Rethinking work-life balance: Post-pandemic office return challenges

Representational Image. Pic/Pixabay

The pandemic made us aware of our Home as Office, or Office at Home, blurring the lines between the two as we juggled the dual roles. For those who survived 2020 and after, life will forever be split into two eras--- BC & AC (before covid & after covid). BC was when reporting to office was the norm whether the work week started on a manic Monday or any other sober day after your weekly off. After Covid is a strange feeling for all, from the time a pandemic we never imagined about pushed people indoors, the office became a distant memory, colleagues at the next desk became moving faces on a laptop screen and bosses turned into talking heads. Companies are pushing reluctant employees to return to office on a regular basis, from only two days weekly and WFH (Work From Home) on other days to various combinations of the hybrid approach.

Students in school and college, forced to look up mobile screens during the mandatory online classes, as relaxation in pandemic restrictions created a new normal in education, deserves a separate discussion. This essay is reserved for a new thinking from the ‘top down' in the Indian corporate world, contemplated by a Mumbai-based talking head, about a wish to get colleagues to report to work on Sundays, alongside a 90-hour working week. Hammering home his own perception of a work ethic may have been the intention, the actual achievement was to get a foot-in-the-mouth. The reaction of those at the receiving end of this outburst is not known, it would have taken some time for it to sink home. Sunday at work, after slogging from Monday to Saturday in a tough week gone by will be like jogging on a non-stop treadmill, falling off the only way out.

The talking head does not take a break, boasts about reporting for work on Sundays, assumes the workforce at his organisation does not need a breather to recharge batteries. Our mobiles and laptops switch off when charge has run out, the hollow rectangle stares us in the face when these gadgets on zero charge are re-connected to a power source. Machines, electronic or mechanical, require rest and recovery via a pause for maintenance, don't humans need a daily break, a weekly break and an occasional holiday break? Hours spent in offices solving company problems, meeting corporate targets, does not mean home problems get solved automatically without being present there, or connecting with others at home, so that suitable decisions can be taken affecting kids in school, teenagers in college, parents needing medical attention and spouses needing a break.

Teamwork is the only way to get things done, whether at home or at work, in a community or corporate set-up. The earning person and persons in every family will focus on the job only with a sense of understanding from each and every family member, from child to grandparent, spouse to sibling left behind at home, about the demands of a particular job. When part of a large family, backing from this group can act as a support system for the employee at work to switch off his/her home thoughts over specific hours, over five days or six days as the case may be. The weekend offs (for Monday-Saturday office days) or weekly offs (for those on Sunday duty due to business requirements) are the only breathers for workaholics to recharge their virtually empty battery for the next week, like the smartphone or the laptop used by the boss needing a recharge.

Talking heads in Bengaluru referring to 70 hours a week from the workforce, or another in Mumbai wishing for 90 hours a week presence from colleagues down the line plus Sundays on the job, are so far off target with their assumptions as corporate captains. The reality of working couples escaped their understanding, two employees catching up once a week, if both have the same day weekly off, for whom reporting to the office on a Sunday is a signal for job change. Commuting to work and back in congested cities like Mumbai or Bengaluru which leaves the employee drained of enthusiasm or energy after long hours on the road or jostling for space in public transport. Till such time that talking heads do a rethink on longer hours in office or seven-day work weeks, Sundays can be put to better use by them via switching off the laptops.

Folklore has it that kings would move around their kingdoms in disguise, accompanied by guards also in disguise, to interact with the people and get first-hand feedback from commoners, traders, moneylenders, scholars about the way the show was being managed from the royal palace. Corporate czars, following maps on their smartphones and leaving personal cars at home, can use public transport to reach the homes of teammates down the line, chosen randomly, for data about the travel adventures undertaken daily to reach office. Railway travel is an option on Sundays in and around Mumbai, when management-enforced
train blocks assist maintenance teams attached to the railways get cracking on track work. Navigation is tougher for the occasional traveller than on weekdays, but then trains are machines on the go, Monday morning to Saturday night, so a break for rehabilitation and repair is welcome.

With bosses who understand ground realities after such Sunday sojourns heading verticals, it will be easier for HR departments in Bengaluru and Mumbai, trying to convince employees to increase frequency of Work From Office trips, work out the hybrid and remote models across sectors.

Nandakumar Marar is a senior journalist. The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.