Filter Coffee #255

On WFH

Bengaluru

Dear readers, FC 254 received a couple of interesting comments:

• Lakshmi Raman says: “Whether charity or philanthropy, it too often begins at home and ends at home. Businesses set up charitable foundations that help their ilk with a little something, going to those in need, to justify their existence. I may sound cynical, but I have come across instances of these. One foundation to note for its remarkable work in North Karnataka is the Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra, established by the royal Ghorpade family in North Karnataka. They work among the Lambani community, equipping women with skills for livelihoods, reviving art and craft and promoting entrepreneurship. The products that are made are finding wider and wider markets. I've met some staff from here and plan to visit the centre one of these days.”

• Tarun Kunzru says: “Thanks Pras! So nice to read about Amit and Archana. Can't help but respect and admire them, and people like them, who give back so humbly. Makes one believe in goodness and hope in a world, otherwise, full of greed and selfishness.”

💻 WFH

Many men may deny it, but there’s no doubt that every man would be lost without his wife and Wi-Fi, not necessarily in that order. As I have previously mentioned, I am supposed to be away from home from 11 am to 4 pm, and give my wife space to devote time and attention to her many activities.

All of this week, the BSNL Wi-Fi connection at my office played truant, and I was forced to, much to my wife’s annoyance, bring work home, where the Wi-Fi connection was quite reliable. Of course, I was let in on condition that I stay in one of the bedrooms, also called the computer room, and not enter the kitchen.

For me, FC is work, and I am at my best in the solitude of my office. At home, I struggle to keep my body and mind from yearning for the afternoon siesta. I find myself nodding off, and at times when my wife catches me in the nodding act, she wonders why I can’t nod off in the office and why must I come home pretending to work. Sure, I know the meaning of ‘caught napping’.

What happened to me was enough inspiration to make ‘work from home’ the topic for this FC. I go back in time to the days when we were given ‘homework’ and we hated it. The elders in the family, there were many in our joint family, who would take turns to check if we had finished our homework. There were times when someone forgot to turn in the duly completed homework, and the punishment for that ranged from standing up on the bench to standing in front of the headmaster’s office, depending on whether or not the student was a habitual offender.

My mother, who espoused equality, made the boys do the chores, and for us, ‘homework’ and ‘work at home’ were known concepts. We had no idea that we would live to see the emergence of concepts called ‘work from home’ or ‘remote working’ or ‘hybrid working’, or ‘virtual office’.

There were times when a family member would work until 6 pm in the office and still bring home some work that needed to be completed. But this was more during the year-end. But my brother, a lawyer of repute in Mysore, in the 70s, would go to the office at 8 am to prepare for the cases posted for the day. He would come home by 10 am and have lunch, and be in court before 11 am. After court hours, he would again go to the office by 6 pm to meet clients and to track cases that would come up in court the next day. He would then come home by 8, have dinner and settle down to read case files, unmindful of my sister-in-law’s concerns.

It was quite a done thing among all lawyers, in those days, to work from the office, work the cases in court and take home some work as well. I too did that for a few years before I migrated to Mumbai to become a corporate counsel.

Judges and bureaucrats, by the nature of their duties, brought work home. There were no computers to log in, but they did lug in files. All day, Judges listen to the arguments of different lawyers on diverse disputes, and after court hours, they browse through all the cases listed for the next day or spend time dictating an order or judgment. The bureaucrats are busy all day in meetings with ministers as part of their ex officio mandate, leaving little time to study the files with some marked as urgent. For them, home was a logical extension of the office. There were stories of some officers who would want to impress those around them, and so would carry a bunch of files that needed no attention.

I had to wait for COVID to usher in the new jargon concerning work. People were forced to stay indoors, but soon, thanks to connectivity, they were asked to attend to all the work that needed no supervision or decision. This arrangement was fine in the early days, but soon people felt the strain of ‘work-life balance’. It was ironic that before COVID, this jargon was all about finding time to live life, and when WFH became the norm, life was thrown off-balance.

People found a workaround, and the concept of ‘workcation’ emerged, which would promote a slightly different kind of work-life balance. A few techies who went as a team on vacation told me that they went on a group workation that allowed them to work as a team on a given project. The single most important factor was the availability of internet or Wi-Fi.

Hybrid working is liked by many. It helps one keep in touch with the physical realities of the office, meet colleagues, socialise and then retreat to the home comfort to continue the work.

Three days on and two days off, or a variant of that, helps employees feel a sense of belonging to the organisation as opposed to being delinked from the work ecosystem.

WFH has come to stay, but there are too many challenges. How does one create a home office? If you are unable to create a dedicated workstation, you are most likely to end up at the dining table. How do you discipline yourself and follow a set routine, and deal with distractions?

WFH can create some stress not only for the family but also deny the children quality time with the parents. Did this change when working from home became the norm? Not quite. Either parent, or both and in some cases, a working son or daughter, ended up occupying different corners of the house to work on an assignment or be on a Zoom call. This did not make it easy for the rest of the household, which typically looked forward to that lull from 9 am to 6 pm.

A regular office work environment is dramatically different. You get to sit among your colleagues, complain about the boss and generally ease the work tension by telling jokes during coffee breaks. You are conscious of completing a task before heading home at 6 pm. You are eager to spend quality time with your spouse and kids and prefer not to bring work home.

In a virtual work scenario, there’s no scope for friendly banter during remote working sessions. Reminds me of this joke: A guy working from home cracked a joke on a Zoom call. No one laughed. Turns out he was not remotely funny.

All that changes when you start working from home or making your home your office. Your private space is invaded by files, computers and busy cell phones. In the initial stages, you heave a sigh of relief at not having to navigate through the dense traffic and tense up trying to reach the office on time before a watchful superior frowns at you for arriving late.

But soon enough, you get disillusioned. You feel the confinement stifling. You are eager to go out and be with your colleagues. You consider ‘3 days on and 3 days off’ a good arrangement that helps you to be in touch with your colleagues and also gives you the flexibility to work from home.

Working from home can be advantageous when both spouses are employed, provided they alternate and do not get on each other’s nerves. It helps tend to the kids and attend to the household chores. How does one accomplish this when employers are increasingly asking employees to return to the office? Quite challenging.

The need to work from home was born out of social distancing mandated by health regulations.

It also resulted in social isolation. Should we continue living in isolation when there is no real need? Working in virtual mode distances you from the work environment and isolates you from real-time interactions with colleagues and superiors. It could potentially lead to an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ situation.

Talking of superiors, what if you are a team leader entrusted with different tasks with tight delivery schedules? In a work-from-home scenario, how can you lead the dispersed team effectively?

WFH raises more questions than the answers it can provide. Hakuna Matata. This, too, shall pass.

Parting shot:

The hardest part about working from home is the distractions; my phone keeps ringing while I’m watching the match!

Dear readers, this FC is entirely a product of WFH. Please write in your comments. Until next week, take care, Ciao!