Work From Home: Bane Or Boon; Impacts On Personal Life, And Disruption of Work-Life Balance

Lifestyle:  In the post-COVID era, work from home has emerged as a colloquial arrangement of professional life. We are no longer obligated to be on desks in a cubical working like a mechanized being. The standardization of time is somehow being challenged with the liberty for the people to choose when they wanna log in to work and log out of it. The mandate tasks should be finished, without the pressure of being seen working in a physical space away from comfort.  

With the increased flexibility of working arrangements, a common phenomenon has emerged where people are seen attending work meetings on moving metro, on the road, on a vacation, grocery shopping, you get the idea. Such visuals make one wonder if this pre-dominate remote mode of working is acting as an assistance or hurdle in our everyday lives. 

Why choose WFH?

There has been an evident shift in demands of a hybrid or work-from-home mode of working, where the employee is allowed the flexibility to complete their eight or nine hours of shift in a slot they find comfortable. The cost spent in commuting to and fro from work to home is cut, with the ease of inter-geographical connection in just one click.  

So surely, there are some strong reasons for people to fall for the WFH arrangement of working. On the contrary side, the limitations are not talked about enough as they are mostly overshadowed by the “benefits.”

WFH: A disruption of Work and Home 

Videos and photos of people taking their laptop to shopping, vacation on a moving rail have been viral many times on social media. While they are quick to be the fodder of entertainment, memes, and comments on social media, the condition also highlights the precarious plight of employees who have to be “virtually present” in professional commitments whereas their personal presence is busy somewhere else. 

With its mentioned and benefits that go beyond, the limitations and downsides of WFH are also prevalent in everyday life. Bringing work to home has disrupted the work-life balance of many where the lines between professional hours and personal hours are blurred. Additionally, it poses a risk of overworking due to no marked distinguishing between them. With reduced face time with colleagues and work partners, a sense of camaraderie is difficult to establish, making everything solely a translation of labor and money with increased isolation and increased distance.