Hybrid work the new normal? Delhiites juggle between WFH and WFO
Many workplaces in Delhi-NCR are adopting a hybrid working model, allowing employees to work from home for some days a week and visiting office on the rest.
Getting up early in the morning, packing your work bags, setting out on a long commute and making it to the office in just the nick of time... what felt like a normal daily routine once, has become a rare occurrence after a year and a half of battling the pandemic. And as the city comes back to a semblance of normalcy, many workplaces in Delhi-NCR are adopting a hybrid working model, allowing employees to work from home for some days a week and visiting office on the rest. While some are glad to be back, others feel frazzled from this half-and-half system.
“I work on hardware and now that Covid-19 cases are less, I am going to work once in two weeks for things that can’t be done sitting at home. But ab aadat nai rahi travel karne ki, so it gets very tiring and then because half my stuff is at home and half is at office, it’s tough to balance. Toh office se vapis aake bhi kaam karna padhta hai,” says Siddharth Verma, a tech professional from Malviya Nagar. And Verma is not the only one who feels tied to work 24*7 in this model. Rahul Bhardwaj, a sales professional who travels from Faridabad to Noida for work, shares, “It takes me one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening in commute. It’s exhausting. Usually at office, the day ends once you step out of the office. But now, in this setup, once you are back home, you are still working as you have your laptop .”
And to further add to the difficulties, all employees are not called in at the same time to maintain social distancing. “My work involves physical review of fabric qualities. We work as a team, but if half of people are working from home and half are present at the office, then work never gets done correctly,” says Neha Shukla, a merchandising manager from Paschim Vihar.
But for some, going to work is a welcome change. “We all missed our chit-chats with colleagues and the coffee breaks. These fillers keep us going about our schedules,” says Diksha Garg, a CA from CR Park. Aditi Gupta, a Gurugram-based marketing professional, makes the most of the situation by carrying her laptop to work. “I’m happy to go the office as it helps me concentrate. I carry my laptop, so it’s easy to set up workstation wherever I am working from,” she says
Author tweets @anjuri