{"id":16727,"date":"2021-03-18T13:26:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T07:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/?p=16727"},"modified":"2021-04-29T12:00:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T06:30:17","slug":"pandemic-work-from-home-unhelpful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/pandemic-work-from-home-unhelpful.html","title":{"rendered":"2 Reasons Work-From-Home During Pandemic Is Not Helping You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s been a year since the WHO declared COVID- 19 as a global pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hundreds of millions of us have lived through multiple lockdowns and several thousands of us have faced losses, both personal and professional. While there have been massive lay-offs in several companies and pay-cuts eating into employees\u2019 salaries, one of the most significant changes that have taken place is the practice of working from home.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the biggest benefits that work from home has introduced is the jump in productivity &#8211; with some <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.airtasker.com\/blog\/the-benefits-of-working-from-home\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">research<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> even showing that employees that work from home can add up to 3 extra weeks of productive work in a year!<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, that\u2019s quite a jump eh?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With such numbers, there is no doubt that work from home is the future for much of the corporate world. Forbes believes that \u201cremote work\u201d is no longer a privilege, and Fast Company even considers it to be our \u201cnew normal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, work from home brings with it several complications of its own, which can prove harmful not only to companies but also to employees&#8217; mental and physical health. And the major side-effect it has had so far? It has turned any semblance of work-life balance upside down.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1. A Skewed Work-Life Balance<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16732\" src=\"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ydstories_pandemicisnothelpingyou_skewedworklifebalance.jpg\" alt=\"A Skewed Work-Life Balance\" width=\"640\" height=\"350\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take a look at this <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.airtasker.com\/blog\/the-benefits-of-working-from-home\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the practice of work from home and the impact that it has had on employees:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u25baIn comparison to their office-going counterparts, 29% of those working from home said that they <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">struggle to achieve a work-life balance<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u25ba31% of them were reported to have taken a day off for their mental health.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we can see, when work is from home, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/273761672_Work-Life_Balance_and_Working_from_Home\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">work-life balance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> gets thrown unceremoniously out the window. Work tends to encroach unwittingly onto our home responsibilities. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With no physical walls between the work-space and home, it becomes<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> difficult for employees to maintain a psychological wall between the two<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as well.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another 2020 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pubsonline.informs.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1287\/orsc.2020.1370\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> concludes that without the daily trip to and from the office, we lack a specific boundary management system, which then leads to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a blurring of lines between work and home<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It has also been found that the amount of time saved up on the daily commute is now being used to put in extra hours at work as well, damaging work-life balance even further.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also not surprising that when employees\u2019 work-life balance takes a hit, it brings with it a whole horde of other nagging problems. These problems are only too dangerous to be ignored.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. The Damaging Effects of Working from Home<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16731 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ydstories_pandemicisnothelpingyou_damagingeffect.jpg\" alt=\"The Damaging Effects of Working from Home\" width=\"640\" height=\"350\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 640px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 640\/350;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/info.martecgroup.com\/remote-work-emotions-COVID-19\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that was conducted in 2020 on the effects of work from home found some alarming results regarding its ill-effects-<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u25baAn overwhelming 59% of employees said that they did not like working from home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u25baThe number of employees who reported positive mental health dipped from 62% (during pre-COVID times) to 28%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u25baJob Satisfaction took a major hit as well, diving from 57% to 32%, while Job Motivation fell from 56% to 36%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u25baAlmost half of the employees reported elevated stress levels due to work from home practices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/business\/workplace\/there-are-many-mental-health-challenges-in-working-from-home-20200416-p54kkh.html#:~:text=Working%20from%20home%20is%20nothing%20new%20to%20mothers&amp;text=feelings%20of%20social%20isolation%20and,and%20consistency%20of%20your%20sleep.\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">study<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found that employees that worked from home reported increased feelings of social isolation and loneliness, which has been linked to depression and anxiety. Because of the difficulty that people face in \u2018switching off\u2019 from work, they end up facing disruptions in sleep, as well as feelings of exhaustion and burnout.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We feel isolated from our team, we feel isolated from our work and we no longer derive that meaning,\u201d says Nita Chhinzer, professor at University of Guelph.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>That is the largest trigger for things like work dissatisfaction, intention to leave, and it also reduces our productivity because we&#8217;re not just motivated as much as we used to be when we&#8217;d go into the office.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How would we go about reversing all of these damaging effects? Take a look at our <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/work-life-balance-trick.html?yd_source=YDBlog&amp;yd_medium=InternalLinking&amp;yd_content=PandemicWorkFromHomeUnhelpful&amp;yd_campaign=BlogPostPromotion\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">article<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that elaborates on unusual, yet intriguing ways of striking a work-life balance during work from home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Are you looking to build High Performing Resilient Organisations? We can help. Feel free to <\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/business-offerings?mode=corporate&amp;yd_source=YDBlog&amp;yd_medium=InternalLinking&amp;yd_content=PandemicWorkFromHomeUnhelpful&amp;yd_campaign=BlogPostPromotion\"><b><i>get in touch<\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i> for assistance in building a culture of positivity and high performance.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been a year since the WHO declared COVID- 19 as a global pandemic.\u00a0 Hundreds of millions of us have lived through multiple lockdowns and several thousands of us have faced losses, both personal and professional. While there have been massive lay-offs in several companies and pay-cuts eating into employees\u2019 salaries, one of the most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-work-careers","category-work-related-stress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}