Will WFH world say FO to WFO?

If you arenrsquot selfaware to know itrsquos you tell me you know someone who through the day in office peers from the topedge of his cubicle with almost equal frequency every half hour or so to gently keep an eye on what the boss in the corner office is up toWith a look of wonderment filled with FOMO he canrsquot stop his gaze over whorsquos sidled in to meet him what could be going on in that conversation and importantly when the boss leaves office finally Thatrsquos when he willmdasheven if he was playing Candy Crush all alongWhatrsquos this personality type the adult equivalent of Obviously the frontbenching teacherrsquos pet who eventually graduates into that overdiligent subset of the desi corporate labour force for whom worknetwork selfworth Frankly I get this group behaviour Not every job in the universe is measurably quantifiable by way of output But its facetimevisible input isWhich like tenets of lawjustice forces employees to be seen to be working as much as they actually are Otherwise whatrsquos the point Hence press lsquoReply Allrsquo to every mail Even to the HR asking to assemble for rangoli during Diwali ldquoNotedrdquoWhat does WFH Work from Home do to this key demographic Did COVID19 also kill chamchas at workplaces Unlikely The field might remain as unlevelled on OutlookWhatsAppGChat as the full workforce in the same offline space Maybe office politics gets considerably reduced with less to tattle about on a Zoom callmdashthat starts and ends once meetings do Quite likely office romances tooThe issue I suspect arises when inspired by the success of the globersquos largest WHO led WFH programme employers allow their staff to pick between WFH and WFO Work from Officemdashgo ldquohybridrdquo as it wereGuess who loses The guy on the screen who puts forth bright ideas only to be switched off once the meeting ends Conversations casually carry on with others in that office boardroom thereafter and down the corridor over free cookies and green teaYou donrsquot have to be the one willing to lick soon as you spot an opporchutney to know yoursquoll miss outmdashsimply because you werenrsquot there For better ideas came up as they inevitably do with people feeding off peopleItrsquos the company isnrsquot itmdashnot the one you work for but the one you keepmdashthatrsquos more pleasurable than the journey or destination itself ldquoWhere do you see yourself five years from nowrdquo asks the boss Hanging with SiriAlexa after Zoom Hope notWhether WFO gt WFH home meaning Honduras or Hawaii depends on what you do for a living though no Jobs like sport are either team or individual Some like cricket can be both Even then so Sachin will eventually feel left out when kept from team strategy after a Zoom call Even if he scores a ton every time he steps on the crease and goes back to WFH nonetheless Although sport may not be the best analogy for jobsSportspersonsrsquo immediate equivalent are those who collectively work with their hands and feetmdashthat is majority of the worldrsquos workforce that simply canrsquot WFH And what they do is often not labelled a ldquojobrdquomdashwhich in effect implies a desk placed to send mails host meetings negotiate ldquomoniesrdquo creating little of quantifiable worth in real terms This is the transactional servicesrsquo lot that gets paid the most and hankers for increments the hardest What determines preference for WFO or WFH there if you had the choice It turns out according to a real estate companyrsquos research during the first peak of pandemicmdashyour gender As per that survey maximum pushback to open up offices before the second wave that shockedsobered us all came from women Not because they saw the clock reversing centuries with women being forced indoors againThey were essentially experiencing WFH as Work Home with lazy bums for cohabitants hardly moving an inch creating craters in couches expecting someone to clean up after them Yup thatrsquos you lazy boy whorsquos channelled a year and halfrsquos worth of commute time travelling between bed and sofa in boxers with cellphone in elbow position and the laptop on mute firmly planted on the chest ldquoAm I audiblerdquo asks the boss Yes yesThis liberating exercise regimen is of course not what you signed up for an office That are designed like the opposite of elected autocracies You actively apply to be elected so you can serve under a dictatorshipmonarchyWhat good is that king of the hillmdashwith a corneroffice finally attained once hersquos age wise quite overthehill himselfmdashif there is no kingdom to survey and chamchas to bump into Screw rise in your productivity his home is like your home That isolated throne before a laptop screen for a Zoom call is just a piece of IKEA furnitureMajority might like it this way Nobodyrsquos taking a votepoll Itrsquos not a longterm choice you have unless the worldrsquos upturned again Trust me that boss will have you back in office Donrsquot say FO to WFO yet Chill while you can before you return to the original desi definition of lsquowork from homersquo Itrsquos called the weekendMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper