Many Bosses Are Right, Working From Home Is Excruciating

 

In many words, the idea of working from home was supposed to be temporary according to several media reports and surveys that have been conducted [1]. This concept was never meant to last any longer, it was only meant to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. But it seems like most people are looking forward to making this a reality, especially employees.

Over a week ago, I came across the article above that was delving deep into the way companies are preparing their employees for the long-term work-from-home type of situation. And it is a similar chat that people have been having on Twitter about how they enjoy working from home. his really bothered me because I did not understand how I was the only person on Twitter, who hated this setup.

I used to never leave the office, now I never leave my laptop unattended.

Given the fact that I work in a busy newsroom, I never left the office unless it was around the nighttime and I was also a morning person. The nice part about this is that when I am home, I would be home and not on my work laptop. Being home meant resting and not touching anything work-related. The majority of my colleagues even used to leave their laptops at the office, and I did the same thing too. However, working from home meant that one never leaves their laptop unattended.

This means, the moment I come online, I remain online until everyone is ready to call it a day. My shifts are designed to commence from 10:00 and overlap with the PM-Team, but because of the nature of my work, I find myself remaining online even when my shift is about to end. Covering the coronavirus pandemic meant the government had to have endless briefings, which led to irregular working hours, and the influx of stories related has been a lot.

There’s micromanagement from line-managers, which infuriates some employees.

Some employees are infuriated by being checked up all the time as to whether they are still working or just simply online and doing something else. [3]For example, if you work in a newsroom and you maybe subedit a story. You will have your web editor constantly checking on the delay and pressurizing you on speeding up the pace. This would not happen at the office, because when you’re on a desk with a story, they can clearly see that you are doing the work.

To some employees, this may come off as if they are not really doing their job. One begins to wonder if other colleagues are being checked like this. Then when you get an idea that your other colleagues are being checked while you are not, it leaves you wondering if your bosses even care about your productivity. You even start to conclude that you are simply not the favorite employee, which is absurd if you think about it.

For some reason, teamwork is a thing of the past

According to the Launch Workplaces, working from home can actually have negative effects on your creative thinking abilities. [4] This basically means that when you are surrounded by your teammates to crash ideas together and think about stuff creatively, more brilliant ideas pop up and the innovativeness gets some boost. You cannot deliberate stories about politicians with your colleagues. You cannot use the work WhatsApp group for any banter, and on Slack, there’s a lot of work-related stuff that needs to be attended to.

For me, when the coronavirus pandemic began, I had been working at the company for nine months, yet I was only permanent for two. That would make me a newbie and seeing that I am from a different background at all, the transition to being a full journalist nerd kind of went out of the window. I kept on postponing learning more from colleagues and the one I depended on for clarity on a lot of political jargon, would take hours to text back. Eventually, I just gave up and now I am going with the flow trying to better my skills somewhere else on my own with the hopes of being good in the end.

Impossible to remain inspired, and productive

Lack of self-motivation and the willingness to get up and do my work in a good mood stays being problematic. When you have problems and a lot that is going on in your mind, the period it takes to get to work, gives you some sort of distraction. By the time you get to the office, your mind is on the job itself. You are basically ready to take on your tasks and the environment also screams “workroom” on its own.

However, this is not the case when one works from you. When you wake up feeling down, you become even more depressed after taking a show. You lack the energy and stamina to open your laptop and start your shift. The weekend that led to Valentine’s Day, I was feeling down and unmotivated. I spent that week working from my bed in pajamas with my curtains and windows closed for days. I only submitted one article on Medium towards the end of the week and this is the article that I had written sometime in January.

We hardly address how working from home, takes a huge toll on an employee’s mental health.

My mental state was charting in a stressful way. I only logged in to do my job because I did not have any leave days remaining and it was very hectic with all the impeachment trial that was going on. My teammate was sick for about three days, so she barely worked any of the days in that week, in full. We share a workload, so this meant that I had to triple my working hours and double my workload.

When you live alone, the whole setup will drive you crazy.

Working from home never gives you time to think, process, and deal with your mental state, right? Now imagine living alone in your apartment. Think about this, in the middle of the pandemic, and you are living in those red zones area where the number of infections is high and there is one of those newly discovered variants that are more infectious. This means you stay indoors and never go anywhere because your health is also not the best preserving it is more important.

There are days where you never see people at all. The only image and reflection you have are the ones of yourself. Going from being happy and energetic, to feeling down can happen within a snap. It happens to me all the time and I am the only pick-me that there is out there. I didn’t want to make a lot of friends with my neighbors because the majority are social and I am trying to follow regulations and stay put until I receive the vaccination. So, living alone while working from home is just not working out for me.

The thing is, I will not return to the office even though we have been given a green light to do so casually. I would be the only employee from the morning team who works at the office and I really am not interested in looking weird. I will remain working from home until the majority of the employees vote for the idea to return altogether.

But do you want to know the freaky part? I can die, and no one would know. This pandemic needs to end because wow, it has not been good for all start-up employees.