In Depth | Coronavirus pandemic: The mental agony of working from home and how to deal with it

The coronavirus pandemic has united people across the world in an unusual way. The difference between humans and wild animals is their capability to communicate articulately through language. This has been the basis of formation of communities, societies, clusters, states and countries throughout the globe since pre-historic times. But now, a fatal virus seems to be effortlessly multiplying and undoing the creations of man.

For instance, the only way (that research till now has shown) to stop coronavirus from spreading is social distancing, which requires humans to give up their one great social skill. As a result, several countries, including India, have announced a lockdown, shutting down the operations of the entire country, barring essential services such as food, water, medical aid, and money. As of now, India’s economy is running like the engine of a car which has no wheels – it will consume the fuel the tank currently has, but it will almost be impossible for the car to go to the nearest gas station for a refill, the moment the fuel burns out.

On the micro level, industries across the spectrum have been affected adversely, with the exception of Netflix, I suppose. The manufacturing sector is in doldrums with large units shutting down with no labour force to run it. Another sector, which requires the presence of manual labour, is agriculture, and is bound to take a hit with no people to harvest the current Rabi crop, and none to sow the next Kharif crop (in case the lockdown is extended).

Some other sectors, such as IT, Media, Consulting, etc. have asked their employees to work from home. What was once the dream of every disgruntled employee — who has to fit in school pickups, doctor appointments or long commutes around office hours, especially during Mumbai’s floods or Delhi’s scorching heat — now seems to be becoming very problematic. Don’t believe me?

What could possibly be wrong about working in your pyjamas, cutting out traffic blues on Monday, laying back on your couch with your laptop, with a bottle of chilled beer and a bowl of tortilla chips by your side? Precisely that.

I spoke to professionals from various backgrounds and mental health experts to understand the blues of Working from Home (WFH). The idea of a digital nomad may be alluring on the outside, but has many pitfalls:

Working in an opaque bubble

Social distancing has stripped us humans of our fundamental way to interact. For many of us, our work connects us with people from our local, geographical communities. For instance, when you stop commuting, you stop exchanging pleasantries with people across the block, you don’t bump into someone in the metro who turns out to be an old friend, and you do not get a scoop of local news from your Uber driver or rickshawale bhaiya. These things might seem silly, but the comfort of an innocent smile from a stranger at the end of a bad day could mean a lot for some people.

The withdrawal of basic interaction makes us work harder to stay connected. It is not as effortless as a coffee break with a colleague at work.

An artist's impression of what isolation feels like. (Image: NW18 graphic)

Beyond the lack of interaction with colleagues, there is no flow of ideas by osmosis, no overhearing, no people thinking out loud. One of the most popular headlines that India remembers today was the result of an exasperated editor thinking out loud during an edit meet, a journalist at a renowned newspaper had once told me.

Although working alone in a room may reduce the interruptions, it is however these interactions which make you multifaceted; otherwise you are a disembodied online avatar delivering its deliverables.

Consequently, the sense of belonging to a community is lost and isolation is rife.

A 30-year-old journalist told me, “I miss conversations in these depressing times. Living alone and being locked up with a constant sense of premonition and fear is depressing. In such times, seeing people helps.”

Expert advice

When asked about this, Sadia Saeed, Founder and Chief Psychologist, Inner Space Counseling, told Moneycontrol, “The situation is unprecedented and obviously, the sense of isolation has set in because suddenly you are not talking face-to-face with people.”

Read Also: Mental illness cases rise in India after COVID-19 outbreak

“So, the feeling of isolation is natural. And, I feel a good way to work with that is to start building a relationship with yourself. A lot of times, we are so busy in doing our jobs that we just forget to be. We forget who we are, and how to exist freely. We don’t even realise that we are collecting so many anxieties under the surface. When we are alone, when we are away from everything, away from our routine, then these anxieties tend to come up to the surface,” she added.

As a psychologist, I see this as an opportunity to build a relationship with yourself. It is a good time to begin yoga, or meditation, to look within.

No carrot, only stick?

