Life after #WFH: Putting away foldable tables at home and letting kids have free run of the place

After COVID-19 there is a heightened focus on home planning with dedicated areas for study, home offices and library spaces and an emphasis on ample open spaces.

Humans adapt to new situations, so when the Covid-19 lockdown threw up work-from-home solutions most of us got cracking on creating comfortable spaces for ourselves to work in peace amid family-fuelled chaos. Backdrops of rooms in Zoom calls suddenly got all-too-interesting as we wondered what Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation was doing next to Sid Shapira’s Danny Dog: A Rescue Dog Finds His Forever Home on that stern, no-nonsense veep's bookshelf or why the six-foot grizzly-bearish operations head chose a light pink ceramic owl planter for his Syngonium plant.

None of us is also likely to forget the s*x toy (that's what it looked like) making international news when a woman discussing unemployment during the pandemic forgot to remove it from a shelf behind her during a BBC Wales online interview.

On a serious note, the anxiety over the deadly pandemic was palpable, coupled with layoff worries and mental-health concerns as families huddled together for weeks under one roof. But mercifully, creativity and quick-thinking won the day for a few millennials we know, many of whom are now happily tripping back to their offices.

Fantastic flexibility

When lockdown began, the first thing Dipttii Khanna, 41, founder of Mumbai-based Dipttii Khanna Designs, did was create a special table for remote work and called it "Desky." Based on the alphabet, Desky was personalized for each individual. It gave her the flexibility to work from any corner of the house as it could be carried around easily, “ensuring convenience and productivity.”

Dipttii Khanna (Photo courtesy: Dipttii Khanna Designs)

Rohini Bagla, 40, founder of Mumbai’s Studio Rohini Bagla, too, quickly realised how important it was to give her family some space. As she and her husband worked remotely and their two children studied online, each person was allocated a separate room with functional workspaces. “We opted for folding tables.” While some of the furniture, such as beds and wardrobes, remained fixed in place, desks were mounted on walls for maximum space and convenience.

Keen to create an environment that was not just functional but also aesthetically pleasing, she decorated each room with plants and interesting, colourful accessories and holders. That “brought a sense of order and positivity within the home. The brightness brought us joy, ensuring that the atmosphere remained uplifting rather than gloomy.”

All this while, Mehul Raja, now 43, chief marketing officer of online education company Imarticus Learning, was figuring out the three essentials of WFH - a comfortable chair, a good desk, and a reliable internet connection. The latter was of course the “biggest challenge” because iffy connectivity forced him to switch his internet partner twice in the first month.

Convinced that getting comfortable at home would make the return to work somewhat agonising, especially as he got used to spending more time with his daughter, then three years old, and wife, Raja gave the space an office-separated-from-home feel with plants and art (works of advertising stalwarts for brand campaigns).

Not without its drawbacks

Of course, those pain points were obvious. Architect and urban planner Virat V. Bhute, 30, associate manager, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, found space too limited in his 2BHK apartment. His computer system fitted on a short, narrow table, forcing him to sit on the floor. The long hours resulted in neck pain, literally and absolutely.

With a highly collaborative and hands-on role, he found it challenging to perform effectively in a WFH setup as the nature of his work involved extensive site visits, direct interactions with clients and stakeholders, and on-site assessments. Lack of clear boundaries between working and non-working hours set by the office added to the challenge. “Being confined to one place without any social environment made it a depressing and monotonous period.”

Disruption in daily routines led to sleepless nights. The workload felt “overwhelming,” leaving Bhute exhausted and mentally drained. Excessive anxiety and pressure to meet work deadlines made him lose track of cigarette consumption patterns. “Constant fatigue was evident through shortness of breath and overall exhaustion.”

Khanna also found it taxing to manage projects with “just Zoom calls and virtual meetings. “We were stuck to only designing and not executing for that moment.”One of the advantages, however, for her was that there was a lot of personal insight to “create a lot of designs, which we executed post-lockdown.”

Back to business

Since she didn’t have a permanent work-from-home setup, Khanna’s transition back to office had no major impact. “The household remained unaffected, maintaining its usual routine. The only element that shifted was my portable work-from-home desk, which could easily be relocated from one spot to another. Therefore, the absence of a permanent work-from-home arrangement did not disrupt anyone's daily life,” she says.

(Photo by Pulkit Sehgal; Courtesy Dipttii Khanna Designs)

Formal office environments, she feels, create more opportunities for brainstorming and smooth coordination. “Although, I was able to save time on commuting and could be more flexible with my schedule during WFH, it was also challenging to balance work and family responsibilities. My family members had to get used to me being around all the time, which took some adjustment.”

It was smooth sailing to the workplace for Bagla. "The spaces we created at home were flexible with furniture that could be folded and tucked away neatly. Some pieces are still being used and are now a part of the system,” she says.

At the moment Bhute is happy to get off the floor and allow his “office to only exploit me during working hours. I can have a good night's sleep and enjoy a good social environment as and when I want,” he says.

One of his takeaways from WFH is that India has a critical need for proper protocols and guidelines for remote work to prevent employee exploitation and prioritise their health and well-being. “WFH arrangements may be well-suited for the IT sector, but might not be feasible or effective for sectors that rely heavily on on-site labour and employee presence for development and operations.”

Raja is happy that his home office has been dismantled, giving his daughter abundant space to run around and play in.

“I learnt a lot from the lockdown and WFH experience. I know now that while I am capable of working effectively from anywhere, it is also important for me to have a dedicated workspace and to set boundaries between work and family time,” he says.

Adapting to changes

Then there’s the question of changes post Covid-19

Khanna’s clients going in for home renovations are making a conscious effort to address the aspects they found missing in their homes during the lockdown period.

There is a heightened focus on home planning with dedicated areas for study, home offices and library spaces and an emphasis on ample open spaces, she adds.

Balconies have become something of a trend, an attempt to make outdoor spaces and greenscapes an extension of homes.

She feels this shift marks “a significant change in the overall design approach, reflecting the evolving priorities and preferences of homeowners.”

Bagla is encouraging her clients to use work tables or concealed setups in rooms to accommodate laptops, notebooks for scribbling and books to read. After Covid, everyone, she says, has some sort of workspace at home.

All said and done, the world has learnt valuable lessons during this turbulent period, especially about the importance of sustainability and wise utilisation of resources. “We found ourselves engaging in various tasks independently, aligning with the ongoing campaign for self-sufficiency. Through this experience, we discovered an untapped potential within ourselves — that, when channeled effectively, enables us to achieve far more than we could have imagined.

“The WFH situation during the lockdown fostered a newfound sense of patience and understanding among individuals. With everyone sharing living spaces 24/7, it necessitated constant adjustment and adaptation. Consequently, people embraced patience and a sense of calmness. This organic process of adaptation and coexistence had a remarkable effect, enhancing understanding and strengthening familial bonds,” Bagla concludes.