Work from Home- Remembering Those Who Are Left Behind

WFH (‘Work from Home’) has been around as a concept of our work culture for a while, usually as an option for those odd days when you’re feeling under the weather or are urgently required to remain at home. When COVID-19 struck, suddenly, this model of work became part of the ‘new normal’ across the world and across sectors. For the privileged few who could make this transition easily, they were initially overjoyed with not having to deal with the long commutes through traffic or the annoying workplace politics that takes up so much energy. Unfortunately, while discussing employee well-being during the pandemic, we don’t often consider those for whom this has been a period of distress and longing for the day when they can return to their workplaces or seek any form of employment again. We’ll be exploring the distress experienced by those whom have worn the brunt of this new model the most.

In his latest book, ‘Work: A History of How We Spend our Time’, anthropologist James Suzman emphasizes one key aspect of the modern relationships between the work we engage with and our self-identity and self-worth. Essentially, we are what we do. Now more than ever, it’s easy to understand the significant impact job security and job satisfaction have on mental health, productivity and the ability of employees to purposefully commit to their work.

The domestic helps, the young people freshly hired to their first jobs remotely, those working from their homes in far-flung towns with poor Internet infrastructure or worst of all, those who were unemployed with very few job opportunities available to them, how have they been coping through 2020?

Freshers face the job market fury

Saif was a social worker for the last year in Delhi and he falls under the category of what is commonly referred to as ‘freshers’ in the formal sector. At the start of the lockdown, he was compelled to travel back to his village in Aligarh district, where he is currently living with his family in a home that does not have a WiFi connection and experiences frequent power cuts. The NGO he worked with, unlike larger IT or tech firms, could not afford to provide Internet devices or work laptops for their staff. Within 3 months of the lockdown, he was the first to be laid off. When asked how this has taken a toll on his mental health, he says, “I am the first in my family to have left our village and gotten a college degree, I face immense pressure to maintain that status and provide for my parents. Since June, I’ve been competing with thousands of others for the few jobs available and have decided that in the immediate future, I’m going to accept any job offers, even in areas outside my interest because that is always better than being unemployed.”

WFH- ‘Not Applicable’ for millions in the informal economy

Then there are those who can only earn an income by stepping outside their homes. For them, the term ‘work from home’ serves no purpose or significance. Many domestic helps, drivers and those engaged in making our lives easier on a day-to-day basis, had to rely on the goodwill and trust of their employers to earn an income despite not turning up to work initially. Some have had to take up odd jobs to continue paying their children’s school fees or ensuring that they continued to eat two meals a day.

Ketaki, a domestic help was lucky enough to be paid through the lockdown. Her husband however, stopped receiving any pay as a driver and had to resort to selling vegetables on a makeshift cart, putting himself and his family at higher risk to the coronavirus. Ketaki narrates, “I’d be filled with so much anxiety every time he left home, but we were left with no other choice. We have learnt how much society values those like us during this time.”

Understanding the different needs of employees

Does this mean then that those who are with more stable jobs have necessarily had a breezy transition to WFH? Zoom fatigue, micro-management and longer working hours have become the norm for many. However, this multiplies in impact for those who find it even more difficult to separate out their personal and professional lives through the working day, for whom the office served as a space where they could focus better on their career aspirations. For Sanjana, an accountant who returned to her job earlier this year after maternity leave, this period of working surrounded by her family has been extremely stressful. With her husband working in another city, she struggles to balance her job along with her elder daughter’s online classes, all on one device through the day. She says, “I have had quite a few embarrassing situations where my co-workers have caught me scolding my daughter during meetings and her even coming up to me once during a presentation with our CEO, demanding my laptop for her online class!” While this might seem to be a funny anecdote, Sanjana believes that this greatly damages the professional image that she is trying to rebuild after freshly returning to work.

Lessons for leadership

So how can employers, managers and business leaders attempt to bridge this divide? Empathetic leadership and communication can be put to practice- understanding the differing living conditions of staff members and their overall well-being during this time when we are collectively dealing with multiple crises. Normalising WFH as an option in a post-pandemic world requires putting in extra effort now, in establishing transparent feedback loops between employers and employees to understand what’s working or not.

These insights can be carried forward into the future of work- a hybrid model that encourages flexibility through options such as remote working, healthy work-life balance and trusting the employee’s ability to navigate work without compromising on long-term growth, productivity and job satisfaction. 2020 saw a drastic upheaval in the nature of work, but it has also reminded us of what we value the most- our health, community and the bare necessities.