Untold Challenges That Remote App Developers Are Facing

Remote working has become the new norm around the world. The Covid-19 pandemic did not give the app developers in Kenya much of a choice. Working from home now is the only sure way to stay safe and maintain monthly income.

Despite the safety and convenience that remote working presents, it has its shortcomings. You must have heard about poor collaboration and data security issues.

Employers are slow in trusting remote workers. Distractions and network issues are also mentioned often as challenges to effective remote working.

However, some of the challenges that remote workers face are rarely mentioned. It is almost as if remote workers are expected to find solutions on their own yet the issues affect their performance.

Here are some of the unusual challenges that our app developers have reported so far.

Loneliness

Remote workers have tens of tools for collaboration with other team members. Video calls are now cheap and readily available on many platforms.

Social media platforms are good alternatives to stay connected to friends while working remotely.

However, none of these tools takes away the loneliness that comes with working from home. The feeling is worse when you first transition from an office setting to a home office.

For iOS developers in Kenya loneliness is amplified when issues arise that only other developers can understand. For instance, you cannot just talk to family members about debugging.

The Covid-19 crisis has just made the loneliness worse with the calls for social distancing and staying at home.

Even after the crisis, remote workers still have to contend with the isolation associated with working from home.

Resentment

Family is always a welcome distraction when working from a home office. You can only control it to a certain limit.

People understand when you need a few hours to work. However, long hours of no interaction every day in the home setting come with resentment.

In the world of kids, parents being at home means playtime. The more parents say no the more the kids resent them. Older kids may not show it but they feel the gap too.

Sometimes parents feel guilty and abandon their work. However, the demands of the jobs for workers such as Android developers in Kenya do not allow such compromise.

The resentment affects the working parent or family member’s emotional health, which may eventually affect their performance.

Finding the balance between family and work is a tough call for remote workers.

Undefined working hours

When does work end when working from home? Well, it is easy to say that one will log off at a particular time.

Some freelance app developers try to follow the 9 to5 work schedule. The schedule works for a while until a tough project comes along.

Some development projects take months, especially when developing customised apps.

The result is developers working into the night on many occasions. Once the undefined working hours start, it is hard to go back to a defined schedule.

The greatest disadvantage of such an approach is the lack of balance between the work and play.

Eventually, the lack of balance shows in terms of slowed performance.

Conclusion

Remote working maybe the new normal even after the Covid-19 crisis is over. All workers including app developers must prepare for this reality and the challenges that come with it. Knowing the challenges before taking the leap from the office to remote working helps with the preparation.