2 minute read
Home-working nightmare
Working from home: the luxury that turned into the nightmare
Photo credit: Unsplash.com
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Remember the days when working from home was something of a blessing? That feeling going to bed, knowing you didn’t have to wake up early for the commute to work was the idea of heaven. The big boss at work would, instead of trying to prevent you at all costs from working at home, actively tell you to stay away. Unthinkable at the turn of the new decade!
Those days were exciting for many people, albeit with the thought of these measures only being in place for a few weeks, maybe a month at most. But with people having worked a full year from home when we reach mid March, the small luxuries are long forgotten and now the idea of not having to sit through hours of boring Zoom meetings is on everyone’s bucket-list.
The thing is, driving to and from work every day gives people a routine, a purpose to each day. With these essentials to a sustained, balanced day now gone, it is clearly having an effect on many people, including myself, influencing their daily goals and general mental wellbeing.
I think it is no coincidence that the number of people suffering mentally is not only due to the national lockdown, but by also not seeing work colleagues or living that dayto-day work life. So in the meantime, try to get out once a day for a walk or exercise and eat clean, it always helps keep a healthy mind as well as a healthy body.
For parents, working from home can prove to be extra tricky, with the schools shut, leaving them to look after their children of all ages and difficulties, educate them from home with no previous experience whilst continuing to do their 9-5 job via the Internet. Do you see the issue here?
Even the idea of furlough, getting paid the majority of your wages to sit at home, sounds bliss, right? And it was for a while, but people I have spoken to who work in a number of different sectors, say they are fed up with not going to work and living their life within the four walls they call home.
After Covid-19 has run its course, people will have a newfound love and respect for their work colleagues. People will realise that even if they are having a bad day, or the journey into work was interrupted by an ignorant bloke on the bus, at least it isn’t working alone from home and not being allowed to leave the house like it once was. And that is a promising thought.
So, it begs the question when will life be back to normal? It’s the golden question to which possibly no-one has the answer, but something that all of humanity craves. When this does happen, the feeling of returning to work will, I think, feel like Christmas morning as a child, waking up excited to see if Santa paid a visit the night before. But for now, remember that with each day that passes, we are all a day closer to reuniting and sharing a lunch break and a cuppa with others!
