By SK Nag
Working from home is a new concept that has evolved after the corona pandemic hit us badly. The lockdown-led compulsion has taught us how remote working can be a saviour for the world to operate without surrendering fully to the disaster. Though the perception of work from home is different for employees and employers, this dichotomy will still be eliminated soon when we come back to the office like a Muller Lyer illusion. This paradoxical perception has already made a profound foothold in our so-called belief system. But slowly, this belief is creating an impression that will bring in a cognitive illusion.
With this false impression, one new term is appearing on the horizon is ‘Work from True Home.’ Why is this evolution necessary? This question raises concerns about the accountability of staff operating from remote locations. ‘Work from anywhere is an allowed perception of remote working even if the employees are productive? Employers are looking at it very skeptical because they doubt the value of money. This difference of belief and impression is bringing a significant change in HR policy in the coming days.
This bias of disbelieving employees accessing the office from a remote location suffers from the typical prejudiced human brain, which does not allow the mind to be rational. Like missing cash from a purse lying unattended brought the maidservant under suspicion due to our biased mind with cognitive illusion. Our fast-thinking brain overpowered our slow-thinking brain and made us judgmental many times to select the wrong option. Therefore the question arises whether work from home or true home our employers expect us to do?
Employers claim to have the right to view through the window of their employees’ souls and make wrong predictions and formulate policies that often make them suffer a lot. But employees, on the other hand, due to no restriction on daily working hours, lose their working memory. Employees should have executive control, not control over their minds, to destress them at times with recharging. Otherwise, we will continue to become blind over our blindness.
So it does not matter whether the employees are working from home, true home or anywhere.
(Author is Political & Economic Analyst. The views expressed are personal opinion of the author. He can be reached at saibal.iim@gmail.com)