Another drawback of working from home is the lack of positive reinforcement in the absence of a feedback and encouragement loop. This leads to an unusual pressure to constantly be online or at least appear busy, or otherwise prove you’re spending your time in a productive way.

Besides, there is perpetual fear of failure hanging by your shoulder during this time. One mistake, and you risk being labelled complacent by your boss, just because of the notion that you are in a more comfortable and less alert atmosphere.

The lack of feedback from line managers gives remote workers no benchmark to judge their progress and leads to increased feelings of anxiety, with the concern as to whether they were up to standard – especially when the fear of being laid off is looming large with a double-edged sword of the coronavirus lockdown and a battered economy. This, in turn, causes remote workers to question their worth and leads to low self-confidence.

Expert advice:

According to Sadia, while it’s natural to feel so, communication with your immediate manager is key in such a scenario.

“Having more communications with the boss and expressing how you feel, expressing that you miss the feedback is important. Because of WFH, people do have spare time on their hands. So, they’ll be open to this conversation. They realise that fear and the sense of missing out is a reality. I am sure people will have a more compassionate response to this also,” she said.

Work where you live, live where you work

The difficulty in setting boundaries between work and home has triggered anxiety in many. A primary reason for this is people’s inability to unplug or “switch off” for the day.

A 26-year-old filmmaker told me, “Apps like MS Teams, Slack, WhatsApp can make it seem like your boss and colleagues, sitting kilometres away, are sitting right beside you on your desk or bed. They know where I am at all times, which makes me available to work and answer calls at all times. I can’t really call in sick (with all the fear of coronavirus infection floating around). I can’t really switch my phone, laptop or even myself off. And in today's competitive times with rigid deadlines and unempathetic bosses, switching off is rarely an option.”

“Working from home has invaded my place of sanctuary and sanctity,” he added.

Read Also: Working from home, IT employees battle job pressures & mental health issues 

A study by the Hans Bockler Foundation has shown that working from home leads to increased total hours on the job. Besides, it points out that for mothers, working from home translates to more child care; and for fathers, it means less time spent with the family as a result of additional hours devoted to work. Not only does this take us a step back in dislodging parochial gender roles, it also cuts into the free time of either parent, and may even disrupt their sleep schedule.

A 23-year-old event manager told me, “If you are at home, you tend to get involved in what is going on at your home and other chores, which tend to affect productivity.”

Expert advice:

“For a lot of people, with children and families at home, WFH gets very difficult. People are expected to work from home, but with kids, working is impossible,” Sadia said.

“When people go to work, they drop their kids at a day-care or a school, and then you go to office, so that compartmentalisation is there, and it’s easier to work. Now, households are noisier, there is a lot more demand to take care of the daily chores, or take care of the kids, since you are at home. Naturally, it’s an uncomfortable situation,” she added.

“Staying at home is not necessarily super-comfortable. And, while we all crib about commuting and other things, we all also like to get out and have a different life. Now, everything has merged into one,” she smiled.

“However, from a mental health perspective, everything can be used as an opportunity to rebuild certain connections and relationships. Also, if you look at it from another perspective, you probably won’t get this kind of time with your parents, or with your children. Who knows until when again?” Sadia said.

Out of sight, out of mind?

Another emotion that remote workers feel is lack of trust and the feeling of being left out. According to a study published in Harvard Business Review, 52 percent of the people who worked from home reported that colleagues mistreat them or leave them out.

Specifically, they worry that co-workers say bad things behind their backs, make changes to projects without telling them in advance, lobby against them, and don’t fight for their priorities, the study suggested.

Another issue is conflict resolution during work from home. Physical absence leads to absence of body language which makes it tricky to convey the true meaning of your message. As a result, emails can be misinterpreted as being rude or too direct. Issues can fester due to poor communication.

Expert Advice:

On this, Sadia told me, “At the moment, even companies are under pressure because the whole work force is suddenly not working its normal hours. Businesses have really taken a hit. So, I feel that it’s a time to stand as one. Usually, we keep a distance from the company; we feel that we are employees and we have certain rights and privileges. I feel that it is time to re-look at all of that. This is a difficult situation for everybody – people who are working for the company, as well as business owners.”

