Double the trouble, twice the fun?
I can’t read a newspaper or LinkedIn post without being promised a new post-corona world where we all find happiness due to the holy grail: working from home.
A lot of people seem to be over the moon that now both employees and employers have been forced to discover this new way of achieving stress relief, work-life balance and overall job satisfaction.
But is that really true? First of all, if you are blessed with, in my case, 3 beautiful yet very lively children and you combine the joy of working from home with the challenges that come with pre-schooling and learning my toddler how to rip paper, it’s suddenly double the trouble, but no fun at all.
Next to that, although the form may change if the content does not do we really achieve that what we are really looking for? If 1 out of 2 (!) employees in Belgium is disengaged from work, is that really because they could not work from home? . If at work you already did not feel that what you are doing is meaningful, how would that change for the better at home, especially being confronted with other much more important priorities (children for starters) that you still neglect in order to deliver a report for a boss you hated from the first day.
A recent study from workitects.be shows that 1 out of 2 experiences even more stress while working from home. And trying to fix the double troubles.
I understand we all want Frederic Laloux’ teal world to happen, but then we need to start focussing on content and not form. If you return to work and find yourself locked up in a new cubicle, making the same reports, for the same boss… question yourself: will 2 days a week of homework make the difference? Or do you need to search for a challenge where your contribution really matters, at home and at work.
I’m all for dreaming of a new post-corona world with more quality jobs. It’s possible. And we own it to the 50% that doesn’t have them now. Unfortunately, it will take more than some simple quick fixes like working from home. But then again… double the trouble… twice the fun, right? Dou