Working from Home, a Mother’s Perspective

Working from home is the new normal for many Americans.  After 6 long months of connection issues, my dog barking at delivery people, and the buzz of lawnmowers, and neighbors’ gardeners in the background, I finally feel like I have this work from home thing nailed.  Who says working from home is not productive?  In fact, some reports say that up to 99 percent of remote workers would like to continue doing so to some extent (Marinova, 2020).

For me, I literally roll out of bed, jump on my awaiting notebook computer, and plow through emails (all before most people wake up).  It’s my new normal, and I’m embracing it.  I feel like I am 1000 times more productive at home, on a typical day I am clocking 12-15 hours as I am always “on” – even current statistics support this increased effort – up nearly an hour more (of work) per day (DeFilippis, Impink, Polzer, Sadun & Singell, 2020). Not to mention, I can wash clothes and vacuum in between meetings.  Why didn’t someone think about this mass telecommuting productivity business sooner?  How can companies lure folks like me back into the traditional and mundane “cubby” I once called my office?

For someone like me, the allure of a “corporate office” has now been replaced by a fold-up card table in my son’s room.  Often times, I hear executives on Zoom calls stating they want people back in the office because they don’t trust employees – for some odd reason, they have a sense folks are not productive?  I wonder to myself, “well, did they trust me and the hundreds of other employees when we were sitting in the office staring at our computers?”

Being home should not equate to not being trusted; a manager should be “managing” their employees and ensuring proper touchpoints (video calls, and the like) throughout the week or even during a daily check-in.  The concept of someone not being trusted should reflect on the manager, not their employees.  Keeping tabs on employees is a manager’s responsibility, but must be done in moderation to not cross over into “micromanaging” territory.  Any perceptions of an employee not being productive just because they are working from home is – quite frankly – hogwash.

The new norm is here to stay.  Let’s face it, working from home is not always being “on the clock.”  For a wife, a mother of two, and full-time (and half) employee, there is much more that can be done when the working hours are spent at home; making it so much easier to be more productive in all of these roles.

References:

DeFilippis, E., Impink, S., Polzer, J., Sadun, R., & Singell, M., (2020). Collaborating during coronavirus: The impact of COVID-19 on the nature of work (NBER Working Paper No. 27612). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from https://www.nber.org/papers/w27612

Marinova, I. (2020). 28 need to know remote work statistics of 2020. Retrieved from https://review42.com/remote-work-statistics/