The 'Work From Home' Problem

-
The 'Work From Home' Problem
    So like most adults around the world, my parents have been working from home since the start of the pandemic. Like most things on this planet, Working From Home has the good and the bad. The good is of course the luxury of being at home, working on your couch or bed. The bad is the pain of taking care of children whilst working. But to be honest, I think Working From Home (WFH) definitely has its fair share of problems. Some of the problems have changed the way we work and the way we study while some have changed the overall behaviour of humans. Here are some of the problems with the new trend (law) that is Work From Home. 

    The first problem is the routine. Imagine waking up, in a pre-pandemic world, think back to your daily routine when going to work. Now compare that with your WFH routine. What is the difference? It is of course the commute. Your usual 5-8km commute has been shortened to just the few metres between your bed and your home office. The commute is like a portal. It acts as the barrier between your home and your office and gives your brain a signal. To switch from 'Comfort Home' mode to 'Focus Work' mode. But in a WFH world, there is no portal between work and home and no signal for your brain to switch mode. This gives us a sort of procrastination and laziness and the feeling of waking up late because that signal is gone. It is no wonder why the first day heading back to office after a WFH routine is such an absolute pain for working adults. The reality to wake up and to cross that seemingly invisible portal is dreadful for most...

    The second problem is schedule. In a pre-pandemic world, every working adult and growing child will have a schedule. For adults, its be at this meeting at 2pm, leave work by 6pm etc. For students its, math class for the next 2 hours and be at your respective classrooms by 3pm etc. But in a pandemic world, there is no schedule. This kind of ties in with the whole routine problem . When there is no portal, there is no signal. Now imagine this signal as a spectrum. On one side, you have the procrastinators (the ones in the first problem). On the other side, you have workaholics ( the ones in the second problem). People who choose to start work at 9am and end their work at 10pm. This can have a huge effect on not just yourself but your family. Ever heard of a Work-Life Balance (WLB). I'm sure you have and I think those three words speak for themselves. So to help you achieve a WLB, I will explain that more in The 'Work From Home' Solution. 

    The third problem is the problem of interaction and the lack of collaboration. Working and Studying has become more and more isolated than ever before. And everything is being (e)-lised on the web. Books become e-books, Mail become e-mail and a whole lot more. This causes a sort of crack to appear in our society. Business Meetings aren't in a room and everyone throws ideas around but instead on a 14-inch laptop. Hell, even Learning! When even learning is done online, how will interaction come to be? No discussions, no friends, no passing of notes in class? I fear that as more stuff is pushed into the online world, we lack social interaction and will soon become isolated as a whole and maybe, just maybe, in around 20 years, our present-day classrooms will turn into Online Meetings. Where a whiteboard is a 14-inch laptop, your teacher could be teaching at home and you will possibly never get the type of social life, we, experience in our current 2021 world.

    The fourth and final problem is the problem of Home-Life. A word I just created for this analogy. Home-Life is when everything on this planet is brought to the comfort of your home, a sort of continuation from the third problem. For example, in a pre-pandemic world, how would you do your shopping? Usually, its heading out of your house, heading to a mall and walking pass hundreds of shops, right? In a WFH world, you could be working, head onto your phone (maybe even your computer), and click 'Buy' and in less than a week (maybe even less than 2 days), it arrives at your house. Shopping is just one of hundreds of examples. Like say, Reading. No need to head to a library or a bookshop, open an app on your phone! Maybe even travelling! No need to spend thousands on flights, hotels and tickets, just head onto Google Earth, pop in the location, and you can literally pretend you are on vacation! (I know this example is ridiculous but its to piss people off...) This type of Home-Life is horrible in the long-run. Sure, we can all become Couch Potatoes but everything can be done from the comfort of your home. Then what is the point? The point in building long high-speed train lines or mega shopping malls and large cruises. I believe under this, the world outside the home would crumble. The lesson to take away from this problem should be, its not the destination, but the journey, but its not not the journey, but the experience that counts, the experience with the joy, happiness and memories...

The 'Work From Home' Solution - Out on 15th June 2021


Happy Reading!

Farren's Personal Corner: https://farrenpersonalcorner.blogspot.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deadvertising Zarm Zam's Blogger (89) - Shorts

-
  Deadvertising Zarm Zam's Blogger (89)     It was the 21st of April 2021 and I was casually scrolling through my Internet Feed when I saw a great injustice done to me...     I grabbed my phone and started to blog this exact article you're reading here. We all know who is Zarm Zam, he has a Opinion Corner but wait... where's he opinion? It's only random history facts only a history nerd like Zarm Zam would bother to read about.      Next up, let's talk about the number of views he has. Now I don't have an exact number but I will predict he has 250 views. Meanwhile on this Opinion Corner with actual Opinions and blog articles that not takes you a minute to read like on his Corner but at least 6 minutes, I have a whopping 2400 views!      Next up, look at the beautiful Arial font I use to write my blog. Then look at Zarm Zam's default font that he uses. With its stupidly sharp edges and curved numeral digits.      Final...
Read more

Modern British Declinism (Part 1)

-
Image
Since World War II, the UK has seen the subsequent decline of their global power status, especially through the lost of their colonies which once made up 25% of the world's landmass. However, over the last 15 years, British Declinism has accelerated greatly thanks largely in part to economic decline, political divisions and internal conflicts resulting in economic deceleration and stalled growth. In this four part series, I will ‘attempt’ to explain how the UK got into this position and what it means for the world.   To provide further clarification, I separate British Declinism into two parts. First is Colonial Declinism which occured from the end of WW2 in 1945 to the Handover of Hong Kong 1997 (a series for another time perhaps?). The other is Modern Declinism (MBD) which traces its origins to the 2008 Great Recession. One metric I will be referencing a lot in this article is that of G7 countries, especially that of France and Germany because of their relative population a...
Read more

The Broken Mental Health System

-
The first two paragraphs are an adaptation of an original comment I wrote on the r/Singapore subreddit. I am awfully worried for students like me. In my opinion, the problem with our Mental Health  treatment machine is that those who need proper help fail to get enough of it meanwhile those who need not require help find these measures useless and boring and in some cases, further a adding to the stress students face. Imagine you're a student (or maybe you already are one) and you find yourself suffering from early signs of depression. There are four options for you. Talk to your Form Teacher, a School Counselor, seek Private Help or (unfortunately) give up. We know that students are more unlikely to open up about their mental health than adults (65% of adults do, only 32% of students do) therefore rendering the first two options redundant. Seeking Private Help is also useless since families are either unable to afford such help or choose not to, adopting a 'theres nothing wron...
Read more