By Jayyida Badhry
Amidst COVID-19 pandemic, the company I work for, like many others in our country has rolled out mandatory remote work processes. This week marks the fourth week of working from home.
As an extrovert, with one of the most extroverted jobs ever – public relations, I thought I wouldn’t even survive a week without having some sort of a breakdown. I need that extensive getting-ready-to-work morning routine, social interaction, and engagement with my colleagues to recharge myself.
However, I tried to keep a positive mindset and ended up doing so much better than I anticipated. So, I thought I’d like to share my experiences of working from home.
One of the things that I really enjoyed is the convenience and flexibility. I was able to catch up on much-needed sleep and report to work on time in my comfort zone.
In our company, we use Microsoft Teams to collaborate in our remote working arrangement. It is a very user-friendly application and it makes me feel more connected to my colleagues. We even celebrated a colleague’s birthday on Teams last week! That was quite exciting and took me back to my sweet old college days when I use to FaceTime with my best friends on our birthdays.
Working from home has allowed me to spend much needed time with my family. Every day, I try to find some time to play with my 4-year-old nephew who will be asleep most of the days when I come back home from work. Being able to connect with the little ones is always a joy. It has also allowed me to spend more time getting creative in the kitchen and do more blogging as well.
Let’s face it, this pandemic is not just a national crisis – it is a global crisis and people working in communications would naturally be one of the most active people during any crisis. Keeping our customers informed on our responses is our highest priority. As far as workload goes, it stayed the same, if not more. Since we are now no longer bound by 8 – 4 working hours, online meetings can sometimes go quite long even at really odd hours. But – the convenience still makes up for it.
I guess the biggest personal challenge of working from home is going back to my natural state of being a night owl. I just can’t sleep! Even though I wake up in the morning to work, my brain is too active and finding ways to stay active. I have always found myself extra productive and creative at night. So, I found the perfect way to keep myself occupied and learn something new as I stay up late at night. I am taking up a few courses on Linkedin Learning to refresh my memory and keep me engaged and focused in my area of work. However, I do understand that not getting enough sleep is very unhealthy and the side effects have already started to kick in – but not to worry, I will do something to take care of my fitness in the coming weeks.
As much as I miss my office, colleagues and our random coffees at the staff lounge and lunches at Seahouse Brasserie downstairs at our office– I do enjoy the benefits of working from home and slowly learning how to productively cope with it – but I don’t think I would choose it over going to the office.
About the Author: Jayyidha Badhry is a Public Relations Senior Associate in Dhiraagu.
Writing From: Experience of working from home as an extrovert
