On the eve of 24th March 2020, the Government of India announced a lockdown due to the spread of communicable viral infection, COVID-19 shutting all services across the country with immediate effect. Since the offices were shut down, a new mode of running the offices namely Work From Home (WFH) became the new norm. As it was a setting where employees were in the comfort of their homes, they worked for more hours than they would in a conventional office mode. This caused mental as well as physical fatigue, thereby reducing the creativity of an individual and increasing (current work-related or future-related) stress levels.
A sudden shift from the office mode to WFH rendered the employees unprepared to work in a home serring as there were multiple source of disturbances. And, not all the employees had the ability to work alone, and they even lacked in self-motivation, and organizational skills. In a study published in the journal “Asian Business and Management”, the researchers found out that the employees were affected in four major dimensions, viz., self-initiated creativity, stress, role improvisation, and isolation.
As the work hours were really long and people even got email prompts even late at night, they shifted to being workaholics. According to the APA dictionary, a person who has difficulty abstaining from work is a workaholic. Significant stress, interpersonal difficulties, and health issues are frequently brought on by this kind of driven overinvolvement in the workplace.
Now, that we know about workaholism, let’s talk about the initiative by Indore-based software startup. The simple funda of the company is to give a pop-up on the screen of their employees with the help of special software installed on their systems that “ Work shift is over, please go home” and shut down the computers automatically. This step was taken so that the employees do not work outside their work hours hence, inculcating the work-life balance in their lives. Also, the company has a strict policy of not making or taking any calls outside working hours. This will surely help in curbing Monday blues and the people wouldn’t have to think of TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) anymore.
WHO defines health as “ a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”Well-being can be maintained when an individual is able to balance professional and personal life aiding to reduced possibility of depression, stress and anxiety.
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