Work-from-home allows employees to juggle home chores with office work; what is your problem?

The CEO of a consumer appliances company was telling me this week that he cannot wait for his 7,000-strong workforce to fully resume working from office. I presumed that this was owing to low productivity or drop in sales. But, the reason was neither. This chief executive was simply annoyed with his staff balancing household chores with work-from-home (WFH).

“One employee was washing dishes when I called. Another employee was soothing a crying baby during an online meeting. It is better that they work from office,” was his response. This included male and female employees.

He also candidly admitted that there was no impact whatsoever on such activities on the overall productivity or daily tasks/assignments. So, what is his problem?

When one is in WFH mode, how does it matter if he/she takes a break to attend to a child or other duties at home?

We are no longer in the 18th century where household work is to be done by only women (mother, wife, sister) in the house. Everyone is meant to split these chores and WFH gives more opportunities to do that.

But, amid WFH, several senior corporates are now considering full physical offices only to prevent their staff from doing house work during the working day.

Mind you, this house-work does not mean an employee taking a break for 1-2 hours during office hours to start making an elaborate meal or deep cleaning the house. It is merely a 10-15 minutes break, probably one or twice to attend to family members or do quick washing or cleaning.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, WFH is preferred for non-customer-facing roles across Indian companies since it is cost-effective. So, it is indeed perplexing to me that top executives want to let go of this practice because of their own prejudices.

All is not well purely because of the rudimentary views of some senior officials across Indian companies.

The head of finance at an insurance company told me that he was ‘shocked’ when an employee skipped a ‘virtual team lunch’ citing that he was busy cooking one Saturday in a particular month. He said “WFH is spoiling these guys. We need to start physical offices soon”.

This was despite Saturday being a weekly holiday and this ‘virtual lunch’ being a regular affair since March 2020.

Well, it was not shocking to me. If someone chose to spend their Saturday cooking or cleaning, how does it matter to his/her company? Employees are not required to report their daily tasks at home to their organisation 24/7.

It is understandable if there is an informal briefing over a working lunch with senior management presence on an important strategic matter. This meeting cannot be skipped. But when it is just informal office banter over a video call, why shouldn’t the employee get the freedom to opt out of it on some occasions?

On one hand, companies wax eloquent about gender diversity, inclusiveness and work-life balance while on the other the mindset still doesn’t seem to have changed. The expectation that an employee working from home must be glued to their laptop 24/7 is unacceptable. Employees have a life beyond work and they are only paid for working 8/9 hours a day.

Another fact is that toxic masculinity also seems to be seeping deep into some workplaces. The head-human resources (male) of a Mumbai-based edtech firm recalled how his entire team including the company’s co-founder made fun of the fact that he chose to take half-day to make bland food for his daughter who had contracted Jaundice in November.

“It was sort of an ‘inside-joke’ in the company for almost two months. During every other virtual meeting, my team (including women) would mock me saying ‘see, he is becoming a housewife now’. How does it matter to my organisation how I utilise my day? My wife is abroad for official work. Yes, work is equally important to me as well but does that mean I ignore my duties as a father? I completed all my daily tasks on time and only then took the rest of the day off. It is infuriating how this ‘flexible work hours’ and ‘work from anywhere’ concepts exist only on paper,” he added.

The fact that women predominantly still do the household work across Indian families is well established. According to a 2019 Time Use Survey by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 81.2 percent of Indian women spent their daily time in unpaid activities at home while only 26.1 percent men spent time on this. Here, only 5.6 percent of men cooked compared to 75.2 percent of the women.

WFH was probably able to bring in some changes in this behaviour with this arrangement also nudging men in the household to lend a helping hand. Since maids were unavailable in the initial phases of the lockdown, it was only natural that men too share the household chores. This was especially true in homes with both the husband and wife working.

But, probably the organisational culture in the country has not evolved to accept this fact.

Remote working has its disadvantages. You do not get to meet your team physically so quick ideation and team building get hampered. Virtual interactions do exist but those can’t replace a short tête-à-tête between two colleagues.

But, employees using WFH structure to also help out at home is the least of concerns for a company and its management. Yes, if he/she is only doing household chores and not meeting basic productivity targets, go ahead and reprimand them. Else, let them breathe!

If you pull up an employee for doing household duties only because you are not used to doing it or think that these are menial tasks, it is you who is part of the problem.