There used to be a time when everybody wanted to work from home. Predominant reasons for this wish list is due to the fact that one could manage and complete a set of requirements that had to be done for home whilst at the same time manage official work without any compromise. It was also meant to be a breather from daily office routine and to spend that extra time at home with the folks that matter most.
So whenever an opportunity presented itself to be at home and do dual work, it was like having the best of both worlds at the same time. One for those who traveled from long distance to office, a saving in travel time in arduous conditions, heavy traffic snarls, dust, heat and irate travelers. Second the comfort of being at home and doing things in a leisurely manner as per the available time. Third enjoy the hot afternoon spread at home and a brief siesta, if possible. The last one was the icing on the cake. It is for the privileged ones only, just kidding though.
My boss used to taunt me during Thursday lunch timing at office, so tomorrow you are going to WFH right. Effectively he would conclude, I am getting a PTO (paid time off, without applying for leave), on Friday’s, on a lighter note though. I used to look forward to those extended weekends with Friday’s being at home when things can be done at your own pace, especially when there are no deliverable attached to those weekends. Else, it used to a case where you ended up working all through the weekend itself and there have been countless number of working weekends for several years.
Life, did it change after COVID. That’s a question that might cost more than a million dollars. During last week of Mar’2020, Government of India imposed a strict lock down which went on for the next 3 months. That meant, you are completely locked inside your homes. Alternatively, it meant full time work from home. Now, if you had read the first few paragraphs and assumed, it was time to be exuberant and delirious, well the bitter truth would be known down the road.
When you went to office, you started at a fixed time (give or take ½ hour or so) and left whenever the work was completed, more or less for the day, typically after official work hours, which meant extended work time. However, it also meant, you had time in between for a repartee with your colleagues to express your angst, antipathies, and frustrations from work place to life and society in general. In addition talk about the good things happening in life and not just the negativity. These are some things, which as social beings, you are expected to give an outburst so that you relive them out of your system (mentally), as much as you clean up your bowels on a daily basis. You thus, cleanse yourself of the toxins that’s brewing within you and ensure that you feel relieved of the stress that’s tormenting you internally.
People who work out of office, especially those that are working for 10 years or more can definitely empathize with what I had mentioned above. These are generic byproducts of an office syndrome that cannot be negated and is applicable across the board, at least in India. These are done as part of the Coffee/Tea, Lunch and other intermittent breaks you take with your colleagues and friends in office. That’s when you kind of open up and express yourself as to how it’s going and how it should be, what’s going wrong and what’s going right etc. Some people may call it the office grapevine or gossiping or small talk. To keep it simple, it’s an outlet of feelings. It is a matter of right for every human and it is expressed in various innocuous ways. Call it by any name…as you deem fit.
In my opinion, that was the biggest and interminable loss of continuous WFH that we inherited post COVID lock-down. A disastrous one at that, because it led to internalizing all the anxiety and anguish that could not be let out freely. You cannot express these things at home with others as they cannot relate or understand your distress from your perspective. It’s but natural as they have their home bound priorities while you have your own. Therefore, you miss the key link to offload your ideas, exasperation’s and feelings in general, which is office. That’s where you meet, greet, wish, and percolate concepts, thoughts, models, philosophies and perceptions with your colleagues on various topics both official and unofficial. To do all of that, remotely, is extremely difficult, time consuming and is mostly lost in communication or translation, when it is not face to face. It’s a laborious and painstaking process even to get through 50% of what you think and wish to do across the board. Simply put, it just goes unheard, voice is muted and life goes in a mundane, rudderless manner. I may sound completely deleterious and adverse, it’s not necessarily so, but predominantly yes.
One major loss, is the personal bonding and connect when you meet, greet and evoke positive emotions with your vibe and gait that is sorely missed when you WFH. There is no equal to that direct connect that happens across the board in an official atmosphere, which is actually unofficial, relaxed, and persuasive in a tranquil environment. Sometimes, office can be volatile, if things do not go accordingly to plan, but that is only as an exception. As a rule, if you manage well, it all goes as per schedule and everyone has their own set of friends to connect, share and express themselves about what’s going on with their lives and otherwise as well. We totally lose out on all of that even though we are connected all the time virtually. That is the irony of it, interconnected yet, disjointed and fragmented completely.
Apart from the issue outlined above, there were no stipulated work timings and it was taken for granted that you were available all the time 24×7, as if there is no life beyond office. The entire world WFH and especially when you worked for a global company, cutting across multiple geographies, supporting different work streams across time zones, you were expected to be alive, kicking and energetic all the time. People were absolutely fastidious and wanted response to any query responded in a flash because you are expected to be online all the time. You were supposed to be a virtual virtuoso overnight.
It was a massive global change to adapt oneself to be glued at home completely, yet manage home, office and every other aspect of your life without any interruption. Essentially, life had to go on business as usual, night and day. Else, people along with businesses would cease to exist and that would affect the economy, country and global trade. An invisible (to the naked eye) virus created a colossal effect that cascaded and permeated every aspect of life.
COVID literally hit us all like a Tsunami wave submerging us all underneath the depths of the ocean in one giant wave. We had to scramble for our life jackets and had to swim to shore also carrying the family members, young and old to safety. It was a herculean effort to adapt to the changing dynamics of life when one fine day life ceased to exist as we all got used to in recent years. As humans we adapt faster than any species but when you are locked up within the four corners of the house, it created various asymptomatic issues that could not be treated wholesomely. In brief, it burdened us with various levels of trauma that incubated within and was forced to be consumed internally without any external aperture for it to escape.
Yet, we humans are extremely adaptive as we need to survive in any given situation or circumstance. Therefore we rise up to the challenge and meet it head on with all our vitality and energy to eke out a living mainly for those that are dependent on us. Therefore it is with that survival instinct we thrust ourselves to the forefront of our abilities and drive over the wall even when the demands are excruciating because, one we know, we can push ourselves to do it and second, we need our skin in the game so that we can play it even more harder when push comes to shove.
The key point is, personally, I feel is that we have lost the connection with friends and other colleagues at workplace as we only talk officially during the virtual meeting schedules. There is absolutely no room for a personalized connect as practically there is no time for a casual banter. I guess no one would have envisaged this or planned for such an outcome, but it is what it is given the pandemic crisis situation the world faces.
The ideal work atmosphere as per most colleagues is to have a balanced work between workplace and home. A few days in office followed by a day or two at home is the best and preferred option for many. It offers the perfect flexibility to blend your personal and official life. Hopefully, when the pandemic subsides and fades out of our lives, we can schedule a way of life that’s gives us the best of both worlds and keeps both employers and home makers happy. I can see that smirk in many of you…
While this is one side of the story, for those of us working class (from office to home), I will have to write a separate note about the impact to Home makers and Children impacted by this change.
Beautiful Life 