The old me woke up every morning, knowing exactly how many hours I would spend at my workplace and how many hours I would spend outside of it. The old me, however, didn’t know how much work I could get done in those hours, neither how much recreation outside of it.
The classic battle of clocking in the hours, while balancing other responsibilities was considered a given, a norm, a ‘way of life‘.
How productive I was at work or outside of it seemed entirely irrelevant. My physical presence being of primary importance.
A typical day would involve me clocking in at 9am, and checking out at 6pm. By the time I would be home, it would end up being close to 7pm. Just enough time to have dinner with my husband and daughter, and read her a bed time story. The guilt of not spending enough time with my daughter would make me take longer coffee and lunch breaks, while I tried to make up for my physical presence through Facetime calls.
Pending work was always taken home and attempted during the later hours of the night.
In a nutshell, I wasn’t working at work and I wasn’t ‘homing’ at home.
Every night, I would end up sleeping late. Every morning, I would stress over whether the nanny was going to show up. Every delay in her arrival (or even a call from her) would cause a cascade of stress.
Every day, I would spend long hours commuting to office. Every evening, I would have to calm a cranky husband and toddler, over not having enough time with me. All this, because I had to be physically present in the office.
Then, one day, my firm released a Hybrid Working Policy as the start of a transition to a hybrid working model…
At first, I could hardly believe this was a permanent change. A few months in and my life has changed.
The new me wakes up every morning, knowing exactly how many hours I need to complete my professional duties, with plenty of time available to be a mother, wife, friend, and everything else. Instead of waiting till 9am, I am now able to begin working right after my daughter leaves for school on the days I am home. I’m at peace and therefore, undoubtedly, more productive. Taking a breakfast break with my husband is such a refreshing morning touch, before I resume working again. The roles of family life and profession are so well integrated, and my sense of guilt has all but vanished. No more guilt-laden choices of having to miss an important school event, just because its during office hours.
A part of me wondered why I was twice as productive at work in the privacy of my home, as opposed to a professional office environment.
Here’s What I Discovered.
No longer did I have the distractions of calls from my family, because we had enough time together, owing to flexible working hours. No longer did I need to superficially socialize with work colleagues during office hours, because there was no room for office politics. The weekly office get-togethers now turned into an enjoyable gathering, one without the usual bickering and back-biting.
No longer did I spend hours in traffic commuting to work and wondering if this is all there is to life.
The new me now has the ability to create my own schedule, based on my specific situation and I can see a vastly positive difference in the quality of my family life, while also feeling fulfilled professionally.
The new me values this luxury and this job. I feel better able to do my job well even as I hardly feel the stress any more (at times, I do recall it from the past and shudder). I feel a much happier person, being present in what I do and loving it.
P.S. I no longer care if my nanny shows up in the morning!
This is a fictionalized account to demonstrate the real life impact of changes brought about by Hybrid Work structures. Resemblance to any person or situation, living or dead, is purely co-incidental.
