Is your career your whole life, or simply a part of it?
Mass layoffs and impossible job requirements confirmed that employers care more about their company goals than the well-being of their employees.
Major corporations, like Amazon and X, are increasingly pushing for a full in-person return to offices. To no one’s surprise, they mentioned that “productivity” and “fostering collaboration” should be the company’s focus, believing this can only be achieved in person. Most employees, however, have expressed discontent and frustration towards the decisions being made for them without their input.
In contrast, movements like Anti-Work Girlboss are emerging to remind people that their lives are so much more than what they do in the office. There is more to life than one’s career, and if people want to regain some control over their lives again, they should start with the choice to work from home (WFH).
As a Gen-Zer heading into the workforce, I grappled with whether I wanted to be in the office or not. Having spent most of the pandemic burrowed in my basement attending online classes, studying, and FaceTiming my friends, what used to be very separate areas of my life had blurred together. Two years out, I still seek the sense of normalcy and growth I grieved during the pandemic.
In response to that grief, as the world transitioned back to in-person, I stayed out as often as I could, and promised myself, in true trauma-response fashion, to never work or study from home again after this experience.
I thought I would want to make up for the lost time and redeem my feelings by experiencing the laid-back, funky company culture experience that contrasts the often soul-crushing work in tech.
Alas, the internship I landed was a 100 per cent remote position. Triggered by the pandemic, I feared I would spiral.
Instead, working from home granted me incredible control over my life.
People, myself included, need to work. But we also need to walk the dog mid-day, go to a doctor’s appointment, tend to a sick family member, and watch over the movers. Smaller and medium-sized companies have acknowledged these needs and are shifting towards WFH, hybrid, and core-hour models.
For example, although I’m fully remote, my core hours, meaning the hours I am required to be online, are from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., with my lunch break included. I also work outside those hours to hit my eight-hour mark, but it’s flexible and accommodating. It is a human-centered and holistic solution to people’s needs.
The literature and anecdotes surrounding the upsides of WFH are plentiful. The pandemic proved that most employees are decent, upstanding, and respect their workplace enough to complete their tasks without constant supervision. Plenty of resources exist to find jobs prioritizing remote work in many fields. Despite the pushback from leaders of multinationals, the shift away from the “grind” culture is gaining acceptance, highlighting the desire for a fulfilling life that extends beyond the office.
Don’t wait up — ditch the traditional 9 to 5, and join the WFH revolution!
