It’s been almost five months since most of the IT companies have announced remote working and almost all employees have been working that way. Most of us have worked remotely for a small duration (may be few days in a month or the entire year) at some point or the other. Working remotely continuously for months altogether without going to office or meeting our colleagues has never been tried before. There is nothing that could have prepared us for this ‘new’ way of working — mentally as well as physically. We all used to have routine which included cooking, ironing clothes, sending kids to school, getting ready for office, driving , taking the company bus or public transport and various other routines . Once in office we were in office fully, we need not worry what’s happening at home. There was a physical as well mental distinction. While there , we interact with our colleagues and team members face to face in a very natural setting. Of course ,we had calls with customer and few team mates who were working in the client location.
Things have changed in the new way of working. Our routine is new now. We do not travel to work anymore. We may cook at the time we are working as well and sometimes kids may also be attending school online. We use the same physical location-our house serving as home , office and in some cases, school as well. What changes is the screen and the people we see on those screens. We do not interact with our colleagues face to face manner; rather we interact with our colleagues in meetings, stand-ups, escalations, workshop, virtual lunch, coffee etc. in more a structured manner using collaboration tools like Teams,Zoom,WebEx etc. Walking in to colleague’s seat to say hello is not happening anymore but we do chat with them using one the enterprise tools. The physical and mental difference between home and office is not easy.
Unknowingly, we also come to know more details about our colleagues and their personal life as well. We know that there is a toddler in background when it cries for it’s mom or dad’s attention while their parent is explaining something in the meeting, we know if there are parents staying with them who needs to be taken care of. Sometimes we can see them if the video is on. We also sometimes get to meet our colleague’s spouse, kids, parents, pets etc. In office we could never do that. Sure, we may have seen some photos. We may also know how their house looks like, what kind of weather they have in their place, do they have power outages and many more such details. Sometimes we also know that they may have to step out to buy some groceries, or take someone to hospital etc. We have that guilty feeling sometime that we have to step away for some time for some errands and we more than make up by logging extra hours. It also turns up that we end up spending more time at ‘work’ than usual.
Similarly, emotions at home impact our work and the stress at work may immediately reflect in our personal lives as well. Maintaining this segregation between office emotions and home emotions is a struggle.
All this makes us more vulnerable where lot of things about us are known to our team and colleagues. Our colleagues somehow turn into that extended family whom we always kept in office.
Performing multiple roles- The Juggler
When we are in office we are playing one role, that may be of a developer, team lead, project manager, scrum master, account manager etc. Now when we are at home, we don’t have that choice anymore. It’s quite imperative that we have multiple roles to play besides the office role. Depending on with whom you are staying, you may be playing the role of parent, son, daughter, spouse, brother, sister in addition to your office role. You may also be playing additional roles like a cook, driver, repairman, teacher, maid based on the type of lockdown you have in your city(in many cities entry of external help in the house is a strict no due to the fear of being infected). Now it slowly becomes a juggling act just like the juggler trying to juggle multiple balls at the same time. Ever tried doing that? Mind you that you have to juggle this while working from home.
Expectations and reality
For companies all the views is employees are just working from a different location that happens to be their home and as long as they have a laptop/desktop, a working internet connection and power supply there must be no reason to see a dip in productivity or the quality of the work. To be more open, employees are expected to be more productive? You may ask why? There seems to be a simple logical explanation (like for all things) for that- employees do not spend time in commuting anymore, so of course they save lot of time there and then since it’s a lock down and they have nowhere to go, they can very well spend some extra hours. And yes, employer is surely doing a favor to them by giving them a job. After all economy is going through one of the biggest recessions and job loss and pay cuts are quite natural. Corporate are there to make money for their shareholders and churn profits. If they are unable to do so then naturally employees are let go in order to cut corners and save cost.
When we all started with the remote working, we never knew how long this situation of lockdown and working from home would last. All of us longed to work from the comfort of our home at some point or the other. The saying — Be careful what you wish for is very true in this case. We wished for work from home and now that has become a norm and we wish if we can go back to office. Without having any idea on how long the pandemic is going to last or what kind of havoc it’ll cause, we all thought that this remote working situation may last for one or two months. All of us embarked on this bandwagon with great excitement. Productivity increased, team morale was good and all were quite excited that they don’t have to drive or travel to office anymore. Now after 5 months it seems that we are overstretched playing all these roles at the same time and juggling between them. High productivity has become an expectation that we had delivered earlier so why complain now? Drained physically and mentally at the end of the day. Scared and vulnerable at the same time. Scared that what if our near and dears get infected, scared to go out and scared at the same time that if we do not perform very well, our organization may come up with another ‘performance’ parameter to prove that we are not performing up to the mark. Somewhere we also know that doing very good in one role (say at office) may come at the cost of not doing very well in another one. For example being the best technical team member may come at the cost of not being a good parent or a good spouse at home.
Eye opener, accepting change and the question of sustainability
This situation is not temporary and may last even an year or more than that. It also has exposed us to lot of scenarios that we never imagined. We are in uncertain times. Surely human being as a species adapts to change very fast and we all have adapted in the new scenario quite well. Question is can we all continue working like this and in these scenarios for a very long time? Have we ever thought that we may suffer burn-outs which may impact us and our family? Of course there is no silver bullet to all these new scenarios. There are few suggestions which can help us:
1. Make a connect — Make a connect with our colleagues and team members and not just ask status or talk about work. After all we spend most of our time interacting with them. A simple how are you today, will be nice. Sometimes just saying makes us feel better.
2. High productivity may not be sustainable — If you are in a position of leader or a manager — expecting same or higher level of productivity is unrealistic and not sustainable. Coming up with additional meetings for status may just bring down the productivity more. Be more considerate and inclusive. We all speak so much about Diversity and Inclusion
3. It’s ok to not feel your best self — It’s ok to not feel like working some days, we are not robots !! Let’s not be so hard on ourselves. Some days may be bad days and others may not. Give yourself a break and take a day off.
4. Ask for help — Don’t think twice before asking for help. We all are there for each other as a team.
5. Less virtual and get real — Spending more time in front of laptop/desktop in the name of virtual tea, coffee may helps initially but it may be more helpful to spend time with your near ones who are actually making tea/coffee for you.
6. Boundaries will help — Try to have some boundaries between your work and home. I know its easier said than done. No harm in trying. Different attire, different room (or some corner of the room), something that symbolizes that you are at work. It’s just something that help us remind that we are in primary work mode. Similarly like we log off and swipe out, have some routine to remind that we are done for the day.
7. Be less judgemental — Be mindful before you speak or pass judgements about your colleagues. We all are in a very vulnerable state now. Let’s help each other.
8. Sustainability — Whatever you do, just ask one question before you take it up? Can I do this sustainably for months or years in similar situation? This is not just about work, it’s also about personal day to day life.
9. You are the only one for your family — Our families are most important and companies can go for ‘hiring’ but our families can’t. Let’s be very realistic here and not mix up the priorities.
10. Go for a walk — Instead of spending time in front of another screen(mobile,TV), get up and get out for a walk or some fresh air. It’ll really do good for your body and mind. If you can make time, the gyms and yoga centers are coming come for you virtually. If you are dance person then let it be it and loosen up with your family !!
Parting note
The above are just my views, you may have a different views and experience altogether. Hope this helps.Change is not easy but they are necessary and it’s totally up to us how we adapt ourselves to the change in a way that we can make a part of our day to day life.
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein