#Post 4 : Work From Home: Employee Burnout

Do you really feel that  COVID-19 has driven us to the edge of reconsider our traditional Indian work culture again?

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major game changer, making WFH(Work from home or Telework) a respectable & reshaping the modern office experience.

TCS, Infosys Technologies and Wipro, India’s top software developers, all they say they have transitioned relatively seamlessly from office to work from home. Not surprisingly, this has some employers concerned about maintaining employee productivity. But what they really should be concerned about in this unprecedented situation is a longer term risk: Employee Burnout.

It’s important to acknowledge that being able to work at home is a privilege mostly reserved for the relatively educated and those in specific .

White collar jobs work from Home is making 67%Indians suffer from sleep deprivation, says study.

 Shailaja S, who works in Bengaluru as an Architect, said she has been having anxiety attacks.

“When at work I would see my colleagues, go on lunch or coffee breaks, but now I am sitting at home working continuously; I am always restless, keep checking phone assuming there is message  from office. There is no respite even after working hours, as I keep getting work messages”.

Recently, study illustrated that “They caught helpless in mounting pressures of managing the house and doing office work at the same time. With no support staff or maids to help them in their chores, they are like doing double the work at the same time,” said senior counselling psychologist Shweta Singh, adding , “ it comes no wonder that these people are either mental peace or sleep . Stress along with sleep deprivation is a big no no”.

Insomnia, backaches, restlessness, stress, anxiety are among the side-effects people are facing from prolonged work from home.

“Workload has increased along with responsibilities at home, this has left the people exhausted”.

 

Instead we need new way to think about how to disconnect and avoid WFH burnout. Here are few suggestions:

1.    Create a dedicated WFH space even if its just a chair in your kitchen table.

2.    Use “Rituals” to start & end your workday-

·       Ritual to start your day like- shower and put on your work clothes

·       Make coffee and plan your daily to –do- list.

 

“Rituals” to end your day:

 

·       Close all, browser tabs and clean up your desktop.

·       Set your phone in airplane mode while cooking.

·       Put away your laptop and read a chapter of your book.

 

3.    Set realistic goal and track your progress- The more clearly you can see the positive progress you make each day, the less likely you’ll able to overwork and hit wfh burnout.

4.    Go offline when you need to focus on your most important work.

5.    Stop checking work emails and chats post working hours.

6.    Follow 52/17 rule where study have shown that people practising this had really progresses out in their productivity taking 17 minutes break after every 52 minutes of work.

Therefore, in these above suggested ways you can try to overcome your Work From Home Burnout steadily if you are not so much yoga and meditation enthusiasts just like me.

                                                                        by Akanksha Singh