Remote working in the pandemic has already blurred the lines between office and home. Work life balance is wishful thinking as remote working in today’s context means not only Work from Home (WFH) but Work from Anywhere (WFA) and Work at Any time (WAA).
What does this imply? An always on mode! The workplace that never sleeps!
We have a 5-day week, but ….
- Our clients work on Saturdays, and we must be available to them.
- Our overseas clients in UAE work on Sundays, and we need to attend to them.
- Our review meetings are on Saturday, and we need to be available for the same.
- Our training program is possible only on weekends, so we must sacrifice our family time as our career is at stake.
- Our delivery schedule has already crossed the timeline and we must complete the backlog during the weekend.
- Our project report was discussed with our boss only late Friday night, and we need to work on it this weekend to submit it on Monday morning.
We maintain strict office timing, but….
- We ensure all emails are attended to early in the morning before we start our day.
- We discuss boss’s feedback on the report he had sent late last night (10.00 pm) as it needs to be submitted tomorrow morning.
- We call on the client before office starts as he is only available at 8.00 am
- We check our mailbox for pending mails and act before we finally retire to bed.
- We attend to the crisis in the office and resolve it even if is past midnight.
- We adhere to office timings and are present right in time in the morning regardless.
We encourage family time but…
- We enjoy our vacation but check our mailbox and WhatsApp all day for important and urgent mails and calls or Zoom Meetings.
- We have just begun our vacation but must cut it short to attend to urgent office work.
- We look forward to celebrating festivals with our family, but office get togethers take precedence.
We care for the well being of our employees during COVID but….
- We ask employees to take be in quarantine, but they must try completing the pending documents.
- We urge employees to take rest and take utmost care of their health but to attend the scheduled virtual meetings as that does not take any effort
- We understand when employees must look after their sick family members, but they need to ensure the mails are sent to XYZ.
Does this sound familiar? What do we do? Adjust, accommodate, succumb to all pressures, but crib and complain incessantly.
Why?
- I will be considered laid back
- I have more time as I don’t travel to work anymore.
- I can attend to my family between work.
- I get time to attend to my personal calls.
- I will be replaced if I say No.
- I am already distracted during work hours so I should accommodate exigencies beyond work hours.
- I am obliged to curry favour with my boss if I must earn my promotion.
- I have no choice but to follow the herd.
What can be done?
- Avoid making excuses as inevitably you will get caught.
- Being a great resource is great but only if you are valued and respected for your hard work.
- Change the narrative of work to outcome than the hours of work you put in.
- Confidence in your own abilities to be able to resist to frivolous pressure and stress points.
- Do not glorify and make heroes of those who work beyond work hours as a habit and routine.
- Courage to express and communicate your concerns.
- Firm about your own personal priorities
- Give realistic timelines and advance notice of your prior engagements.
- Honest and transparent about the actual time you spend on office work.
- Introspect and proactively anticipate work exigencies.
- Judiciously use your time and energy to avoid a burn out and collapse.
- Live your life to live and not make your life all about your work.
- Motivate yourself by being personally invested in your work so that as and when you need to work late it is no longer a drudgery.
- Navigate the fine balance you need to maintain between work and home commitments seamlessly.
- Own conscience keeper of timelines, deadlines and emergencies that warrant the “extra” efforts.
- Prioritise yourself and your mental wellbeing.
- Recognise that urgent cannot be a matter of routine that warrants working beyond office hours.
- Respect boundaries, create boundaries to protect yourself and your work life.
- Start in time, finish in time, and have time for personal time.
- Upgrade the standards of your work output and efficiency that makes working beyond work hours redundant.
Let us face it, no organisation can realistically promise work life balance regardless of intent, as circumstances are not necessarily within any one’s control, so the onus is on us to set the balance in our lives smartly and effectively. It is our life at the end of it.