Should You Work Remotely Even After the Pandemic? Here’s What to Know Before You Decide

After spending so many months working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, you might be thinking about what the future of work looks like for you. Are you itching to get back into the office full time? Would you prefer a hybrid work setup? Or would you want to keep working from home indefinitely—either by asking if you could make your current job permanently remote or finding a new remote role (which you can search for right here on The Muse)? If you’ve only worked remotely during the pandemic, you should take a minute to consider what working remotely might be like when there’s not a global health crisis.

While no one knows for sure what shape remote work will take once the pandemic ends, plenty of people know what it looked like before the pandemic began—myself included. At my last job before The Muse, I went into the office every day for over a year before becoming a remote employee (while my coworkers continued to work in the office). Like employees all over the country, I’ve also been working from home since March 2020, and I can definitely see some big differences. Of course, mine is just one experience, so I spoke with a few people who’ve worked remotely both during and before the pandemic to learn about their experiences and help predict what remote work might look like in the future.

Here are 10 things you need to know before you commit to working remotely after the pandemic ends—the good, the bad, and the somewhere in-between. Keep in mind that not all of these experiences will be universal. They’ll depend heavily on company and team cultures, communication styles, the balance of remote and on-site workers, and a number of other factors. But knowing what others have encountered while working remotely outside of the pandemic will help you choose between in-office, remote, and hybrid work and prepare you for what working from home indefinitely could be like for you.