Working (From or Forever) Home!

With the unexpected shock of Coronavirus in 2020, the world went into lockdown and quarantine mode. And with it, many offices, businesses also went online or as it popularly called ‘Working from home’ or just WFH. Now, it will be almost a year since lockdowns and working from home started. And it seems its going to stay for a while.

There are many reasons WFH might be staying for sometime. Initially, it seems that WFH is convenient for employees only. It not only avoids the daily commute to office, but also gives ample space and time for employees to stay near to their family or loved ones. Employees can manage to give sometime to their personal life amidst all the busy work schedule. Besides the money savings are piling up with gas/petrol savings, living away from city in outskirts to skip the high rent, avoiding eating outside or even visiting starbucks/coffee shops for many of us. Not only that, we dont even need to follow the office protocol anymore, which used to be a big list which included washing and ironing clothes, shaving for men, makeup for women, packing food in lunch boxes, polishing shoes, and even a bit of extra efforts to impress the boss, or someone whom we have a secret crush in office, isnt it? But all this has been like a part of history now. Many don’t even shave for months, and wear shorts during online meetings. So, in a way, this has changed our life quite a lot.

Also, many have been able to even pursue some hobbies or learning new skills like cooking, reading books, blogging. Infact I started this blog last year during the lockdown, and so far, I have re-discovered myself that I really enjoy writing. I always had plans to start my own blog, but never could find the motivation or even time due to my work, and frequent business trips. But only when I started working from home, I could find a renewed inspiration to write. Similarly, many people with this flexibility have found new hobbies and interests worth pursuing.

But, this is not just good for employees. Rather it is even better for companies for many reasons. Like basic reasons include they dont need to take risk by allowing employees to come and work in office, which could lead to mass spread of the virus. As the offices are closed, so are the savings in maintenance cost, utility bills and security personnel. A lot of company money which used to get spent in everyday cleaning & maintenance is reduced drastically as hardly anyone enters the company building now. But even more better, is the fact that now due to WFH, it has become easier for the companies to make their employees to work harder and compel them to spend long hours at work! How? The answer is Digitization. With all the video conferencing apps like Zoom, Teams and Cisco Webex, messaging apps like Teams, Whatsapp and Signal, Outlook and Gmails, it has become like a 24×7 work schedule. Because earlier the office was considered more than a work place. It was also a place to network with colleagues and managers, share ideas and thoughts, brainstorm and solve problems, drink a lot of coffee during frequent coffee breaks, and thereby try to get away for sometime from the boring work, or manager!

But now, its just work, work and work! The employees cannot do any of the activities mentioned above. Of course, they can still drink coffee at their leisure, and even talk during meetings or calls with colleagues. But the real life human factor is missing. Using the company secured VPN, and assuming the possibility of meetings being recorded, there is almost no way for the employees to gossip or talk about his/her manager behind their back. I usually do not endorse such gossips or talks, but afterall we all are social human beings. Infact, many happily married couples in this world have known each other for the first time in the office. So, I feel this WFH has removed the human factor and actually made us machines. We work day and night by sitting in front of computer. And this Digitization has even made our analog life, (which used to have all the natural human elements ) into a digital life, of 1’s and 0’s. I guess the software coders or IT folks can easily identify themselves in this dire situation.

And the worse part is many companies and tech firms might keep this WFH policy for a while. Even though it is good for safety and well being of employees from the virus, but what about the mental well being of the employees? I can say that many employees are already bored while WFH, including me. Because wise people had advised to maintain a work-life balance. It is necessary to keep work and home separate. To have a good health, mental well being and family happiness, it is good habit to keep work at work, and never bring at home. But with this WFH, this is impossible as we have made our home itself as a workplace. Thats why it is inevitable that our social and family life is mired with all the deadlines and work pressures. Not only do we all get bored sitting all day working from home, but also it affects the relations with our family members. Infact, during the meetings, I have heard so many background crosstalk from family members etc. This is expected when WFH, but isn’t it affecting our ability to concentrate at work? Also, WFH affects our productivity and discipline. Because earlier we used to only work 9 to 5 in office, and complete the work before leaving for the day. But now, there is no such schedule. I can work even late at night and finish the work, to give the update next day. This is affecting our normal work-life balance.

But companies are happy and they won’t give up on this WFH culture soon. That’s why many people like me are fearing if this is Working from Home, or Forever from Home! I hope the latter never comes true!

The office ‘Michael Scott’