If there is one long-lasting impact of the pandemic it is how work-life balance is at a point of no return and more than mere memo jargon. It is widely acknowledged that physical appearances are no longer mandatory for productive deals and burning the midnight oil too has become conditional.
While WFH, work from home, is a new reality that is increasingly being normalised, it is a hybrid work model that is a realistic path going forward.
Incidentally, WFH alone is not all that it is cut out to be, ask writers and freelancers who have been doing it from pre-pandemic times. It is a lonely space. There is a missing social construct, the benefits of engaging with peers and like-minded people by stepping outside the confines of a home cannot be underscored.
Working in an office is like a team sport, with all hands-on deck, and countries and companies are now rightly flirting with a healthy mix of the two.
Where we stand today, that path is the way ahead because COVID’s other lesson was productivity. It made slaving at the desk for long hours for maximum output, redundant. With no pay cut, there was an incentive to keep shorter hours without derailing work.
Walking the talk
In the post-pandemic era, it is a lesson people are not willing to forget easily. A new McKinsey report on the hybrid model says that most employees prefer to work from home three days a week.
Yet going against the current flow, in a bid to push economic reform, Greece has started a six-day week for some industries. This allows employees to work up to 48 hours a week against the previous 40, a norm in most countries.
Perhaps it needs to look at Iceland where a trial 4-day week between 2015 and 2019 was an ‘overwhelming success’ and a majority of the country’s workforce have moved to shorter hours but with the same take back home.
In the UAE, a four-and-a-half-day week for the last two years has not just increased productivity in offices but also decreased the burden for students. This shortened week applies even to schools where the weekend begins by Friday noon.
In case of adverse weather or unanticipated disasters, both teachers and students shift seamlessly to remote teaching, a by-product of the pandemic that has made teaching flexible.
Schools have not lagged in completing the curriculum nor have they asked students to come in for some extra coaching. There could be no better example of a nation walking the talk on work-life balance.
Well-being though is not a new word, but it is only in the present that it is getting its due. In the last couple of years, increasing incidents of young deaths especially from cardiac arrests have added to the post-pandemic vulnerability.
A rude awakening
Whether it is the millennials who are calling it out or the older generation who previously remained silent, burnout is real, and stress is finally in the lexicon. Among the top three reasons people left their jobs as per a Pew Research Center survey of workers who quit in 2021 was not feeling respected.
In countries like India, the workforce has been conditioned to labour above and beyond both its pay and hours without questioning the disparity. It starts early, from a student looking to get into engineering or medical colleges to when they are employed, the grind is in some cases almost exploitative.
People are prioritising themselves and their health. That can never be wrong
Much like minimum wages, legislation regulating work hours in the country is not the most stringent and the limit of 48 hours per week is on the higher side. And this is only the official version. Despite the global rumblings, it may still be early days in the country to understand if that conditioning has got a rude awakening.
The increasing emphasis on stress management is not without operational risks. For generations like the Millennials and Gen Z, mental health is also a term flung casually which makes it tough to sift the genuine from the misunderstood.
Not just that, frequent harking and misuse of words like depression take away the importance the issue deserves in global workplaces.
A win-win for all
The imagined fragility of this section of people is seen in their snubbing of jobs that tick all the boxes, even as beginners. Others exploit the work-life balance debate and make it tougher for those who have genuine grievances. Quiet quitting is a combination of both factors.
Among those who can greatly benefit from the flexibility and a hybrid model are women who have over the years dropped out from the workforce for reasons beyond their control.
It is a win-win for all. They can effectively be in two places at one time and companies can retain some of their best talent. The onus is now on the corporate world and how willing it is to be flexible.
Several studies are being done to understand both shortened weeks and a culture that encourages a healthy mix of remote working and in-person attendance and they are a good indicator that the issue has finally got the prominence it deserves.
People are prioritising themselves and their health. That can never be wrong.
