I have been the Marketing Director for a chain of retail stores in Canada for about a year and a half now, working remotely from home, because I live in a different city than our head office.

Working remotely has some advantages:
-less goofing off
-more quiet time to really concentrate

But there are some serious drawbacks:

- personal life can be more difficult to keep separate from work time (at least with 2 young kids at home).

- If you are ambitious, it is difficult to resist putting in a couple extra hours in at night when you should be relaxing. I’ve sometimes worked 12 hour days when feeling stressed and pinched for time, done too often can lead to feeling fatigued and burned out.

We found skype with video rather clumsy and just as interruptive as phone calls, so most of my communications with staff and CEO are still via email. We meet up once or twice a month for face to face meetings.

and for you what is the hardest thing?”

Not being in the office or in our stores all the time leaves me feeling like I don’t have my finger on the “pulse” of the company anymore, some issues that arise I am often left out of the loop. I feel working remotely will always be a compromise, and no technology can make it quite as real, engaging, and interactive as actually “being there” (not yet at least).