I have been working from home intermittently since last ten years. I never felt working from home so exhausting the way I am finding it now. I honestly envy those who are getting time to Netflix and Chill. I recently read a post by my fellow blogger Akshata Ramesh who is facing a similar ordeal. You can read her post Work from Home- Yea or Nay #Coronadays
The Pros of WFH:
Travel Time: The biggest pros for people living in cities are that they save a huge lot of time traveling to and from work. In big cities like Mumbai or Delhi people are saving 2-3 hours of travel time every day.
More Free Quality Time: The time that you save on travel can now be spent with family, friends, pets, hobbies, etc. Most people get so exhausted with traveling and traffic that by day end they turn into a zombie and get no quality time for themselves.
Less Formal: Working from home can be done in a casual way. No need to put on your work clothes, no need to worry about getting late to work, no need to pack lunchbox, and no need to sit on a revolving chair. You can work in your pajamas, on your bed while eating daal chawal. In my previous post, I discussed how we are working from home in our nightclothes.
The Cons of WFH:
Having worked from home for a long time, I always see more cons than pros and certainly prefer going to the office. This is the first time the man is also realizing the cons. Earlier he used to always feel that I have it easy because I work from home and his was the ‘hard work’. Now he knows how hard it is to work from home. He learned it the ‘hard’ way.
Distraction: Working from home has its own share of distraction, unless you stay alone and can convert your house to your office in a blink. Especially if you have kids or pets it is extremely difficult. I once wrote a post on the Difficult life of a WAHM(work-at-home-mom) and today that is true for both parents.
Social Isolation: Working from the office you can just walk up to the cubicle of your team and get work done but from home it is difficult to reach them. You also feel a sense of isolation when you work from home.
Slow Internet: Often residential internet is slower than the commercial ones and that becomes a major issue.
You incur cost and your company saves money: WFH actually reduces your CTC in a way. The companies save on their electricity bill, internet bill, office space rent, cleaning staff salary, coffee and refreshments, tissue paper, soap, etc. Long back one of my colleagues had joked that the more tissue paper we use the more our CTC increases. However, if you think about it then it is not a joke but the truth.
Juggling home and office work: When you leave for office, you can suspend all your household chores and concentrate on office work. When you WFH then it is impossible to suspend and you end up constantly juggling both. I am kind of used to cooking and handling client calls simultaneously but the man is finding it really hard. The other day he was on a call while mopping the floor. I was in a way getting a sadistic pleasure looking at him.
This was more or less our ordeal. Let me know how you are coping with your WFH.
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Trina Looks Back 
I have always wondered how people manage to work from home with the distractions. If there are no fixed office timings, don’t you tend to push the work for later in the day? That would make the entire day full of work. Working from home requires a lot of discipline, I think. I admire the ones who ace it. 🙂
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Yes, it indeed deserves more discipline. However, over the years I had set a routine for myself. But this lockdown upset the whole routine, and I am now struggling to manage evrything.
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I totally agree with you having been working from home mostly for the past 5 years. The social isolation part stands out for me, the reason why I would go to office once or twice a week even when I didn’t have to. The juggling of work also speaks to me. It’s impossible to demarcate office and personal work. I think the best is working from home once or twice a week and going to office the rest of the week. However, with all the things happening, going to office isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
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WFH requires a lot of discipline and attention. Though we can save on petrol and the time it takes to commute, it also means that we have to juggle a lot of activities. The fact that our maids are not there makes it even more difficult.
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Oh ya, and I also simply cannot fathom how people get the time to Netflix and chill and do all the other things that they do! I seem to be running against time always…
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I have been doing this for 2.5 yrs now and I had managed to strike a balance until the lockdown happened. Now the husband’s stuck in hospital, in-laws here, son at home and Baba in Berhampore. Simply pagol hoye jachi.
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I can understand your agony..
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Totally empathize with your problem!
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Well expressed….best part of going to office is the opportunity it provides for interactions..exchange of thoughts and a working environment…home you rightly said has its own distractions…and add to this non availability of helping hands like maids due to the the pandemic…you got to do everything yourself…and if you have a kid or two also who are also at home 24x 7 now your domestic work load increases manifold…
Regards
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Thanks Krish. Yes, you have summed up nicely.
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🙏🙏
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I’ve been working from home since 2016. Initially it was tough because it felt like doing nothing. Thats what most people also thought. But then gradually I started taking it up differently. Made my own work space. Set timings and other stuff. It helped. Now everyone takes my work seriously. The lockdown has affected my schedule but then I guess I’m not the only one!
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I admire all WAHM. They make both world’s rock.
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Working from has its own pros and cons. It needs a lot of discipline and many parents have not realized how tough it is for WFH moms. I understand the part where you wrote about the sadistic pleasure 😉
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Agree with your thoughts. Managing both home chores and work is challenging and especially if you have a boss who thinks that we have all the time in the world and have nothing better to do than do office work!
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That is the worst part. The moment you wfh, they think you are just doing Netflix and Chill, while the fact is it becomes so difficult to juggle so many things. They want you to be on their beck and call. It is a funny truth that I get calls whenever I enter the washroom.
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I am really struggling with productivity. I keep finding myself watching movies instead of doing my assignments.
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It indeed affects productivity.
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WFM is a two-edged sword. Going by my past experience of the same, I would say, its good one if the company provides you with the necessary support of connectivity and the house-help is around you to support you in daily chores. Prolonged WFH gives way to a craving for the office environment for sure.
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