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The vice president of Intel Corp., who raises four children, “enjoys” the 13-hour weekdays, trying to juggle motherhood and work at the same time.
For six weeks, we have been participating in a work-from-home experiment together, the end of which is invisible. The line between work and personal life, if it still existed, has now almost blurred.
Many Americans live just steps from their offices, but now the American work culture, guided by the “always ready” motto, has reached new heights. Working 9-5, or something like that, now seems like a relic from a bygone era. Polite apologies when calling or sending emails email at the wrong time, long gone. Tired employees feel they have even less free time than when they spent a few hours going to work.
“Honor, I am wearing exactly the same outfit I started with on Monday,” said Rachel Mushahwar, vice president and general manager of sales and marketing for Intel in the United States, in an interview last Thursday. “I think I took a shower three times.”
Some predicted that the large-scale migration to households caused by the pandemic would usher in an era of flexible working conditions. 2017 According to a survey conducted by the Census Bureau, only 3% The full-time US population responded that “most” work from home. And then millions closed at home and began what at first seemed like a temporary break. Many used the rest of the time they would otherwise spend traveling to work, trying new hobbies, such as learning a foreign language, baking bread, or playing sports. This seemed like the beginning of the telework revolution.
And here, in a month and a half, people feel overworked, overwhelmed, and want to get back to the office as soon as possible. According to NordVPN, which monitors when users log in and out of their services, homeworkers in the United States spend three hours a day more on the job than before, before quarantine was introduced. Of all the countries monitored by NordVPN, American workers work the most hours. According to NordVPN, the working day has increased by two hours in France, Spain and the United Kingdom. No changes were observed in Italy.
The contours of the working day have also changed. According to NordVPN, the morning departure time has advanced with the cancellation of travel, but according to the email. According to data from the superhuman email service, the busiest business correspondence hours were moved to 9 a.m. in the morning The staff also joins late at night. Surfshark, another VPN provider, noticed jumps in consumption between midnight and 3 p.m. overnight that were not present before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Huda Idrees, CEO of Toronto-based tech company Dot Health, confirms that its 15 employees work an average of 12 hours a day, despite the fact that it was 9 hours before the pandemic. “We sit at computers very early because there is no need to come and go from work,” he says. “And since no one goes anywhere in the afternoons, we work together late.”
A major problem is that there is nowhere to escape. By not doing anything special and going nowhere, people feel without an excuse for not being able to be at work. An JPMorgan employee cut off his morning shower to join the ad hoc meeting after noticing a colleague’s message on his Apple Watch. It was five minutes late until I wiped it off with a towel and joined again.
(Some people talked about the anonymity clause because they didn’t want to appear to be complaining about telecommuting when millions of Americans are losing their jobs or risking their lives on the front line.)
And where is the fact that people have turned their living spaces into temporary offices, which means that it is almost impossible to separate work from life? Having an extra room is a bonus, but it’s not that big, admits John Foster, who has been sitting at his home in Taskambia, Alabama since mid-March, preparing a financial report for the manufacturing company. His workplace is next to the site. “You have to go through that 20 times a day,” he says. “Every time you pass, you inevitably think about work.”
At the moment, he even misses his daily commute to and from work. “You usually have some time to recover before you go home or focus before a new day at work,” he says.
Others say they feel pressure from bosses to show they are working, especially as the economy is under heavy stress and the prospect of unemployment looms over their heads. More than 100 Toronto Constellation Software Inc. employees received a letter from their manager saying: “Don’t be distracted just because you are alone. It is easy to get involved in bad habits like surfing the web. But think, would you do that while sitting in the office? If not, don’t do it, “says an email read by Bloomberg. In the letter
Remember, we are watching you closely, “the same manager wrote in a previous letter. A representative of Constellation Software did not respond to our requests for comment.
In reality, despite stereotypes that teleworking leads to laziness, early data suggests that productivity has even increased in at least some companies. “We see that the productivity of some of our employees only increases when they close and focus at home,” said Mike Santomassimo, chief financial officer at Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
JPMorgan, of which 70% A quarter of a million workers work remotely, and productivity has increased in some areas because, according to someone who knows, less time is spent on meetings and training. A JPMorgan representative declined to comment.
Publicis Sapient, an IT consulting firm that has tracked its 410 employees’ involvement in some 40 technology-related projects at a large New York-based investment bank, has also seen productivity gains. Between March 16 and April 10. The tasks were carried out at the same speed or at a higher speed than before the crisis.
“When you are virtual, you are less distracted: nothing goes away during a coffee break, nobody escapes socialization,” says Dave Donovan, who runs the American Public Financial Services at Publicis Sapient. “It is also easier to connect with customers.” In evaluating the first results, Donovan predicts that telework will continue. “Once the gin comes out of the bottle, it doesn’t back off.”
But professionals outweigh the cons. According to a survey of 1,001 American employees conducted by Eagle Hill Consulting, approximately 45 percent in early April said employees felt exhausted. Almost half attributed this increased workload to the need to juggle personal and professional life and the lack of communication and support from the employer. Maintaining the spirit of the staff proved to be a daunting task, two-thirds of the human resources professionals surveyed earlier this month by the Society for Human Resource Management said.
Preliminary research by Tessos West, an associate professor of psychology at New York University, puts people living in a smaller area at higher risk for high blood pressure than colleagues with more rooms.
Parents with children who stay home feel particularly overwhelmed as they have to combine work with childcare responsibilities, which now include virtual lessons. In the United States, two thirds of married families with children work with both parents, so there are no children to care for while both adults work.
Mushahwar, CEO of Intel, is spinning as he sees fit. She says she feels guilty if she abandons the children, and no less guilt if she abandons the job. “I burned an egg between two conference calls. It was morning, “says Mushahwar, who raises four children ages 8 to 14 while working full time at the same time.
The 31-year-old website designer for a mid-size software company is proud to start exhaling, working 12 hours a day from his small room to meet the demands of clients and executives as they expect him to answer phone calls right away. and the. emails, even on weekends.
There is no separate study in her apartment, and her roommates, a woman with a young child, play and watch TV in the living room. Such circumstances made it impossible for him to disconnect from work, but he felt pressured to work even more than usual. Some of his coworkers have already been fired.
Increasing productivity can be a short-term joy if employees are exhausted, which is why some employers try to help them. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has granted employees an additional 10 days of family leave; Microsoft Corp. offers employees an additional 12 weeks of parental leave. Starbucks Corp. employees now receive 20 free therapy sessions. Salesforce.com Inc. organizes virtual exercises and meditations.
However, companies cannot open schools, kindergartens and offices that are still closed and do not know when they will open. Even President Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to open up the economy means that students will not return to school for a few more weeks.
At the moment, even the children themselves are wondering when things will get back on track. Last week, Mushahwar, an eight-year-old boy, asked when it would all end. “I was sitting at the breakfast table,” says the Intel executive. “I had nothing to answer him.”
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