[shancz]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

1. Since the last 18 months,
2. But they all felt 'weary' of work and wanted to get out for a while.

Sharing some experiences, years before we knew Covid :

Incident 1 : 30-35 days(all days) of flat out work to meet launch dates, basically the only reason I went back home/room was to sleep for a few hours take a shower and possibly a short gym time and back to work. And I was the only one in an experimental product. Before anyone calls it a burnout I disagree because I relate a burnout to a complete dislike of the work along with physical and mental exhaustion. In this case it was just some exhaustion not a dislike by any means.

Incident 2 : Went on for 2-3 months but with some breaks, mostly once a week, in a team and fatigued but still no dislike.

Why : Although it was very busy and the off days were spent recovering, the most overlooked but important factor was change of space/place on a regular basis.

Work was at office, rest and recovery was at home/room and refreshment/exercise was at the gym. All these were physically separate locations and completely different environs. This change really helps to get away from the drab of staying at a place doing whatever.

Personally I cannot work/rest/exercise at the same place. I need dedicated places for each, hence a gym membership along with a peaceful location is a part of my survival cost

With Covid resulting in the gyms being shut and work shifting to home this overlooked but essential change of space vanished causing the weariness that you talk about.

How can you not get weary of looking at the same chair,walls, room all the time for the last 1.5-2 years? That's why a change will feel refreshing.
But all this is IMHO and taking a cue from the points 1 and 2 from your quote.

I am not sure if it makes any sense but hope it helps.

[ashis89]

Capgemini has released an interesting video to call their employees back to office. For those of us missing our offices, wheels have started to turn.

Capgemini return to office

While some are forcing their employees with hard deadlines, some incentivising the return to office and others are allowing hybrid model. This is a departure from "permanent wfh" for X% of employees promises that companies had announced less than a year ago

With ever changing situation and confusion, this is good, bad or just sad - only time will tell!

[Arun Varma]

It's the other way around for me. Working from home has rejuvenated my personal life and reset the priorities. The fact that I am now closer to my wife and kids has allowed me to have a less guilty perspective of my work and makes me think with a 'panoramic' focus that has had its benefits.

On the WFH vs WHO situation, I head up a moderately sized site and I can tell you that while it is a mixed bag in terms of what people want, the vast majority of the attrition we see is because of the lack of connect that people have when they work from office. The sense of community that is now sadly missing which a virtual workplace does not compensate for. Triggers and lures for leaving that would not be a factor while working in office are now seemingly insurmountable. Initially, we assumed that this was the case only for the junior / production resources which we later found that is true for even the senior managers.

There are those who want to come back to the office because at home, work feels never ending. They feel that there is no 'switch' between work and personal life like how it would be for many who work in the office. While this can be chalked up to a personal style of working, it is reality for many and as a result, they are burnt out. This is particularly true for some married women who feel compelled and are actually pressured to take care of the home while working at home thanks to the socio-economic pressures of our society.

Of course, there is a significant majority who would rather work from home because of the flexibility it offers.

It will be interesting to see how this entire situation pans out!

[Samurai]

Now even WION has caught up with the story...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOphIpddRAk

[Hayek]

Interesting thread. Work from home has had its challenges and benefits. After early hiccups, most of us have settled into a routine - which very often starts with Zoom calls at 8 am and often goes on till 10 pm. Our clients have been become much less hesitant to request calls at odd hours - and arguably productivity has improved. I used to fly to Delhi once a week, often for 2-3 1 hour meetings - now those take up only 2-3 hours.

But as clients return to work, the competitive dynamic has started playing out, and clients will favour those who meet them physically. Doesn’t the fact that someone senior flies out for a 1 hour meeting show more commitment than someone asking for a Zoom call? Our organisation is not yet allowing business travel in India. We have 33% of my team (which is fully client facing) back in office and may get to 50% by December. Many of the incremental 17% and several others who will be considered tor RTO only next year, have been asking to return to work, people have an urge to connect and feel a deep sense of malaise which Ninja described in the opening post when they are working without the personal interaction and camaraderie that creates a desire to win. But other than essential technology and operations staff, we don’t have anyone from non client facing roles back yet. Am sure they must be feeling the same stress my immediate team mates who are working from home feel.

