Social Economics in Uncertain Times: — WFH
Part One — What has WFH done to us as a society? This series analyzes the behavior changes that our Uncertain Times have brought to our lives.
“We’re all working from home offices now,” my cousin laughed to me. “Whatever that means.”
Before March, “WFH” was viewed as a “working but not quite working” situation. The reality is that WFH is not quite working in the office, and not a vacation day. When WFH became the norm, there was no standard for WFH expectations. What do managers expect from employees on a Wednesday versus a Friday afternoon? Does seasonality matter? What will managers expect after the summer
1) You’re always “on”.
Suddenly, no one knew what to expect. If you got an email from your boss at 7PM, should you answer it? If a fire drill occurs on the weekend, do you volunteer for it?
Because of the combination of lockdown and WFH, the work week began to change. Why did we have 5-day work weeks anymore? Countries like Singapore and India had 6-day work weeks. The boundaries around the work week and weekend disappeared. No longer could you leave the office to start the weekend with a Friday happy hour. The lines are now blurred and a work week depends on how much you wanted to work.
2) Turn on, or off your video?
Video calls are now the new dreaded meetings. During the early days, many struggled with being unable to sign onto Zoom, Google Meet, or Webex platforms. In desperate technological cases, you would call in from a phone. Sharing one’s screen became a roulette spin — sometimes you could share your deck, other times you would have to PDF it.
Despite the range of technical skills, security, and differences, we all adapted fast because we needed to communicate. But what are the new video meeting rules ? Before, Toastmasters was the golden standard to running meetings. But now, all meetings were digital. Is it impolite to leave your video off when everyone else’s video is on? Does everyone mute on calls with more than 5 people? How do you interrupt politely in a conversation or know if someone is listening on the other side?
3) Presence has changed.
Zoom has changed the idea of presence. If you are at home with your loved ones and pets, you are physically around them. But you may also be working from 9AM-8PM. You may be visible on a video screen as pixels interacting with other pixels, talking with sound through your headset to your coworkers. You are present at work, while being physically present at home.
Does your presence at work take away from your presence at home? If we think about this in terms of Schrodinger’s Cat’s paradox, are you in two places at the same time? Can you truly be present in two places at the same time?
Liked my post? It’s a preview of my new book called Social Economics in Uncertain Times: How to Make Work and Life Decisions in the New Normal. Social Economics will be available on Amazon in September 2020. Pre-Order now on Amazon! And follow me on Twitter @ameli_sans.
