SABARI GANESH

Work from home is like a honeymoon, it stays for a brief period and that magic doesn’t last long.

I have been working from home for the past two years, and the experience so far has been not so fantastic. For those who started working from home for the last two months, you would have already realized that the honeymoon is over.

The socialization impact

We miss socializing, and it doesn’t mean that we can boast of having lots of true friends before lockdown and we are missing them. Talking to a stranger and saying hello has become a luxury of the past. The psychological impact we are ought to have due to lack of interpersonal interactions is already showing toll on our thinking and communication ability. If this phenomenon continues, there would be a drastic change in our lifestyle.

WFH should be one of the flexible options given by the employer for the comfort and wellbeing of the employee, but not the only way how work is done. Cost benefits aside, today’s organizations seem to have taken this opportunity created by Corona pandemic to bring in revolutionary changes at workplaces, which is appreciated, but entirely stripping off employees their choice to work at the office is horrible.

Working from home during this pandemic situation is necessary, but lately, we are hearing news from big multinational companies about their plans to make employees work from home permanently in the future.

I have been working remotely from Chennai for almost two years, my learning has been good and my colleagues at Hyderabad and Trivandrum are exceptional in coordinating the work through meetings. But, I always lacked face to face interactions and there were many working days where I haven’t spoken with any person personally face to face. My conversations have been only through Cisco Webex or MS Teams meetings. My professional network growth has stagnated and I, sometimes am scared about my career progress. The only respite to reduce my burden of loneliness is the beautiful beach and backwaters nearer to my house, where I go sit on the sand alone with dreams and random thoughts stretching beyond the horizon.

I am concerned that the same emotional and psychological impact would happen to everyone after few months who are under the impression that working from home is a luxury and it is saving them time and money in commuting to and fro office.

Cafeteria gossips and chit chat, which fuel our office politics will be missed. Interesting conversations about politics, movies and sports will be missed. That daily one-second glimpse of a pretty girl in your office and blushing ourselves behind the cubicle will be gone forever. No more heartfelt greetings of security and housekeeping staff.

Working from home has its benefits as well. We can work without our pants on and can cook recipes of our choice very leisurely. We can watch movies on the first day of release by lying to colleagues that you have a hospital appointment or some bank work. You can read something else when you have less work or catch up on those missed shows and movies on Netflix and Prime.

Companies are boasting that productivity has increased but only employees are aware that the quality has taken a hit in this process. We can work in the office for 9 hours or extend for 2-3 hours, but working from home sometimes stretches for longer periods only to exhaust our patience and energy levels. It seems only the managers and employees are aware of this but not the heads of the companies.

Once the Coronavirus scare is gone, I hope everyone will be back in the office.

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Feature Image taken from Pixabay and beach image is copyrighted by author.