“Nobody knows how to manage this well. So, it’s time to stand by and help each other. Be more communicative. If you are feeling overwhelmed, tell your manager that you feel so, or that your work is eating into your home space; but you also try to stretch a little from your end,” she said.

“What would help is to communicate better but also have compassion for the whole space because at the moment, everybody is in trouble. It’s not like it’s only a few people,” Sadia concluded.

Anxiety, stress, depression – The three pronged fork that bites us

Working from home has confined employees – both young and old – to the four walls of their room. While the young feel that it’s restricting, the older generation complains of restlessness. “How can I start my work without getting ready and wearing my shoes? It just doesn’t feel right,” a 57-year-old engineer told me, who has had to break a three-decade30-year-long routine of heading out to work at 7 am every day.

Meanwhile, a 28-year-old PR consultant, who lives alone in Banaglore, told me that her entire routine revolves around her laptop – from starting the day’s work, to having her meals in front of the screen, to logging out and tuning into Netflix and even falling asleep next to her laptop. The lack of discipline has paved the way for lethargy to creep in, which affects her productivity.

A 23-year-old research scholar stuck in the university campus hostel told me, "I am locked up inside the cuboid of my hostel room with bricks of books and weeks of time. I am robotically finishing books after books in a strange desperation. Yet, the loneliness hits harshly when I realise that the only object stirring in my room is the ceiling fan and that my lips haven’t spoken for hours."

"The lesson I learn is that the theories learned need to be tested in the actual world, without which it becomes useless rhetoric. Saints and prophets might like prolonged solitude in the caves to meditate in isolation. But it is definitely not for research scholars," he said in exasperation.

Many people with diverse work backgrounds told me that they were distracted, even disoriented while working from home. Some are still struggling with the anxiety of not being able to manage their time properly.

Expert Advice:

According to Sadia, the problem comes when you keep on asserting that “this is my routine” and “this is my habit”.

“Any kind of change is stressful. But, what if you look at the change itself as an opportunity to do things differently? It’s not easy, but it’s an opportunity for sure,” she said.

“See, things around us are changing. But, they will hit us only when we cannot handle those things. So, how about, taking time to increasing our capacity to handle changes, our ability to deal with situations. We don’t even know for how long this (lockdown, and consequent WFH) is going to last. This is the ripe time to learn to create more resilience in our system, using practices like meditation and mindfulness,” Sadia explained.

Striking the balance

Before the pandemic threw life out of gear and confined people to their homes, employees chose to work from home to get a better work-life balance. Their reason was more autonomy over their time, something which can trigger anxiety, if you don’t know what to do with that time.

Good organisation and effective communication skills will help ease the transition into the Work from Home paradigm shift. Besides, designating a space for work at home, as well as setting time and expectation boundaries and abiding by them becomes crucial at this juncture.

Read Also:  Five essential work things to help your team thrive during coronavirus lockdown

Self-confidence is key to successful home-based working of any stripe, as is knowing how to communicate clearly (so your distant bosses and colleagues know what you are up to), learning to work consistently (in the absence of feedback you might otherwise receive in an office environment) and, crucially, recognising when you need to go for a walk, work out or otherwise just take a break.

According to the Harvard study mentioned above, “The most successful managers are good listeners, communicate trust and respect, inquire about workload and progress without micromanaging, and err on the side of overcommunicating, all while modeling the same behaviors for others on the team.”

For people with mental health history

If you struggle with depression, for example, working from home has the potential to exacerbate feelings of isolation and perpetuate inactivity.

To this, Sadia told me, “Mental health professionals are available for online sessions, if they are not available offline. Please use this opportunity to take a session. Now that you are at home, take time out to see counsellors and therapists online. Usually, when you are not at home and you are working, it’s not easy to get appointments.”

“This is the time to take help, because help is available, it’s not absent. Technology is really a help during this time,” she said.

Remember, surviving a pandemic is an achievement by itself. You are not just working from home, you are attempting to work through a pandemic, which holds enough substance. Your productivity needn't be quantitative in such a case.