Balancing “Work from Home and Work for Home” in the Lockdown Situation

Covid19 Virus completely changed the way we live and every human on this planet is affected, one way or the other. Today, India would be finishing our second lockdown, adding up to 42 days of working from home or at least staying at home. While everyone hopes to get pass this lock down period, the science and new facts/data, coming out every day, is telling us a different story that it may take a while and we just do not know when.

One of the biggest changes Covid19 situation has forced on us is Work from Home, WFH, business model. It was not like companies were not practicing this prior, but the extent was not as big as of today. Some industries are fortunate enough to make this business model successful, but many are not. WFH model is not possible for manufacturing or production industries, hospitality, travel, restaurants, tourism and many such industries. Consulting, Banking or IT industries are lucky to have their manpower working from home and producing the desired outputs/deliverables.

Observing the situation, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages of WFH model and the success of the same clearly depends on how you “Balance the Work from Home and Work for Home”. If you do this exercise, what do you find out about yourself? While balancing the business and while saving time of commute, have you started re-living some moments of your likings, hobbies, passions in this lockdown? I am sure you have. The list can go on from cooking, cleaning, entertaining or teaching your kids, reading, listening music to playing your own music, listening to songs or singing yourself, book reading, own writing, seeing old movies or old sports’ matches, painting, crafting, knitting, exercising, reconnecting with old friends or families, patching up relationships, continuing your research, tuning into meditation, yoga and what not.

On the flip side, many associates, especially the women employees, are struggling to manage kids, looking after the household work and still manage an 8-hour business output. The problem is not limited with only women associates but fathers also are having problems on how to keep the kids entertained or at least not ignored and contributing to household work while giving the desired output to the company. While everyone is exploring new ways to keep themselves entertained in the lockdown situation, are we getting exhausted while balancing work from home and work for home?

Of course, my observations are based on Indian culture and our social systems. Other cultures or countries may have some different parameters in such situations. One of the biggest disadvantages, Indian families are facing, in lockdown situation, is absence of maids. Maids are part of our system, day to day living as well as our families. Our houses are not geared up 100% for vacuum cleaning or dish washers or centralized air conditioners neither our outside roads are nice nor 100% clean. Hence, need for the maid is inevitable. People would enjoy WFH in normal circumstances but WFH in lockdown, when no maids are available, is more than challenge for all people working from home. In this situation, cooking, cleaning and household activities may change from a hobby to a burden. What say you?

I have tried to capture a Matrix of Advantages and Disadvantages, both for Employees and the Employers.

When I started listing the advantages, I found many. But, when I started on disadvantages, the list was not small either. Also, WFH depends on many factors such as

·      The type of industry you work for.

·      Is your company supporting WFH business model?

·      Whether your spouse is a homemaker or also working from home?

·      If you are having kids or not? If so, their age groups.

·      Is your home closer to the office or not?

·      What is your working style viz. completely independent or a teamwork based?

·      How is your nature viz. introvert or extrovert? Are you comfortable working alone?

·      What type of dependency you have on others or others have on you or completely independent? etc.  

Have you faced similar challenges while “Working from Home and Work for Home?”, especially in the lockdown conditions? If you have any parameters for any one of the four quadrants of this matrix, I will be happy to receive your suggestions. I would also like to see if you disagree with any of the points in the Matrix. Please share your suggestions so that we could learn from this situation and balance “Work from Home and Work for Home” at least to sustain in coming future. Of course, our objective should be to make it successful than only sustainable. Isn’t it?