The very concept of Work was contrary to, as one may understand today, starkly distinct from the concept of Home. One lives at home and goes to work and that is at a workplace away from one’s home. It has only been the norm to look down at any and every attempt to either bring work back home ‘after work’ or stay for hours longer than at one’s workplace.
Why there would be domestic squabbles even ugly fights back at home with the ‘working’ partner staying back at work for hours longer than stipulated and concurrently spending lesser time, compromised too, with the partner or family. Issues revolving around the concept of ‘work’ in itself began to arise in the mid- eighties with the ‘working’ partner being given preferential treatment as compared to the home- bound partner – mostly being the wife back in India.
The semantics of work from home
So, the nomenclature associated with the domestic partner too changed. First with persuasive kindness and then with a fervour that bordered on anger: The term ‘housewife’used without abandon at one time turned into a derogatory word that was outright politically incorrect and went on to be replaced with ‘home-maker’. After all, work at home that didn’t fetch any revenue directly wasn’t any lesser than work at office.
And then, as nuclear families grew in sharp contrast to the dwindling numbers of joint families owing to the changing nature of socio-economics in urban settings, the concept of work too changed. Part-time jobs, working overtime even in shifts, Double Income No Kids (DINK) and variations of the ‘work-home’ relationship began to make their presence felt.
That went on till technology made its presence felt in human lives. And, all of a sudden, technology brought in its wake a range of activities that redefined the concept of work. Deviating from traditional modes, work began getting digitised and technology driven.
Diversified and new opportunities
Writers, for example, started to dump the humble manual typewriter and, instead, adopted electronic typewriters that provided the option of rectifying one’s errors before printing. Now, when that got replaced with an even-more sophisticated option of word processing systems, the change was welcome. And then arrived the Personal Computer, higher end processing devices, laptops and MacBooks. What they did is enable the user carry his/her work with him/her wherever preferred. So now, work could be carried back at home, or in transit or while on a vacation as the devices could be charged remotely and even retain the charge to facilitate work away from power supplies.
Cut to pre-Pandemic times when the entire world was technologically savvy and were grappling with issues of ethics when it came to balancing work with personal equations back at home. Families were beginning to demand ‘family time’ and partners, ‘us-time’ even individuals ‘Me-time’ to break away from the technological patterns that threatened to engulf personal lives.
And then, Covid-19 struck the world. India, not to be left far behind, was hit hard and all of a sudden, life changed for one and all – the small trader, for the businessman, the entrepreneur, the home-maker, the baker and the sweeper. Sweeper, because, what had turned into a hugely physical interaction on a daily basis had changed drastically. Each time a civic sweeper completes his job after sweeping a lane clean, a supervisor would arrive and check personally. This activity would be repeated across the city but changed soon after Covid-19 arrived.
Covid-19 changed the rules
Now, a sweeper, complete with double mask and gloves takes images of the filth accumulated in his area, rolls up his sleeve to get down to work, completes his job and then takes images of the road again. And then, sends them over to his supervisor who watches it and even requests him to relay the situation at Ground Zero live on, say WhatsApp or Zoom, to substantiate the claims.
Meetings, official and otherwise, all became digitised and were relayed over mobile phones. The risk of Covid-19 only made everyone get smarter. Even those who had never before used the mobile phone’s camera or internet services were trained about the processes and joined in the world’s largest exercise while working outdoors.
Since the beginning of 2020, as Covid raged across the world, and the world’s largest democracy went into the world’s largest lockdown, the concept of work and home were again in the eye of the storm. Work found itself getting fully digitised as human movement found itself screeching to a halt and stuck indoors to control the spread of Covid-19.
So, masked and distanced socially, most of the working population which could work, network and perform digitally began to dress up formally, waist up more often than not, sit in front of webcams and perform their tasks in front of their laptops, iPads, computers, even mobiles phones but at home.
The concept of Work from Home raged across India and the world as everyone switched to digital platforms to perform and retain whatever they could of their jobs by working from home. Why, even education made its way into homes as children sat before mobile phones, rubbing their eyes to wake up and attend class before teachers too operating from within ‘their’ homes. Partners, friends, workplace colleagues, employees and employers created workspaces within their domestic spaces to ‘work from home’ and digitally in order to keep Covid-19 at bay. Zoom, Google Meet and a range of remote working applications began to make their presence felt before an audience that needed to use them to work and away from workplaces but at home. There were teething issues as expected as workers would forget to mute their mics or shut off their cameras at home and, instead, relay moments of privacy much to the embarrassment of the parties involved and the world at large.
The concept of Work from Home and Zoom meetings raged across India and the world thanks to 2020 pandemicMedia would be peppered with instances of directors complete with neckties and blazers, standing up in boxers and walking away from e-conferences without realising that their cameras were yet running. Wives would drop into workspaces and place loving pecks on their husband’s cheeks much to his embarrassment and before a virtual audience watching the ordeal, live. And then there was worse happening owing to the very nature of work and its public nature within the privacy of one’s homes.
Keeping pace with time
Technology managed to keep pace with the need of the hour and salvage situations for most. Backgrounds could be customised and changed for users to prevent them from sharing their own that may be private and trigger bouts of embarrassment or divulge unnecessary details to the world at large. You could be sitting on a makeshift table in your bedroom with your partner moving about in the background yet replace your own with a formal office backdrop ready and available through the application. Needs were met with technological advancements and in swift sync.
Work from Home has been a concept that gained mastery and proficiency over the last two years. And, even the most unlettered and technologically challenged were provided with means to combat contingencies. Solutions spread through WhatsApp and Facebook provided relief and continues to do so. Even as the world inches to meet to work again, if need be, and God Forbid, another wave arrives, working from home will now not be as hard and the transition smooth and effortless.