parents, there were a little more than those who worked remotely or combined an office with a remote person. Having children also contributes to a more frequent choice of work remotely or combined with a work remotely.






Who likes the remote?


As one would expect, remote work is valued higher by those who at one time made a conscious choice in her direction than those who have now switched to remote work by force.


It is curious how much the opinion about udalenka has changed after everyone had to try it? We see that among those who worked from the office, the majority treated the remote home neutral, and only every fourth reacted to it positively, every tenth negatively. After forcing him to a remote place, most of his opinion did not change, but he changed it to the exact opposite approximately equal number of people, 10% each.

This tells us that remote or office work, for the most part, is chosen consciously, according to one’s preference. The opportunity to try remote work does not really change this preference.


Assessment of the remote correlates with the assessment of the effectiveness of their work from home. Among those working in the office there are more those who believe that remote work reduces their effectiveness than those who think the other way around.


Does the assessment of remote work depend on the gender of the IT specialist or the presence of children? No, as you can see, there is not much difference in ratings.





But the assessment of the distance depends on the marital status. Individuals living in marriage as a separate family average an average rating of those who live with their parents or alone. 


Living in families of 2-4 people value the distance more than those living alone or in those who live in larger families.


The higher the qualification of an IT specialist, the more likely he is more comfortable being away.




Problems on the remote


Workers remotely had almost no problems in connection with self-isolation. Only quarantined children and the need to share the workplace with relatives. 






You can not say about those who worked earlier from the office. The majority of those who have a problem arose with children, as did the need to share the workplace with relatives. Next in terms of mass are an unequipped workplace, difficulties with the daily routine, lack of communication with colleagues and difficulties with prioritization.

Interestingly, these problems are less common in those who have children. Yes, apparently, children discipline and teach all these skills.


It is a little unexpected that it is more difficult for loners with the equipment of the workplace, daily routine, planning and meals, than family people in official marriage. It would seem that it should be the other way around. Perhaps this is again the influence of children;)


The more people you live with, the better you can adjust the daily routine, the better you prioritize and set up your workplace. And yet, loners clearly have a nutrition problem.




Do companies with remote help


In companies where previously there were no remote employees, the biggest difficulties arise with the equipment of the home workplace, monitoring the effectiveness of employees and their motivation.


In a quarter of companies do not help employees with the transition to remote locations. This is more common in small private and public companies. 

Most often, companies provide employees with laptops and conduct training events. A small percentage of private companies still help with furniture and food.

There are also about 10% of companies that provide masks and disinfectants. But this is not help with work, but with quarantine.


The massive transition to udlenka, especially in a situation of self-isolation, caused problems for everyone, including those who previously worked from home. However, the latter manage to adapt to new circumstances much faster. 

So far only half of the specialists have managed to fully adapt. The rest are still in the process. And about 10% said that they were not able to do this.




Advantages and disadvantages of the remote


Finally, let's see what advantages and disadvantages IT people see when working from home. In general, it can be seen that the former office employees somewhat exaggerate the shortcomings of the remote site and quite downplay its advantages. But if we assume that the former remote workers give us more objective information based on their greater experience, we will see the following. 

Newly-made remote workers greatly exaggerate the difficulties in the operational discussion of issues and in face-to-face communication on working issues.

The biggest difficulties of the remote are, in fact, in the opinion of experienced ones, in the ability to switch between working and home modes and in the lack of informal communication with colleagues. There are also obvious problems with awareness of the company's affairs, with distractions and motivation.

But the problem of the social package and the difficulties of career growth, the newly minted remoters are clearly somewhat underestimated.


Yes, the most important advantage of remote work, that you don’t have to spend time on the road, distinguishes the vast majority of both former and new remote workers.

But the following advantages of importance - the flexibility of the work schedule, more rational planning of the day and self-adjustment of the workplace - the new remoters are very underestimated.




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