We will be returning to work fully as vaccination rates in India increase. I do hope that as everyone gets back, this phase of what I called work from home triggered malaise too will pass.

[Lazy Driver]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Since the last 18 months, and especially the last 3-4 odd months, there's a weird feeling of not getting the urge to work. Both the wife and I have been battling this new 'condition'. The prior 12-15 months of the pandemic had other problems arising due to the situation itself with corresponding impact on work schedules and commitments but this is something different, especially since this has emerged well after the second wave had subsided.

Oh my god! It feels like you gave words to what I have been feeling past few months. Some background about myself- I am a 34 year old married (no kids) guy, working for one of the FAANG companies, in a business role. My employer has been great at doling out benefits & ensuring a great WFH experience for its employees & despite all of this, in the past few months, I have had 0 interest in working or even waking up for that matter. To those who have seen Family Man Season 2, it feels like I have become "The Minimum Guy". This started sometime during April/May of 21 & has continued ever since. I even took up a role out of the country & relocated to the UK in October, hoping that a new place will take away the perennial boredom but alas that has not been the case. I don't really know what to do now & it has been tough just "hanging in there". Vacations helped but only momentarily & all through the weekend or vacation, I have this constant anxiety of going back to "work" on Monday/after the vacation.

Reassuring to see that I am not alone & others are feeling the same too. Any thoughts on coping up with this though.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Lazy Driver

Reassuring to see that I am not alone & others are feeling the same too. Any thoughts on coping up with this though.

There can be another viewpoint. Work will always be seen as something which provides us the financial stability to lead one's life. While we get that stability we also make sure, we derive pleasure while go about doing our work. But the pleasure is not all that is bound.

In other words..

In pre-covid times, we were OK if work did keep our banks happy but not the heart. Because we found other means outside work to keep our heart happy. Now with Covid that option has fast reduced as we get physically constrained to our homes. So any low or dis-interest at work will pull one's morale down. One way should be to see how to keep the pleasure of doing things high.

Easier said than done.

[subraiyr]

Originally Posted by Lazy Driver

Reassuring to see that I am not alone & others are feeling the same too. Any thoughts on coping up with this though.

I have been part of a task force within my firm combatting Covid and post Covid effects. One of the things I have seen is that we have seen a lot of people talking about depression. One of the key messages being played out is that "I am not interested in anything". Folks who have enjoyed work now feel that it is missing the zing factor. We have had cases of voracious readers struggling to finish reading a book. Shopaholics have come back hating shopping. There are so many such stories. We have had multiple interventions - time offs, virtual connects, sponsored vacations, typical festival activities, etc. All of this has provided temporary relief.

My belief is that we as a society have been a gregarious one. Whether it be showering love or bitching about each other, we have been conditioned to have physical contact with each other. This has been imprinted in our genes thanks to hundreds and thousands of years of growth. With Covid and WFH plus effect, this has taken a beating. We have to unlearn and relearn our ways of working and more importantly our ways of living. Life looks too mechanical with us getting up, doing our chores, logging on to our systems and then logging off in the evening/night.

One of the ways to get out of this is to have smaller communities or what I call pocket communities. These can be like-minded folks in your apartments, people with similar interests, sharing hobbies, etc. But the key is to be meeting up physically. For me, I keep it relevant with a couple of groups in my apt. One is my workout gang - we meet every day in the apartment compound. A few minutes of chit-chat just invigorates the mind. The second group is more of a workgroup - but across firms within our apartment. We end up sharing issues, solutions to work-related problems without giving up client names. This becomes like the water cooler conversations.

I would also like to point out that as a society we love routines. This is the other thing that you can stick to. Get a routine - a healthy wholesome one. It takes time to identify it, but once you have it, stick to it.

