"Please prepare yourself to come back to the office any time soon!"
When I read that message for the first time from my office WhatsApp group, I wondered why did you do this to yourself? Why? Of course, I am pleading, internally, to the right honorable bosses.
The idea of working from home full-time was just a blip, a wet dream for many blue-collar digital age workers out there. Lambasted, diminished, a non-sense talk. Then, Covid-19 came, and suddenly businesses lauded All hail Work from Home!
The virus raged in mid-March. Employees do not have a choice other than to WFH to keep businesses going. Setting up a home office sometimes includes buying tables, setting up fast home internet, a dedicated workspace as they called it, some of it with our expenses (though it is supposed to be a working infrastructure), or else...
The first few weeks of WFH-ing was a bit confusing. We suddenly got lonely without the companion of our colleagues. In-person meetings were reduced to a bare minimum. Exasperated because we are locked in our homes with limited activities.
Yet, after 3 months, I can say this. Yes, this pandemic situation is catastrophic, heart-shattering, but my work-life balance has never been better. It has been a long time that I have felt this way, but somehow the company wants to give WFH up. Soon! Regardless, hopefully they, who are at the top of the food chain, rather than reading from the big business magazines, would hear our case.
The case for your business
Yes, it is quite ironic that we have to present the case for business first among other things because money runs the world, right? If anything, what I have learned from the business school is it's all about profit. Lucky you, WFH will ramp up revenue through productivity boost and lower cost. No more thinking about rent (especially now, if you do care about the health of your employees, you have to sit them 2 meters apart which takes up even more space than before).
Businesses do a big favor to the environment as evidenced by lower consumption in energy, meaning less environmental footprint which FYI has done more than your tree planting initiative. Besides, Karen does not have to complain about how hot the central office aircon is and Chad does not have to wear her Adidas hoodie because it's too cold.
How about cooperation and communication? Well, there are tons of apps that have been used to communicate remotely. The only difference now is some people are maybe in their pajamas instead of a full-suit. And what if they don't use the 8-hour work for.... work? Is it a surprise for you that we don't glue our hands to our keyboard and eyes to the monitor? Although this is a 'modern sweatshop', the metrics of our output can be easily quantified: the data are there for you to analyze.
The case for our health and well-being
