The Swing of Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance has always been like a pendulum, and the Covid-19 pandemic has added to the already existing challenges. This pandemic throughout the world has diminished the boundary between the workplace and homeplace. The challenging phase of handling both the work-life and family life under the same space at home became the order of the day.
Pandemic has changed our lives drastically. It has affected our day-to-day life as well as our professional life. It is quite a feat how successfully we have been able to adapt to the change since last year. Lockdown kept people in their homes, close to their loved ones, and gave them a much-needed break from their routine life. It was a forced change at the start that people slowly accepted, and it eventually became their new normal.
Like the Monty Python song,” Always look on the bright side of life” is what pandemic has been teaching each one. Let’s not only think about how severe this pandemic is but also focus on the upsides this pandemic has bought into our lives.
Most of us have adopted the new work from home model. Fast and reliable internet network has facilitated this shift. It wouldn’t have been possible if this would have happened a decade ago, but now we have the technological advancements needed to make this shift. Moreover, the pandemic and lockdowns had various positive impacts, like people getting more time to spend with their family, becoming more creative, and doing a lot of DIY. We learned to rearrange how we spend our time and reserve no time for nothingness.
The pandemic allowed us to reflect and reconsider what we do, how we do it, and why. We were forced to rethink our habits and routines and even make changes to maintain a stress-free life. Many of us took this opportunity to reconnect and create more social coherence. Even though we were unable to visit our friends and family, we got into a feeling that “we are in together,” which has triggered many of us to stay connected.
Studies have shown that working from home is less stressful than in a dedicated office space. Furthermore, it can be said that people do find it convenient, as it gives them freedom on their working hours and breaks. The best advantage of being at home is that you can “zone in” and “zone out” from your work at your convenience. This does give employees more control over their lives, and some might see this shift as necessary. Also, various mobile apps help in staying connected with your team and friends round the clock.
Corporations have successfully adopted the digital transformation. They timely provided laptops to their employees and shifted their offline office model to a digital model. The work-life balance of the working class people is definitely enhanced. It is a win-win situation from the corporate perspective, all the resources invested in getting the people together in the workplace and managing their accommodation are being saved. Most of the companies have shifted to hiring people via online interviews instead of following the in-person interview process.
We can say that this change is definitely here to stay. Pandemic has forced changes that should have been implemented a long time ago. The pandemic persuaded people to have trust in the technology. It can be said that earlier most people didn’t realize that they can finish their office work from their pc at home.
We have to keep a lookout for the change that might come in the near future. As the lockdowns are ending in various countries, we might see a shift back to physical offices. People have to be prepared for that situation too. But still, nothing can be said for sure right now, as it is unknown what kind of impacts the various mutations might have on our lives.