Having said all of the above, I do need to confess. I got struck by Covid at the start of the year and post-recovery, it has been a bit of a depressing time. I am trying to get out of it. The Zero Interest phase is now peaking. I will let you know what worked in the end. Lastly, post covid I have been sleeping a lot. I used to average 7 hours a day the entire last 2 years (since using a smart watch). Post covid, this has increased to 9 hours now - across regular night sleep and day naps. Something sure is going crazy !!!

[hothatchaway]

Originally Posted by Lazy Driver

Oh my god! It feels like you gave words to what I have been feeling past few months. Some background about myself- I am a 34 year old married (no kids) guy, working for one of the FAANG companies, in a business role. My employer has been great at doling out benefits & ensuring a great WFH experience for its employees & despite all of this, in the past few months, I have had 0 interest in working or even waking up for that matter. To those who have seen Family Man Season 2, it feels like I have become "The Minimum Guy". This started sometime during April/May of 21 & has continued ever since. I even took up a role out of the country & relocated to the UK in October, hoping that a new place will take away the perennial boredom but alas that has not been the case. I don't really know what to do now & it has been tough just "hanging in there". Vacations helped but only momentarily & all through the weekend or vacation, I have this constant anxiety of going back to "work" on Monday/after the vacation.

Reassuring to see that I am not alone & others are feeling the same too. Any thoughts on coping up with this though.

This is a feeling one generally associates with individuals who are in a field of work which is so "high level" or nebulous that the job holder often struggles to see the link between the tasks performed and their output in concrete terms. Those who work with their hands (craftsmen, artists etc) can see the direct output of their efforts, which means that their work has an inbuilt feedback mechanism built into it and they do not have to rely on the feedback from supervisors, coworkers, clients who may not be generous with honest feedback, if you know what I mean.

As someone who has spent more than a decade studying workers in various work settings, what you are experiencing is no different from numerous other counterparts of yours with leading new age companies who are in highly placed white collar positions with work roles which offer little 'line of sight', that is to say the impact your work has on the fortunes of the company.

Vacations etc offer little respite unless you engage in an activity which offers you an avenue of self expression, which is anything that is creative or even voluntary where you get another human being smile because of your generosity.

Try picking up an activity which interests you and relates to your aptitude. Even if its a solitary activity it will do wonders to your morale if you do it well.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by ScorpWarp

it finally boiled down to 2 vitamins. My B12 level was shot, it was dangerously low, less than 70. Also due to lack of going out, lack of sunlight exposure, my vitamin D was almost depleted, was at 9.
So, i was immediately put on 6 injection course for B12 and liquid vitamin D tablets. B12 is essential for nervous system and psychological well being.
I must say vitamin B12 did world of difference, I am back to normal. Bored of wfh but no longer question why I am getting up everyday, logging into work etc. Now I am looking forward to upgrading to Jeep Compass to bring some material joy to life as well
So, please get B12 and D levels tested.
Hope this helps.

Thank you! I completely missed out on your post. I did get a battery of tests (for an entirely difference purpose) done earlier this year and only two things stood out of the normal range - vitamin B12 was low (22), vitamin D was low (10).

I did take some tablets back then basis a family doctor's recommendation but never connected it to this situation. Life's gone back to somewhat normal levels since then, but thanks for sharing.

[ninjatalli]

The Guardian: Quiet Quitting - Why doing the bare minimum at work has gone global

The meaninglessness of modern work – and the pandemic – has led many to question their approach to their jobs...

Rather than working late on a Friday evening, the quiet quitters are avoiding the above and beyond, the hustle culture mentality, or what psychologists call “occupational citizenship behaviours”. Instead, they are doing just enough in the office to keep up, then leaving work on time and muting Slack. Then posting about it on social media.


“Since the pandemic, people’s relationship with work has been studied in many ways, and the literature typically, across the professions, would argue that, yes, people’s way of relating to their work has changed.”


“The search for meaning has become far more apparent. There was a sense of our own mortality during the pandemic, something quite existential around people thinking ‘What should work mean for me? How can I do a role that’s more aligned to my values?'
...
But I think that can lead to less satisfaction at work, lack of enthusiasm, less engagement."