Are we doing our real #WFH lives right?

Inside Out

These days, I can’t make out where one activity ends and the next begins. There are mornings when I am stuck between a sink of unwashed dishes, an article that requires editing on the double and a homework submission that is not even mine to finish. I feel like I’ve fallen headlong into one long, unbroken activity with neither beginning nor end.

In the initial days of this new mode of existence, my brain very presciently read the hashtag #WFH as #WTF. Now, of course, I’ve become an expert at asking friends and acquaintances if they, too, are working from home or simply, WFH. Only, it’s not very clear to me, and it seems to those I am enquiring after, what this now commonplace term really signifies.

If we turn to the media, we have to be mostly content with advice on the right daily routines or the right furniture to achieve that perfect #WFH life. Online clothes retailers, I’ve realised lately, are one step ahead. There are now whole #WFH lines that you can order to wear to that all-important, ten-thousandth Zoom call.

Then, there is a glut of material warning us about the mental health impact of #WFH during these lockdowns and after. Although some of it has the merit of being well-intentioned, it’s largely uninspiring stuff. You’ll sooner find me outdoors in a crowded market area than browsing the internet for tips on how to maintain my ‘mental wellness’ at this time. I suspect that many like me are unconvinced about ‘mental health’ being just another internet keyword that can be maxed with listicles about what to do and what to avoid. All the same, it is becoming clearer that all of us need to process what has been happening over the past few months.

As lockdown has progressed into unlock, I sense that there are many more people who are feeling cut-off from themselves. Older people, for whom the act of going to the neighbourhood shop was never just that, want a breather. Every new extension of local containment measures seems to sap their spirits a little more. Children of all ages, but especially those for whom hanging out with friends is the most crucial aspect of their lives at this stage, are unable to understand why things can’t get back to normal. Those who are constantly ‘on’, whether working or doing something else, find themselves hostage to mind-numbing information loops that can’t be turned off.

For many, it may seem to crush their aliveness. I’ve caught myself feeling something close to total indifference towards all and everything on more than one occasion these past few weeks.

With no clear end to the epidemic in sight, it is becoming apparent that the work of tending to our deeper emotional needs is something that each of us must undertake in earnest. I am not speaking here of people who might need help to manage existing mental health conditions or even emerging ones. These need to be looked at by doctors and professionals in the field.

For many, there is the work of asking what it means to be really home and safe. To reflect upon what we mean when we speak of a ‘home’. While there is the physical structure and a place where we can ‘shelter in place’, what we are also talking about is a refuge. A sense of emotional security that was hopefully built up while being brought up by people who cared for us. Despite the widespread prevalence of the infection and the fear that we, or our loved ones, could be affected, are we able to locate an anchoring place, a home, from where we can operate on a day-to-day basis?

It seems to me this is what really #WorkFromHome means right now. This task of locating our ‘homes’ and working from there is as important as, say, attending the next Hangout meeting or catching an upcoming deadline. As for me, I’ve found that I can cut through my lack of interest by doing what I love best -- writing in my journal.