In a recent conversation, my friend told me that he was increasingly under stress as he was not finding a pleasant atmosphere at home, not caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but due to its consequent remote working culture.
“Work from home was exciting for me in the beginning. Now it is not that great. Leave alone that my daily routines and lifestyles have been disrupted”, he said, continuing, “it has become a potential source of quarrels”.
To quell my curiosity, he clarified, “think of a couple working side by side in the same room, attending webinars or teleconferencing and talking official matters over phones. Even children, unaware of boundaries, interrupt my work!”
To my question as to why he couldn’t shift to another room to avoid the conflict, he quipped, “all rooms are occupied. It is pandemic time and all are in the home mode”.
For many others, it has jeopardised their routines affecting their health. Having a proper routine even when you are at home is important. Giving too much time to work can be extremely stressful and exhausting, which can take a toll on one’s health.
As experts point out, when either of the spouse disrupts the other's work or prevents them from accomplishing his or her goals, then negative emotional responses can ensue and pose a real threat to the household harmony.
Couples who had their daily routine disrupted by their partners felt negative emotions toward them, and perceived the marriage to be turbulent, suggests a study published in Published in Communication Research Reports.
According to the study, the situation can be turned around to create positive emotional responses. To do this, partners should support each other's goals, accommodate routines, respect the others' timings, take a step back to catch their breath during the day, and learn to work together.
Work from home can lead to employees’ difficulty in differentiating between work-life and home-life. This may put them in a difficult situation to understand when to switch off from work, resulting in longer hours of work, increased stress and inevitable burnout.
Here what employers should do is to encourage their staff to take regular breaks and find alternatives to help them to take their leave.
The fact is that spending the entire working day at home can lead to a stressed-out life. When you work from home, you have to take care of your parents, the house, and, of course, give equal attention to work as well.
While you are in office, all you have to do is work in the specified period of time, except for occasional additional work. But, when you are at home, you end up giving more hours to work than required. Unplugging from work gets difficult!
It is true that remote working has both pros and cons. Think of a pandemic and the subsequent lockdown period when all of us have been secluded to our homes!
I cannot imagine or even think of it, because, like many of my contemporaries, I belong to a group that has been fortunate and privileged enough to witness the steady pace at which technology has grown over the years.
Due to modern technology, however, our experience with Covid-19 has been different. If the technology we enjoy now was not available for many, work would have to be shut down completely or people would be working in offices risking their lives.
It is because of this technological growth that we have been able to continue working from home to earn a living and educate our children online.
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