Work-Life Balance during Covid-19 and Beyond
Week 9 Prompt 4
Let’s stop for a second to consider just how much time we dedicate to technology usage. How many minutes and hours are spent on social media, viewing television, sending emails, texting or calling others, and playing games?
As a student at the University of Minnesota — Twin Cities living and functioning through COVID-19, technology use is unavoidable. Recently, I had the opportunity to assess how much time I spent using technology for my FSOS 3105: Technology in Parenting class and found that, in a mere twelve hour period, I spent close to eleven hours engrossed in technology, switching between online classes, homework, and entertainment. It felt like an insane amount of time, but as I began to break it down, I realized that (1) I spent more time on personal technology devices as a result of quarantine, and (2) I had no boundaries in place between school/work and home, meaning that it took me more time to do homework or study because I wasn’t dedicating time to doing those tasks. It made me wonder: how do we find balance and enforce healthy work-home boundaries in a world that is increasingly becoming reliant on technology, a device that can greatly blur those lines?
While it is difficult to determine how the world will function post COVID-19, many people believe that the pandemic has prompted a necessary conversation about how employers and universities treat their employees or students (Pawel, 2020). Things, like Olive Garden giving their employees paid sick leave was “not possible” for years, but suddenly is possible due to COVID-19. Workers who were forced to make long commutes (super-commuters) because their company required them to be in office are also now able to work-from-home. Though these are great advances in creating flexible and ethical workplaces, the line between work and home may disappear in the next few years. After all, if someone can answer phone calls and work on assignments from home, what excuse do they have not to?
In “New Ways of Working: Impact on Working Conditions, Work-family Balance, and Wellbeing,” (Demerouti et al., 2014), researchers further examine whether these flexible work plans (NWWs) are really beneficial to businesses. Both sides of the issue are explored, with NWWs lowering emotional labor, but increasing the chance of miscommunication and job demand overload. However, perhaps one of the most striking points brought up by Demerouti et al., (2014) is that, “working from home while staying connected through email and smartphone implies that work never stops and intrudes into the family domain. In this way both the beginning and end times of work are not clearly defined.” I resonate with this quote because it is particularly true for me and likely many other college students participating in online classes during COVID-19. With many classes being held asynchronously, it feels like the work never stops.
As a result, it is essential, now more than ever, to develop well-established boundaries between work/school and home. In preparation for next semester (spring 2020), I will set a schedule for studying and attending classes. This plan starts with my waking up at 8:00AM, studying or attending classes from 9:00AM till 12:00PM, taking an hour break, then resuming academic work from 1:00PM to 4:00PM. At home, dinner with my significant other and I is an important part of our day because it allows us to reconnect, relax, and converse; therefore, a necessary boundary for me will be sticking to my academic schedule to ensure that we have enough time to sit-down. Another step will be helping my significant other develop an academic plan that works for them as it can be distracting if one of us is studying and the other is playing video games — we need to be on the same page. Hopefully, by sticking to this plan, I can clarify my work-life boundaries and live a healthier life not consumed by the stress of school and homework.
Overall, while COVID-19 has raised crucial questions on workplace/school flexibility, we must also examine the consequences of what these new ways of working having on our home and personal life. In the future, I believe that the implications of working-from-home or having paid sick time as a result of COVID-19 will greatly shape how employers run their businesses. In general, I believe that employers and universities need to focus on flexibility for those who wish to be physically present in the workplace while providing structure for those who wish to work-from-home.
References
Demerouti, E., Derks, D., Brummelhuis, L. L., & Bakker, A. B. (2014). New Ways of Working: Impact on Working Conditions, Work–Family Balance, and Well-Being. The Impact of ICT on Quality of Working Life. doi:10.1007/978–94–017–8854–0_8
Pawel, M. (2020, March 20). Is the Coronavirus Shaping the Future of How We Work? Retrieved December 12, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/opinion/coronavirus-california.html