Lock down is extending and it’s the version 4.0 and no one knows how many more variations are yet to come with all the mishmash of colored zones and phases of relaxation.

I still remember the time when work from home was an entitlement and even before requesting it you had to make sure you are really prepared for it “infrastructurally”. Nevertheless, the times have come where you are granted this benefit to stay home and work at your own convenience; a few firms even going to the extent to avow indefinite work from homes. Overall, what does it mean? This pandemic was a locus for huge firms to perform their stress testing of majority (rather say all) employees working from home. Now the decisions can be made, whether to cut down the infrastructure on commercial properties, or invest on software to ensure smooth business functioning.  

This also tells that; as a working individual, to work peacefully, my house should consist of a small office cabin too. May be the upcoming properties will now have apartments that are referred as 1BHKO or 2BHKO or whatever number of bedrooms or living rooms but plus one office room is a must or may be more depending on the number of working individuals in the family and their compatibility with each other. Additionally, you can also look up on the Vaastu and apply Feng Shui to the home office for better hike in next appraisal.

Having said that, if one can work from home, that professional can work from any corner of the world. So, do we really need skilled personnel “on-site” now. Yeah, tough but true; many might have their dreams crashing down, waiting on the H1Bs or expecting EU visa approvals or some other work permit. Happy realization but it might not be happening, at any rate not in the near future, at least not until the pandemic settles (and that’s what no one knows).  Will it really settle or we just live with it?

The other aspect of this change is the amount of time we all have in hand and how it’s been utilized. Talking about myself, in my work plus travel days, my biggest complaint was “I have no time”. I wanted to exercise but I have no time, I wanted to upgrade my skills but I have no time, I want to write more articles but I have no time and my complaints went on and on. Now that no travel is needed, I do spend my time making a routine planner, working hard to stick to that but missing it every single day. I have so much time now but still “I have no time”. Why is that so? Because it’s the lack of dedication not time, and it was always the lack of dedication, never time.

When I combine this lack of dedication with ample time and top it with the work from home footing, I am provoked to ponder on the impact of productivity it has. Since I am at home, I can wake up anytime, I can login any time plus I can log out “anytime”. No one is left with a work schedule and no one is up on your head monitoring you at your desk. What happens then? Just like Darwin theory, from here on it will be “Survival of the fittest”. However hard work is done, if it is not presented the smart way, kick out is sure. And think about it, how traumatic it will be if done over a Zoom call.

Besides, if thought about it the other way, we are still fitting in our personal lives with our work lives, the only difference is that pre-covid days, our personal life was around the work life and now in bits and pieces somewhere between the work life.