Possible Struggles of going back to Office Life

It's been 1.5 years now that we are working from home and we have made ourselves accustomed to our new routine. We have adjusted ourselves to work from our bedrooms or another possible part of our home while taking care of our children or doing other daily chores. Some of us even have switched to a New Job considering working from home as a current option. But now when the situation is improving, organizations are planning to get their employees back into the office, some of them have even done it already. But it's easier said than done! Like it was difficult to get used to working from home, there would definitely be some possible struggles in going back to office life.

Relocating to your committed location

The job market has made a lot of headlines this year i.e post COVID, not only that people have bagged lucrative packages but they actually had multiple offers to choose from. One prime reason was “ Work from Home”! Everyone knew that at least the current year would be working from home and hence they considered options with no geographical or shift compulsion. People in the North have considered jobs in the West and South considering the package and work, parking the location problem to be worried about later on.

So, if offices open now, there will be a lot of lift and shift as till now the job change was only the change of voices on the phone, a laptop, boss and work but now the scenery around will also need to be changed. Bachelors will be looking for rent apartments/ PGs or hostels, married people will have to now consider plans for their partner in case they are also working and people will kids now have to consider their kids school along with other arrangements in the new city.

Daily Commute will again come to haunt us! Say Good-Bye to the beauty sleep!

One of the best parts I liked about work from home is that we can wake up at 9:45 for a 10AM shift and can do just fine, nobody will ever even know. But this cloaking will be gone once you have to present physically in the office, all neat and clean, well dressed, and most importantly on time!

Once again we will be chasing shuttles, trains, driving early to beat the traffic, and that too way early in the morning, hours before our current wake-up time.

This is going to be especially difficult for the people living in suburbs and commuting daily 1-2 hours one side of the travel. So for a shift of 10, we will be leaving at 8:15ish and for that, we have to wake up at at least 6:45. Why it sounds like hell?

Sticking to your seats

Now when we are working from home we are accustomed to roaming around here and there as per our mood and need of the hour. You can be cooking, making coffee while you are taking a call as a mute listener, can take your laptop around your house and set up as per your mood but when you are in the office things will change.

You will have a fixed seat where you’ll have to be for most of your time and will be taking calls from your seat, have to be civilized and all decent. What's the fun in that?

The prying eyes

Pre Covid times organizations avoided work from home for a primary reason of efficiency that as per se majorly comes from continuous monitoring of the employee to keep them disciplined. While you are on the floor you are always conscious of being watched by the people around you, especially by your boss. So, if you are saying you are busy, you better look busy! The way you behave in the office certainly leaves a mark about you. So, get yourself prepared for leaving a mark by your presence and behavior this time.

No parallel Leisures

During this tough time, Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and other OTT platforms have certainly become the soothing space for us. If there is something going bad or something you can’t figure out, Netflix or Prime can definitely show us the way in form of any movie or series that can patch the mood and sometimes the whole person as well. To an extent, we have become quite dependent on our new friends, and considering this is not part of the authentic office culture our new friends may have to go from our daily life leaving only occasional visits on weekends and post-work hours (that are only if we have enough energy left after a whole day of work and travel)

Bbye Bedroom Comfort and Welcome Floor decorums!

Currently, most of us have either the work desk in our rooms or we work from the comfortable couch or bed, needless to say, there will be no such things in the office. So, no occasional lie-downs in case of feeling tired and to make the situation even more uncomfortable would be the floor decorums. No putting up your feet on the table, listening to music on at a certain decibel and only in headphones, no raising voice, dress up decently, and so on.

Why all of a sudden I started to miss my current life and the perks of it!