‘I don’t know if I’m going to die’

‘I don’t know if I’m going to die’

After almost a year of the world being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, news of the success of clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine brings a new glimmer of optimism. Communities and businesses that are losing money due to various restrictions are hoping for a return to life that is close to normal.

But it seems too early to conclude that the times of having to work from home will pass. Some offices even consider maintaining a work-from-home policy for their employees. Take for example Deutsche Bank, as quoted by Bloomberg news agency, the German financial institution plans to allow 40 percent of its employees to work from home two days a week permanently.

Indeed, working from home has its own advantages. It was even revealed that workers in Germany prefer to work from home. But blending the boundaries between personal and professional life when having to work from home becomes a reality that professional workers find difficult to avoid during a pandemic. There is also another fact, that not everyone has the privilege of expressly drawing the line of space and time limits for work and for personal life.

‘I don’t know if I’m going to die’

The concept of balance is considered to have been used

Juneman Abraham, a social psychologist who is also chairman of the Research & Publication Compartment of the Central Board of the Indonesian Psychological Association (HIMPSI), explained that before the pandemic, the dynamics of professional and personal life can support each other. For example, in the office workers get social networks, material compensation, and useful feelings for having felt contributing.

“The things obtained from the office are useful to support their personal and family life at home,” Juneman told DW Indonesia. On the contrary, social networks formed from personal associations in the community or from hobby groups can also support a person’s career in his office.

But this relationship can also be negative when a person no longer has the time and energy to participate in his personal life activities due to the great demands of the world of work. Or when the demands of the family are too great to make it difficult for the employee to concentrate in the office. For that it needs a balance between work life and personal life.

However, the balance between work life in the office and personal life at home that was often echoed before the pandemic, has now become an outdated concept, Juneman told DW Indonesia.

“In work from home, work is life, and life is work. In other words, work and life are no longer two different things that need to be balanced, but the two have been blended into one unity,” said Juneman who teaches at Bina Nusantara University.

This is when, according to Juneman, there are various complexities due to working from home. For example, an employee has to work overtime from home to build a network of work and influence in the office, so they have to have online meetings on weekends, and reduce time with family. Alternatively, an employee should take care of their child online during business hours, and reduce the opportunity to behave professionally while working from home.

‘I don’t know if I’m going to die’

Integrate fun elements into work

Blurring the boundaries between the world of work in the office and the private world at home is a reality that employer organizations need to manage, Juneman said. “Therefore, the organization (office, workplace) needs to shift its view. Organizations cannot assume that all hours worked from home are “office rights”. There needs to be flexibility from leadership in this case.”

He gave an example that organizations can give special time for workers to be able to entertain themselves such as by following the webminar according to their respective hobbies during working hours at home.

In addition, it is also necessary to hold games or gamification by applying elements of the game and fun elements that are usually contained in a game on the job in order to motivate workers and even change the behavior of workers.

Especially for media workers or journalists, Juneman exemplifies that gamification can be applied by giving journalists the opportunity to participate in designing websites or online news applications. This can be done by engaging algorithms and interactive technologies that better engage readers and allow them to request specific content or visualizations.

“A leader in a journalistic organization can also apply gamification as a means of problem-based learning. For example, analogize journalistic work with a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Play Game (MMO-RPG). Journalists together can experiment with different perspectives in their journalistic work to solve a social problem,” he said.

Games or games even done online are considered to build empathy among workers and add dimension and context to the world of work. The platform that focuses on developing teams online, Miro said that management can help workers in building bonds among colleagues through games from their homes. One example is by guessing a particular partner’s hometown, or writing down their dreams.

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“Play beautifully” in order to survive

The vagueness of the boundaries, the amount of demands, and ignorance of how long this situation lasts has the potential to cause mental exhaustion or burnout among workers. The ability to survive, and constantly bounce back into the skills that many people crave during the pandemic. Especially for workers who still have to keep working from home.

To that end, Juneman said workers need to be able to “play beautifully” and arrange for their resources and energy not to run out to get office work done from home.

The families of the workers can also provide significant support. The information, gratitude and optimism on the part of the family is also considered to help workers in going through a long period of working from home.

In addition, Juneman argues that workers need to dig further into what exactly is their life calling. Thus he will feel his work becomes more meaningful, not only for the company, but also for the whole world. But according to him, the next question is whether workers can provide enough time to develop their calls?

“Does the organization also have a roadmap for calling development through various employee development programs, both through online counseling, employee assistance programs (EAP)?”

This question also needs to be sought answers so that workers can continue to be productive while working from home, especially in a prolonged period of time.

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