Photo by Ruffa Jane Reyes on Unsplash
Now that we’re moving into the endemic phase, I’m already hearing people getting prepared to transition from WFH (Working from home) to working at the office, with the addition of some offices and companies trying to adapt to a hybrid working schedule in which it goes on a rotational basis where some staffs will work from the office in a week, some will be in the office and vice versa.
Not everyone is very thrilled with the idea of going back to working at the office. On top of the concern with the idea that the Covid-19 virus still lingers amongst us despite we need to learn to live with it in order to get used to things being ‘back to normal’ and thus the ‘endemic phase, most people who have spent nearly two years in early 2020 have grown accustomed to the benefits of working from home.
Especially in consideration that the population that do highly prefer the work from home or working remotely are the working moms, parents that are doing their best to balance between family time and work time and people with disabilities.
For working moms, the advantage of working from home is quite cost-free; being able to be at home with the kids more often, watching them grow and looking after them while also having the flexibility to tackle work when there is time for it. But advantages always come with disadvantages, and one of them in this context is that it can get very overwhelming. Truth is, motherhood itself is not easy. So imagine what it’s like for working moms to juggle motherhood and being with the children as much as they can – and then in that same scenario into a ‘going back to the office’ situation.
The decision to ponder on the change is not an easy one. You always hear that change is constant, and that will always be true.
However, is it sometimes for the better when some changes can be worse or detrimental for some people?
Another example, for people with disabilities, working from home is considered a bliss not only due to the cost efficiency but also the convenience of working from home outweighs working in the office – and it’s not just working in the office that can bring up a lot of issues for PWD (person with a disability), but including the process of travelling back and from the office brings more inconveniences than it really should. Imagine someone with a disability having to not only be concerned about themselves when they have to go back to the office – their health, their limits and whatnot, but also take into consideration of others around them and the people they work with. Truth be told society as it now does not truly understand enough to empathize with people with disabilities and their daily struggles.
Don’t get me wrong; I do believe there are a lot of practical reasons to celebrate the idea of things going back to normalcy, which also includes the notion of people going back to the office. Of course, there are some people who would be thrilled about it; in the example of someone not being able to focus working at home, they find themselves being more productive working in the office.
Admittedly, one of the biggest flaws of the ‘working from home’ setup is the difficulty of setting boundaries, where work-life balance becomes disrupted more easily. For freelancers, this may not be too much an issue as usually, they are granted more flexibility and versatility to their schedule and the tasks they’re hired and assigned to do but within their terms and agreed conditions.
But every freelancer will always have a backstory of how they first started in which they take a lot of time learning how to set those boundaries with their clients. Like having one client who insists to see a draft at 10PM? Outrageous, isn’t it? It does happen and it still happens. When it comes to working, boundaries can often be really hard to be firm with.
So that is actually one of the major things that really need improvement if the ‘Work from Home’ setup will continue and be implemented.
I have been working from home since late last year and personally, I truly enjoy it because as someone who is chronically ill, I get to decide on my breaks and learn to pace myself. Although I am not going to deny in a lot of instances, it gets much harder depending on the workload piling up or even on some days when there is more last-minute task to do, I end up having to stay up until midnight to get them completed.
It also gets really hard to answer to people who have been asking me for social outings ‘When am I free’ because my answer now is always ‘I’m not sure’, because my work usually requires me to be on standby. I could be out with a friend on a brunch and thought I already have the day off until I get an urgent text message for a meeting in an hour. Of course, I could just refuse and stand by the fact that because it is my day off, that means work is off-limits but even that has its own complications.
So if you ask me, having to work from home is nearly no different from working in the office when it comes to boundaries, dealing with the same colleagues and challenges at work. However, what can really make a difference in improving the work culture even when it comes to working from home.
As mentioned: boundaries.
Another factor to consider is also how it would affect most people who have to commute to work in the financial aspect. Some people have to spend more than their monthly savings on e-hailing rides, considering the additional cost of toll charges and peak-hour price hikes. Public transportation will always be an available option but the fact is, it’s not entirely too feasible either.
In consideration of people with disabilities, travelling to and from work via public transport we have here locally takes so much more energy and by the end of the day, all that energy has been fully spent on commuting. In the same context, let’s not forget how inconvenient the infrastructure is for people with disability most time? It’s so much more of an inconvenience than it really should be just to get from Point A to Point B.
So working from home does have its own benefits and a lot more so for the people who can really perform well and more productively working from home than at the office.
With at least these few things to improve on:
- Boundaries
- Communication among teammates and superiors
- The workload at work and after work hours
- Work culture. Eg: Is OT always encouraged? Do superiors check in on their employees’ well-being?
- KPI monitoring
- Trust and reliability
- Where is the line between ‘work hard, play hard’?
- Is there a need for micromanaging?
More importantly, is there room for employees working from home to be able to get access to mental health assistance should they need one?
Perhaps in some of the more corporate work environments, these factors are harder to tackle on and make room for improvements because the work culture has been so set in stone, that change to adapting to a ‘work from home’ setting is harder.
Although I personally have a different take on my views of the corporate work culture, it does not mean that others workplaces including startup offices are excluded from having their issues.
Truthfully, as mentioned, I have been working from home since last year and I’m still having the lingering effects of burnout. I left one job after 3 months and joined another one that I’m currently in now right after but in between, I had been working on other freelance work (including being a writer here), I am still learning to pace myself and still learning how to communicate my boundaries with the people I work with.
It’s not the easiest but over time, there is some improvement.
Working from home is definitely a much better benefit to most people, but it still needs a lot of improvement.
Here is mostly to hoping that most companies would consider those areas for improvement when it comes to setting up employees to work from home.
So what do you prefer? Work from Home or In the Office?
Jasmine RCK is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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