Bengaluru: As employers are busy in board rooms with plans to extend the WFH practice beyond Covid (thanks to the cost-saving benefits), tables have turned and it’s the employees now who seem to be reluctant to work remotely.
After experiencing 3-6 months of WFH, working professionals are increasingly reporting issues of mental health, poor work-life balance and strained family relationships.
Of the 9 middle-aged working professionals ETV Bharat spoke to, 6 are looking forward to going to office to work due to rising stress levels at home.
Female employees are struggling more as they face multiple responsibilities apart from the office work itself, like household chores and kids’ online classes.
37-year-old Swati (name changed), lead of operations at a US-based firm, recalled how the WFH seemed “perfect” to her for the first two months, but then things took a turn for the worse.
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“I am married. As a couple, we have been working for approximately 13 years and never had so much time to spend together. After WFH was declared for both of us, we had all the time to do many things as a family. March and April were really good,” said Swati.
“However, everything turned upside down from the third month,” she added.
She said she started experiencing higher work pressure from her company from May. Besides that, there were strains emerging in family life. “Even though we have a maid in house to take care of chores, my in-laws expect me to do more without even considering that I have work for which I get paid,” she said.
“Already there are reports of layoffs and pay cuts… this is a time to prove to the company that we are worth being kept in our roles. If our productivity drops, we shall have pink slips in a snap,” she feared.
Expert’s View
Dr Jagadish, a senior psychiatrist practising in Bengaluru for more than three decades, told ETV Bharat that how the shifting of workplace from office to residence has drastically changed lives of the working class.
“Initially, WFH looked good as most of them thought we can work at leisure. However, now they are realising that they have no structured time frame in terms of working hours,” he said.
Dr Jagadish, senior psychiatrist practising in Bengaluru “Also, people have lost the advantage of socialising. Now everyone is locked up inside homes. Adding to this, working professionals earlier used to have less contact with family members, so there used to be less time for differences of opinion within families. Now, that’s not the case,” pointed Dr Jagadish.
No fixed working hours and fears of losing their jobs are predominant factors behind rising stress levels among workers, which is thereby resulting in breakdown of communication among family members, he explained.
