Shweta Sampat, Vice President, HRD & Personnel, MullenLowe Lintas, shares her views on the different working environment and models put forth by companies – WFH, WFO, Hybrid, etc.
Take 1 –Adapting to a thing called new normal – WFH
Catch that extra 15-minute snooze in the morning, because you can chomp into the time window of the otherwise mind-numbing and pocket draining commute to office. Imagine – reducing greenhouse gas emission into our environment and contributing to oil savings by being off the streets!
How lovely it is not to have someone constantly hovering around you to ask unnecessary questions, distracting you while you are trying to focus on that report or presentation. It is true that no one loves a helicopter boss, constantly pinging to micromanage (simply because the lack of sight of their team compels them to keep checking in)
Get your dose of serotonin and dopamine without struggling too hard. Squeeze in that spin class or yoga routine. Walk your dog. Have a meaningful chat over a cuppa with your folks. Take a quick round of the park with your little one. Eat fresh, hot, home-cooked meals with your family.
Wonderful indeed!
Hang on, that is just one side of the story.
Take 2 – Rewire to WFO
Metrics in a report by the United Nations International Labour Organization published the flipside.
A valid and equal opposite view of the kind of life we were compelled to adapt to during the pandemic.
Several employees have declared that they forget to take breaks when they work from home, and don’t manage stopping work at a reasonable time. Some even admit to not knowing when is a reasonable time to stop. Working hours stretching into odd hours, blurred work-life boundaries, intense work pace resulting in heightened stress.
Boom! With that, the mental health struggle just quadrupled itself. Good ergonomic design was never a part of home décor, so the crick in your neck is a gentle reminder that you have physically aged 4X if not more in the last two years, thanks to that chair you borrowed from the dining table.
Complete isolation from work colleagues equals swinging to the other extreme. As creatures we are social, even before we are human. A sizable part of our brain is devoted to interacting with other humans. Silo working, because of this is a straight road to breakdown in unit cohesion. Even more, for businesses that run on collaborative models or brainstorming. Human energy exchange taken for granted is a direct shortcut to deteriorating overall output.
There is always some work to be done. With a work routine that involves travelling to an office and, therefore, creating physical workspace boundaries, an “it is time to stop now” alarm is created by default. If you only work from home, your office becomes where you live. The tendency then becomes to complete sundrytasks till your eyes are digitally strained and dry.
If one were to see through the employer’s looking glass, hiring potential employees in a remote working model is an incomplete process. There is that much a CV, or a voice call can do to aid assessing a cultural and skill fit. In the bargain, waiting to fill a crucial position with the “right” candidate becomes time consuming and is thoroughfare to systemic ruin in performance for understaffed teams.
Take 3 – WTF!
The newest normal now. As offices start to physically reopen, there is an obvious inertia from employees to readapt to the old and tiring way of working.
Take 4 – Slow claps. Enters with a slow yet sturdy gait: The Hybrid Hero
Hybrid is the new buzz word when it comes to the work-life bash.
Everyone is invited!
And, here’s a sneak peak of the beverages menu.
(Photo crdit: Pixabay)